Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is not right that Random Harvest, which came 3 years earlier and played on very similar plot notes, is considered a timeless classic whereas Love Letters has somehow been relegated to the dustbin of cinematic history and is almost impossible to find these days.First, the teaming of Cotton and Jones is magical. Cotton could not give a bad performance if his life depended on it (he was always the first casting choice for an Orson Wells project) and Jones had a rare on screen charisma which is unequalled in the present day. (Three years after this project, they did Portrait of Jennie together, a truly perfect and one of a kind production which leaves Random Harvest in its dust.) Love Letters is not perfect but it is a still a masterpiece. The first act is flawless, especially the clever transition from Cotton's uneasy sense that writing love letters for another man is itself an act that only lead to calamity... to the almost Hitchcockian mystery as to what actually happened to Jones' character.The second act however seems a bit long and perhaps stretched. Ninety minutes might have made a tighter film.In spite of such quibbling Love Letters is a remarkable piece of entertainment and deserves more attention from cinephiles than it is getting.

Although it doesn't really come close to 1949's "Portrait of Jennie" this is a nice little psychological thriller from the same director and the same Cotten/Jones team. It lacks Portrait's timeless theme of "love transcendent" but there is a good taut script by Ayn Rand (one of her few Hollywood efforts) and a wonderful score (later song) by Victor Young. Cotten is good and Jones may be more goody-goody than usual (despite portraying a supposed 'free spirit') but it is Dieterle's direction that makes the whole thing watchable, bringing the same sort of haunting atmosphere to this film as he brings to "Portrait", the final denouement being realized with great cinematic economy and style.

Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten are at their best in this absorbing romantic drama with a screenplay by (of all people) Ayn Rand. How the author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" got talked into writing this sort of fragile romance is something I'm still puzzled over--doesn't seem like her cup of tea nor does it bear the stamp of her writing in any way whatsoever. Anyway, the story concerns letters that one soldier (Joseph Cotten) writes for another and what happens when the truth is revealed to the man's sweetheart (Jennifer Jones), who has of course fallen in love with the wrong man. The plot is too intricate to divulge here and doing so would be a spoiler anyway--suffice it to say that it all ends with a startling revelation involving another player in the cast. Lending solid support in minor roles are Gladys Cooper, Cecil Kellaway, Anita Louise and the charming Ann Richards who does splendidly in a key role. Jennifer Jones deserved her Oscar nomination as the bewildered girl who develops amnesia to forget a nasty incident involving the letters. Cotten is his usual charming self as the soldier who finds himself falling in love with the disturbed girl.

This is an early "end of world war II" movie. The war is over and now the returning soldiers are trying to put their lives in order again.Mostly set in a very rural part of England (Devon perhaps?). Cotton plays an emotionally scared veteran who tries to make amends for the wrong he has done, though it is really just a coincidence that he runs into the woman he somewhat inadvertently deceived (by writing letters on behalf of another man).Jennifer Jones is quite good in this role that demands a youthful innocence. It sure doesn't hurt that she is a very beautiful young woman.Good scenery and a good early effort at showing the true emotional cost of war on the vets who survive it.