Issues with formal and cut?

I have this line at the start of my .procmailrc

SMSTEXT=`/usr/local/bin/formail -I "" | /usr/bin/cut -c1,140`
LOG="SMSTEXT: ${SMSTEXT}$NL”

The output I get from an email is:


SMSTEXT: 
I

Ir

T
===

The message has three paragraphs, the first two start with “I” followed by a space and the third starts with a T in “The”.

-- 
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax an
get used to the idea.