Heath Ledger’s Potential Posthumous Oscar

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

With Heath Ledger in mind, Scott Feinberg remembers the various posthumous Oscar nominations and wins — 53 individuals for a total of 70 nominations and 13 wins, as per Feinberg’s count — in his Los Angeles Times blog:
"As you may recall, the announcement of last year’s Oscar nominations was quickly overshadowed by the tragic news that broke later that same day: Heath Ledger, the actor best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005), had been found dead of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 28. It’s a terrible shame that Ledger will not be alive on nomination day this year, because his name [...]

THE LETTER – Jeanne Eagels

The Letter (1929)
Direction: Jean de Limur
Screenplay: Garrett Fort, from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1927 play
Cast: Jeanne Eagels, O. P. Heggie, Reginald Owen, Herbert Marshall, Irene Browne, Lady Tsen Mei, Tamaki Yoshiwara

 
Having seen William Wyler’s masterful 1940 adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter and having read quite a bit about Broadway star Jeanne Eagels‘ remarkable talent, I was expecting to find at least a modicum of quality in Jean de Limur’s 1929 version of the tale. I was greatly disappointed even though the plot is basically the same as the one found in the Wyler version:
Stuck on a Malayan rubber plantation with her aloof older husband (Reginald Owen), British subject Leslie Crosbie (Eagels) finds affection in the person of [...]