Love Letters (1945)

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Christopher Massie (novel)
Ayn Rand (writer)

Release Date:

26 October 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

Plot:

Allen Quinton writes a fellow soldier's love letters; tragedy results. Later, Allen meets a beautiful amnesiac who fears postmen...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Love Letter | Murder | WWII | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars.

Cast

Jennifer Jones	...	Singleton
Joseph Cotten	...	Allen Quinton
Ann Richards	...	Dilly Carson
Cecil Kellaway	...	Mac
Gladys Cooper	...	Beatrice Remington
Anita Louise	...	Helen Wentworth
Robert Sully	...	Roger Morland
Reginald Denny	...	Defense counsel Phillips
Ernest Cossart	...	Bishop
Byron Barr	...	Derek Quinton

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language including sexual references, and for some thematic elements.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #10072)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Victor Young created stunning arrangements for two Decca recordings of his Oscar-nominated theme song (lyrics by Edward Heyman): the first in 1945 with a full orchestra for Dick Haymes, and the second in 1954 with a simple guitar-combo backing for Peggy Lee.

Goofs:

Continuity: Dilly Carson relates to Allan Quinnton that she found Singleton sitting by the fireplace with a bloody knife and a letter from which Dilly quotes the signature line, "I think of you my dearest as the distance promise of beauty". But during the climactic flashback, we see the letter with that very line burning in the fireplace.

Quotes:

Allen Quinton: Call her... a pin-up girl of the spirit.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Biography: Jennifer Jones: Portrait of a Lady" (2001)

Rand rewrites Massie -- and Rostand!

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!