"Of all the great American motion picture actresses, Bette Davis is the rarest, not only because of her gifts, but because she has exemplified the value of imagination and dramatic technique in a profession that can be followed without much of either. She is one of those personalities who, through physique, magnetism, and the ability to project emotion at particular intensity, gain a more immediate contact with their audience than do others. " (AJ) In William Wyler's 1940 version of the Somerset Maugham play set in Malaya, where the expatriates rage, Davis, the indomitable wife of a rubber plantation manager (the ever-dominated Herbert Marshall), is suspected of adultery after the murder of an intruder while her husband is away. To suppress incriminating evidence, she weaves a web of lies.