Easily the best of several film versions of Somerset Maugham's story of murder in Malaya, Bette Davis winning yet another Oscar nomination (and really unlucky to lose to Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle) with a smouldering, predatory performance, especially hypnotic in her account of the murder that occurs at the start of the film. The plantation atmosphere, elaborately re-created in the Warner studio, is entirely convincing, and English actor James Stephenson rose to stardom with his performance as Davis' defending counsel. Alas, a year later he was dead at 38 after a heart attack. Censorship of the day demanded a changed ending, but the new one, underplayed by director William Wyler, is effective nonetheless.

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