LOVE LETTERS
US, 1945, 101 minutes, Black and white.
Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper, Anita Louise, Robert Sully, Reginald Denny.
Directed by William Dieterle.
Love Letters was a very popular film of 1945, in the vein of so many wartime romance stories. The plot focuses on a soldier who uses his friend to write letters to a woman who falls in love with the letters. He returns from the war, marries the woman against the advice of his friend and is murdered.
The film focuses on the letter-writer, played seriously by Joseph Cotten. He tracks down the woman, and finds that she has lost her memory and has spent a year in prison for the murder of her husband. With the aid of a friend (Australian actress Ann Richards who went to Hollywood after appearing in such films as Dad and Dave Come to Town). The other main character is the aunt who brought up the woman with amnesia, looked after her – and, in a scene where the woman regains her memory, talks about what really happened with the death of her husband.
The film is directed by William Dieterle, German director who made significant biopics at Warner Bros in the 1930s including Louis Pasteur and Emil Zola, who went to Paramount and made quite a number of genre pictures during the 40s and 50s.
1. The popularity of the film? In its time? The war atmosphere? Later decades? A romantic film?
2. The production qualities, the director and his experience, the central cast and their screen presence, the strong supporting cast? The musical score, Victor Young’s music and song?
3. The title, plain and matter-of-fact?
4. The plot, the basis in Cyrano de Bergerac, the anonymous writer expressing his love for the woman beyond his world?
5. The focus on Allen, the opening, his writing the letters for Roger? The warfront? Roger and his casual attitudes? Allen and his intensity? The jokes about the letters, Allen urging the final letter? Advising Roger not to seek out Victoria?
6. Allen being wounded? His going back to England, tracking down Roger? Hearing about the marriage? Its failure? Roger’s murder?
7. His decision to find Victoria, his home in the country? His meeting with Dilly Carson? The discussions with her? Her knowing the truth? Allen and his encounter with Victoria, at the party, calling herself Singleton? Her presence, her charm? His finding her again?
8. Dilly’s explanation? Victoria’s background, orphanage in Canada, Aunt Beatrice bringing her to England, caring for her? The loss of memory? Her imprisonment for the murder of her husband?
9. Allen, the discussions with Victoria, falling in love with her? The marriage? Her saying Roger at the wedding? Their life together – and Allen wondering whether she would regain her memory?
10. The build-up to the climax, Aunt Beatrice, in the house, talking with Victoria? The gradual remembering, the details of what happened, the fight? The revelation that Beatrice killed Roger for Victoria’s sake? Beatrice having the stroke, unable to speak, unable to communicate what had happened? Victoria going to jail? The flashbacks to the court, her honesty, her lack of memory? Her sentence?
11. Allen overhearing the story, their rediscovery of each other, the letters? The happy ending?
12. The supporting characters, Aunt Beatrice and Gladys Cooper’s style? Crucial in the plot? Mac and his friendship with Allen? Helen Wentworth and her love for Allen, the meeting after the war, Allen explaining how things change? Dilly, her friendship with Victoria, with Allen, her contributing to the story?
13. 40s-style romantic films, serious, with the touch of the tragic?
