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Love Letters Movie Review

Love Letters is a 1945 romantic noir picture directed by William Dieterle and starring Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. It’s a ridiculous movie.

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“I have forgotten and you don’t want to remember,

that’s the only difference between us“

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Allen Quinton, an American soldier, writes love letters for his fellow soldier during World War II to a girl named Victoria. When he finds out that they are dead, he is very troubled. A story about an amnesiac woman with two personalities is always going to be silly, and sure enough this is one of the silliest movies that I’ve seen so far from the forties.

What I liked about it is that it’s a somewhat potent mixture of the romantic and noir genres, which was quite fresh for the time. It has a solid atmosphere and some scenes are sweet and quite romantic. However, the plot is so dumb and difficult to buy that the end result is a film that is atmospherically delightful and charming, but lacking in any subtlety or substance.

Jennifer Jones was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for this dual role, but her performance is over-the-top and not all that believable to be honest. This nomination, thus, was not deserved at all. The character made no sense and the film acting as if she is dangerous and the most intriguing character ever imagined on screen only further made her laughably silly.

Joseph Cotton obviously fared much better. He was one of the best and most underappreciated actors of his era and in this picture he delivered the best performance by far. Others did not get much to do, which was unfortunate as the cast is composed of the likes of Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway and even Gladys Cooper.

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Love Letters also received a couple of technical nominations, which were deserved actually. The titular nominated song is pretty good and the overall score is quite remarkable. The movie looks strong owing to excellent cinematography and production design. The atmosphere is a killer throughout, but the goofy, soapy dialogue and unbelievable plot scenarios took it down the notch significantly.