Love Letters (1945)

As Good As It Gets

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Beautiful young woman with amnesia may hold the key to the murder of a soldier; the victim was actually the woman's sweetheart, while her newly-acquired husband was the soldier's war-buddy who was enlisted by his friend to write love letters to the lass back home. Hoary Paramount melodrama with Gothic trimmings, adapted by Ayn Rand from Christopher Massie's book, is all dewy-eyed and fog-enshrouded...anything (one presumes) to deflect attention from the ridiculous plot-line. Jennifer Jones barely connects with the other actors on-screen; her main concern seems to be in projecting an other-worldly quality (this attained by staring heavenward and speaking haltingly in a breathy whisper). One never fears for Jones' character because she has removed herself intrinsically from the proceedings--all we have left to absorb is her affected (one might say, purposefully modulated) temperament and overtly-posed exterior, staged as if in a series of fashionable photographs. ** from ****

After my last user comment dated 27/6/02 (using a different email address), I am again putting electronic pen to this web-site with the happy news that "Love Letters"(1945) is now showing in its entirety on www.youtube.com and in its original language (not just the Italian dubbed version).I have this thing about Jennifer Jones and being a talented artist, I have made several portraits of her which are hanging in my house.Of course my love goddess has since died aged 90 in 2009 but like in "Portrait of Jennie" (1948) her screen spirit image lives within me still.By the way my wife knows of my attachment to this actress and indeed to other 1940s raven haired actresses whose dvds I collect like Vivien Leigh, Hedy Lamarr, Margaret Lockwood, Gene Tierney, and Ava Gardner! Of course when I showed my work at art class showing JJ, only the older students recognised her. My original user comments stand but this time I found myself freezing certain scenes showing JJ so I could drink in her astounding beauty.I awarded this film 8/10 as next to "Portrait of Jennie" it is my favourite JJ film.

Allen Quinton (Joseph Cotten) is a soldier in World War II who has been writing love letters for fellow soldier Robert Morland to his girl back home. Morland's kind of a jerk but the letters written is his name make him appear to be a kind, romantic soul and the girl they are written to falls in love with him. When Allen returns home from the war he discovers Morland married the girl but it ended in tragedy. Allen is intent upon finding out what happened. This leads him to a number of twists and a meeting with an amnesiac girl named Singleton (Jennifer Jones).Joseph Cotten's performance is great. Cotten, one of the great actors of his day, is sadly underrated today. Ann Richards gives a natural, sympathetic turn as Singleton's friend Dilly. Jennifer Jones is not up to Cotten's level. Her performance is OK but a little too manufactured. Still, she's competent here but outshined by Cotten, as well as supporting player Richards and vets Cecil Kellaway and Gladys Cooper.William Dieterle creates a lovely, atmospheric picture. I love the sets, the houses, the matte painting backgrounds. Victor Young's music is evocative and romantic. The script is by Ayn Rand (!) from a novel by Christopher Massie. My one real gripe is that I hated the name Singleton for this girl and every time they said it, it was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Hearing Joseph Cotten say "I love you Singleton" sounds like some secret joke forgotten decades ago. Whether it was Rand's idea or Massie's, I don't know. But it was stupid and provides clunky hiccups in the dialogue. Despite a few quibbles, it's hard to dislike. Interesting, romantic, effective mystery film that should entertain all but the stone-hearted among us.

This modern re-working of the Cyrano De Bergerac tale has one interesting twist, the Christian character is killed off in the first reel and he's not a nice guy to begin with.Joseph Cotten, a sensitive and romantic soul, is persuaded by an army buddy to write love letters in the friend's name to a girl he's trying to impress. It works real good, they get married.But after Cotten is wounded and is invalided out of the British Army, he discovers that the man he wrote the letters for has been killed and his wife charged and convicted of the crime. The wife has also lost all memory of the event.As fate would have it, Cotten and wife Jennifer Jones do meet and fall in love and they marry. That's how it's worked in these Hollywood romances. But you don't care when the players are as sophisticated as Joseph Cotten and as luminescently beautiful as Jennifer Jones. You don't even mind that these two American players don't even try to adopt British accents.Love Letters was a great big hit for Paramount back then, helped no doubt by the title song which was also selling a lot of records. Dick Haymes had the big hit record of Love Letters. Perry Como and later Andy Williams did well by this most romantic of ballads. It's a personal favorite of mine.If your taste is films about war time romances, this is the movie for you.