Love Letters (1945)

Great Film overall

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Soldier Joseph Cotten (Quinton) writes love letters to Jennifer Jones (Victoria) on behalf of his army buddy Robert Sully (Roger). Jones falls in love with Sully as a result of these letters and this deception leads to them marrying one another. Things don't go well for either of them after this. After all, their love is based on a deception. Joe Cotten arrives on the scene to sort things out. And things need sorting out as Jones has amnesia after a disturbing incident.This film is a romance that keeps you watching thanks to the cast but I wanted it to be better. Housekeeper Cecil Kellaway (Mac), rather annoyingly puts on a terrible accent from nowhere. It's an inconsistent mix of Scottish and Northern English and is probably his attempt at Irish. He is the weak link in the cast as everyone else gives a good account of their roles and even though Jones has an unbelievable role in the first place, she does alright with it. At work, a Quentin refers to a homosexual so I was giggling to myself every time Cotton's character was name-checked. Turns out his name was Quinton, so elocution fell short at times in this film. The name "Singleton" also gets annoying. Why is it repeated so much? In terms of the story, it could have been better if Jones had played things as an evil character. As it was, the story succeeds as an unbelievable romance but is nowhere near their other effort "Portrait of Jennie" (1948). I was able to guess the 'surprising' twist pretty much immediately. What is surprising is that this film got passed the Hayes Code. We get a man who gets murdered for doing absolutely nothing and the perpetrator literally gets away with murder. How did they miss that plot line?

I am very fond of the stars and many members of the supporting cast. I adore Portrait of Jennie. I think Ayn Rand was a prophet and wise beyond the ability of most people to even comprehend. Putting all of that aside. Even putting aside all of the music, the clothes, the atmosphere and the dialog. This is still wonderful. This is a story of fate, of love and how the two sometimes come together in an undeniable vision that, once seen is never forgotten. This is a wonderful movie and I enjoy it more with each viewing. Now that Ms. Jones is gone. she can always be as she was here and that is, she was loved by not just one man but by almost everyone who saw her back then when she and the world were so very much younger. Fate, not always so kind but somehow this movie makes one feel that there are worse things than to be fated to an inescapable love.

"Love Letters" is one of the most interesting films of 1945, yet it's seldom seen these days. We watched an excellent copy of it courtesy of a cable channel. The picture has kept well throughout the years. Directed by an old pro of that period, William Dieterle, and with an excellent cinematography by Lee Garmes, it was a joy to watch again. Victor Young's haunting musical score plays softly in the background.Some comments seem to indicate that Ayn Rand wrote the original work in which the movie is based. Contrary to those opinions, the fact is it was based on a Christopher Massie's novel, "Pity my Simplicity", and adapted by the author and Ms. Rand into the finished product. Ms. Rand was an obvious admirer of the French playwright Edmund Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, which plays in the action without making it too obvious.The best thing in "Love Letters" was the casting of the main roles. Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten played with their characters with conviction. Ms. Jones was at a great moment of her movie career; her dual role of Victoria Morland/Singleton proved she was the right choice for it. Mr. Cotten was an actor that always delivered, as it's the case with his character, Allen Quinton, the man who has loved Victoria from a distance.The marvelous cast is enhanced by Gladys Cooper, who is seen as Beatrice Remington, the woman who brought up Victoria as her own daughter and who holds the key to solving the mystery of the tragedy that involves Victoria. Ann Richards and Cecil Kellaway are also seen in minor roles."Love Letters" will delight fans of the genre as it is one of the better exponent of the Hollywood of the 40s.

Given the job of writing screenplays from novels, Rand takes Chris Massie's book and thoroughly rewrites it into something more like =Cyrano De Bergerac= with a happy ending! (This is in keeping with Rand's tendency to either write what she thinks someone else should have written, or about what she thinks someone else should do or have done.) And -- it works! Although subject to the same sort of dismissal by establishment critics the rest of Rand's work, this is actually a very, very good film!