Love Letters (1945)

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Movie
German title Love letters
Original title Love letters
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1945
length 101 minutes
Rod
Director William Dieterle
script Ayn Rand ,
Christopher Massie
production Hal B. Wallis for
Paramount Pictures
music Victor Young
camera Lee Garmes
cut Anne Bauchens
occupation

Love Letters (OT: Love Letters ) is an American love film with Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten directed by William Dieterle from 1945. Ayn Rand borrowed numerous from Edmond Rostand's verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac in her script . For Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten, it was the second of a total of four films together.

action

During the fighting on the front in Italy, the Englishman Alan Quinton offers his friend Roger Morland to write love letters to the young Victoria Remington for him. Roger is not that fluent with the words and gratefully accepts his friend's help. With each letter Victoria falls more in love with the - supposed - sender Roger and confesses her growing feelings in her reply letters. The more intense the correspondence, the more Alan, who is actually engaged to Helen Wentworth, falls in love with Victoria. When the war is over, Roger returns to England and Alan is left alone with his love for a woman he has never seen and who has no idea of ​​his existence. Then it emerges that Victoria allegedly murdered Roger three days after the wedding. In fact, the course of the crime could never be cleared up, as the only witness Beatrice Remington fell into shock from the shock of what she saw and Victoria has been suffering from amnesia since the event. All her memories are lost. Alan finally succeeds in unraveling the secret: Roger couldn't bear that Victoria loved not him but the author of the love letters. The marriage was marked by physical and psychological violence on the part of Roger towards Victoria. When Roger threw the said letters into the fire, there was a fight with Victoria, who tried to save the letters. In this situation, Beatrice rushed to help and stabbed Roger, only to fall into catatonia afterwards in shock at what she had done. Victoria suffered a total loss of memory. In the end, Beatrice has to answer for her crime while Victoria and Alan get married.

background

Producer Hal Wallis initially offered the male lead role to Gregory Peck , who declined because he had recently taken on a very comparable role in Alfred Hitchcock's I fight for you . Wallis then decided on Joseph Cotten, who like Jennifer Jones was under contract with David O. Selznick .

The film was shot from October 23 to December 23, 1944 at Paramount Studios Hollywood. It premiered on August 26, 1945 in the Globe, New York. It was released in theaters on October 26, 1945, and the German premiere took place on April 27, 1949 at the Filmbühne Wien in Berlin.

Jennifer Jones was paid US $ 100,000 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance . She lost in the end to Joan Crawford in while a heart is beating . Jones and Cotten stood shortly after the end of filming for love letters already back together for Duel in the Sun , directed by King Vidor on camera.

Reviews

In his review in the New York Times, Bosley Crowther pitied the actors in love letters . Although he called Jennifer Jones' achievement “simple-minded”, he added that “a poorer script or a more professional director was seldom thrown at an innocent star”. But he also feels sorry for Joseph Cotten, Gladys Cooper, Cecil Kellaway and Ann Richards, who “couldn't benefit in the least from Dieterle's sweet and boastful direction”.

The lexicon of international films saw a "[v] acquired, very dialog-heavy psycho-melodrama with excellent actors."

Awards

The film went to the 1946 Academy Awards with four nominations , but won none of the awards:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm (William) Dieterle - actor, director . In: CineGraph - Lexikon zum Deutschsprachigen Film , Lg. 22, F 31
  2. ↑ Bosley Crowther: THE SCREEN; 'Love Letters,' Drama in Which Jennifer Jones Stars, Comes to Rivoli - 'The Southerner' Is New Picture at the Globe . In: The New York Times . August 27, 1945 (English, online [accessed July 5, 2017]).
  3. ↑ love letters. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 5, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used