In The Letter (1940), Bette Davis played Leslie Crosbie, a woman who shoots a man and then calmly claims it was self-defence, in a performance built on stillness and control.
Directed by William Wyler, the film opens with that shooting in Malaya and then follows Leslie’s trial, as the truth about her relationship with the dead man slowly comes to light. Davis let Leslie’s composure do the work, and the cracks in that composure became the drama.
The role suited Davis’s strengths perfectly. She did not overplay Leslie’s guilt or her coldness. Instead she kept the audience guessing, which is why the film still holds its tension today.
Image: Bette Davis in Photoplay, June 1938, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bette_Davis_-_Photoplay,_June_1938.jpg