Love Letters

ORIGINAL REVIEW OF THE UNIVERSAL VAULT-SERIES DVD, 2014: My review is for those who love this movie and have been waiting for many years for it to arrive on DVD or Blu-ray. Other reviews here have done an excellent job of providing background about the story and explaining why this is such a great film. I will focus my review on the Universal Vault Series DVD that was released in November 2014.As Amazon says, this is a manufactured-on-demand product that is stored on a DVD-R disc. It comes in a standard keepcase but includes no booklet or chapter list. It's definitely a "no-frills" presentation. There is no menu and no extras of any kind. When you insert the disc, the movie automatically begins playing with its correct aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Those who were hoping for a high-quality presentation that benefits from a full restoration will be disappointed. I've seen some of the bootleg VHS-to-DVD dubs that have been sold for years over the Internet, and this Universal DVD improves on those--but only by a modest amount. The transfer shows quite a few specs and flecks, and many scenes lack detail and sharpness. In short, this DVD does not look nearly as good as most of the other black-and-white movies from the 1940's in my collection, and I have quite a few. It's obvious that little or no restoration of the film elements was performed. If you happen to have the VHS version or one of those VHS-to-DVD dubs, you might want to hang onto it, even if you buy this DVD, because the audio track has some noticeable distortion beginning at about 10:10 and lasting until roughly 12:30 (another reviewer elsewhere on the Internet observed this same problem with two different copies of the Universal DVD, so I'm confident that my copy is not defective). Fortunately, the dialogue is still fairly intelligible during that rough patch, but it's annoying.This Vault Series DVD is better than not being able to own and watch the movie at all, but it's a shame Universal didn't put the care and effort into this release that so many other (less worthy!) movies have received. If someone like the Criterion Collection would pick up this title, restore it, and release it, the results would be dramatically better. Compared with Warner Brothers, which has released excellent movies from the 1940's like the wonderful film noir "Out of the Past" on Blu-ray with reference-quality transfers as part of its Archive Collection, this effort from Universal is disappointing. The Universal DVD doesn't even include subtitles--another disappointment.The star rating above reflects my opinion of the movie (a true classic that is highly rewatchable). The Vault Series DVD from Universal gets at most two or three stars. It's better than nothing, but I hope someday someone will give this movie the loving, respectful treatment on home video that it deserves.UPDATE IN MARCH 2023 FOR KINO LORBER (KL) STUDIO CLASSICS BLU-RAY RELEASE: The KL Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a significant improvement over the Universal DVD, but it could have been better. KL scanned a 35-mm fine-grain print of the film at 2K, and the source was mostly clean and in good condition. However, most of the first roughly 7 minutes of the film suffer from some obvious source damage in a narrow vertical strip near the right edge of the frame. It's not too distracting most of the time, but there is at least one scene where character Roger Morland is positioned near the right edge of the frame, and the print damage becomes more noticeable because Roger is speaking, and that's where one's gaze is naturally drawn in that scene. On the positive side, after about the 7-minute mark, the rest of the 101-minute film looks great nearly all the time without the many flecks and specks and briefly garbled audio of the Universal DVD edition, though a few scenes here and there are a little softer (less sharp) looking. Another major improvement is the inclusion of optional English subtitles. Overall, I'm pleased with this KL BD release, but it could have been better if the first 7 minutes had looked as good as the rest of the film. I doubt there will ever be a better home-video release of this wonderful film, so I recommend the KL BD as the best way to watch Love Letters at home for the foreseeable future.

Film critic Leonard Maltin gave this film only two stars (out of four) in his movie book, dismissing it as an artificial soaper with a lovely score by Victor Young as its only asset.Having purchased this Vault Series DVD, I disagree. Yes, the score is quite lovely and atmospheric---I'd say the incidental music of this film is better than that of "The Uninvited" (1944) which Victor Young also scored, though his song "Stella by Starlight" is his greatest triumph.The biggest weakness of "Love Letters" is that the leads (Cotten and Jones) are American, playing English characters. Most of the supporting players are British, however, and all of the acting is so superb, as are the sets, lighting, camerawork, and script (Ayn Rand adapting C. Massey's PITY MY SIMPLICITY novel). The film is not evangelistic in nature, but by today's standards it would likely be regarded as a Christian film, as the main characters are moral, church-going people. Jennifer Jones' character reverently quotes the Scriptures while in a friendly discussion with an Anglican vicar. These are passing moments in the film, but they underpin the romance and mystery of the story with a spirituality founded upon Christ (which is quite amazing, considering that screenwriter Rand was not only an atheist, but the founder of the Objectivist philosophy - but this was a Hollywood job-of-work, and she was likely writing for her bosses - and public sentiment of the time)."Love Letters" was far subtler than I had remembered. It takes place in and just after WWII, and there are scenes which quietly reinforce that fact: supporting character Dilly Carson (Ann Richards) makes a breakfast purchase using rationing cards; a wedding takes place in a London church which is partly demolished (due to the Nazi blitzkrieg), though no mention is made of it. Cecil Kellaway chews the scenery as a somewhat feral Irish caretaker of Cotton's newly inherited Essex estate, and Reginald Denny has a cameo as a defence attorney.There are several moments in the film which are supremely moving, thanks to a confluence of talents under the helm of director William Dieterle, and the revelation of hidden events in the film's penultimate moments have as much impact as the finale of "Citizen Kane" (which co-starred Joseph Cotten, coincidentally). "Love Letters" was deservedly nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Jennifer Jones. She and Cotten starred in four films together, but "Love Letters" and "Portrait of Jennie" were their best, and most artistic (both directed by Dieterle)."Love Letters" and David Lean's "Brief Encounter" (1945) both strike me as precursors to Richard Attenborough's "Shadowlands" (1993), depicting the romance of C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham.

Great movie with the underrated Jennifer Jones. Her performance is terrific and Joseph Cotten is very good as well.

It's very unfortunate KINO advertises this release as "Brand New HD Master from a 2K Scan of the 35mm Fine Grain!"One has to suffer through the first two scenes of the movie while watching distracting multi-lined scratches on the right side of the screen, along with dark spots, i.e. dirt. Thankfully, the overall print quality improves later and throughout the remainder of this Oscar-nominated film, Jennifer Jones' third of five nominations.The audio quality is sub Blu-ray, which is a real shame that Victor Young's lush romantic score has to suffer.

This dvd r on demand is an expensive one sound is very hissy, and the image is in several scenes fuzzy this movie is for the romantic souls love the me is beautiful same cast and same director movie needs a remastering

Searched to years for this version. Glad I found it. Great, if you are into nostalgic black and white films, plus that wonderful theme tune.

The film arrived as stated. The quality is good except for a minor sound distortion near the beginning. Excellent story and acting.

Beautiful movie thrilling and with a lovely ending

It's a great old schmaltzy black and white romance.