News

This devastating romantic melodrama is Max Ophüls’ best American picture — perhaps because it seems so European? It’s probably Joan Fontaine’s finest hour as well, and Louis Jourdan comes across as a great actor in a part perfect for his screen personality. The theme could be called, ‘No regrets,’ but also, ‘Everything is to be regretted.’

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Blu-ray

Olive Signature

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet, Art Smith, Carol Yorke, Howard Freeman, John Good, Leo B. Pessin, Erskine Sanford, Otto Waldis, Sonja Bryden.

Cinematography: Franz Planer

Film Editor: Ted J. Kent

Original Music: Daniele Amfitheatrof

Written by Howard Koch from a story by Stefan Zweig

Produced by John Houseman

Directed by Max Ophüls

A young woman’s romantic nature goes beyond all limits, probing the nature of True Love.

Joan Fontaine movies: ‘This Above All,’ ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ (photo: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ publicity image) (See previous post: “Joan Fontaine Today.”) Also tonight on Turner Classic Movies, Joan Fontaine can be seen in today’s lone TCM premiere, the flag-waving 20th Century Fox release The Above All (1942), with Fontaine as an aristocratic (but socially conscious) English Rose named Prudence Cathaway (Fontaine was born to British parents in Japan) and Fox’s top male star, Tyrone Power, as her Awol romantic interest. This Above All was directed by Anatole Litvak, who would guide Olivia de Havilland in the major box-office hit The Snake Pit (1948), which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. In Max Ophüls’ darkly romantic Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Fontaine delivers not only what is probably the greatest performance of her career, but also one of the greatest movie performances ever. Letter from an Unknown Woman...

Letter From An Unknown Woman

Directed by Max Ophüls

Starring Louis Jordan and Joan Fontaine

USA, 86 min – 1948.

“Have you ever shuffled faces like cards, hoping to find one that lies somewhere, just over the edge of your memory?”

In 1900s Vienna, a former concert pianist and notorious womanizer, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) returns home to find a mysterious letter. Stefan tells his manservant, John (Art Smith) to pack up, as he wants to avoid a morning duel with Johann Stauffer (Marcel Journet). When Stefan begins to read this letter, the duel escapes his mind. The letter details the unrequited love of Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine), a young woman who fell in love with Stefan, and had his son, without Stefan’s knowledge. The contents of Lisa’s letter spark Stefan to question the value of his life and his decision to run away from the duel.

Letter From An Unknown Woman...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 16, 2012

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan feel the love in 1948's Letter From An Unknown Woman.

The classic 1948 drama-romance film Letter From an Unknown Woman comes from the great German-born filmmaker-gone-Hollywood Max Ophüls (Lola Montes).

In early 20th century Vienna, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan, Gigi) is in the process of fleeing Vienna on the eve of a duel he wants no part of. Before he can do so, he receives the titular, anonymous letter from an unknown woman. Stefan is deeply moved by what he reads and starts to realize that the letter’s author is Lisa Berndl (Joan Fontaine, Suspicion), a young woman he’s known, but disregarded for most of his life…

Written by Howard Koch (Casablanca), produced by John Houseman (Sorry, Wrong Number) and co-starring Marcel Journet and Mady Christians, the film makes its U.S. DVD...