''Love Letters'' is a 1984 American

romantic drama film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...

starring

Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, children's author, and activist. She came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom '' Operation Petticoat'' (1977–78). In 1978, she m ...

and

James Keach James Keach (born December 7, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the younger brother of actor Stacy Keach Jr. and son of actor Stacy Keach Sr. Early life and education Keach was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Mary Cain () ...

. The film is written and directed by

Amy Holden Jones Amy Holden Jones is an American screenwriter and film director best known for creating the FOX medical drama '' The Resident''. She has edited various films and later began directing and writing. She currently works in television. Early life and ...

, whom

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

here agreed to finance following her success with ''

The Slumber Party Massacre ''The Slumber Party Massacre'' (also known as ''The Slumber Party Murders'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown. It is the first installment in the ''Slumber Party Mas ...

'' (1982).

Plot

Anna Winter is a young woman who discovers her mother had an affair with a married man for 15 years, so she starts her own affair with a married man.''Love Letters''
at

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Anna works for a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

public radio station. She often must care for her alcoholic father and comply with his many demands. When she finds love letters, revealing her mother's longtime involvement with someone else, Anna develops a romantic notion of the idea as something suitable for herself. She meets a photographer, Oliver Andrews, who is happily married and a father. Their physical attraction is immediate and they begin a torrid affair, but Oliver cautions her from the start that he has no intention of leaving his family. Anna has no objection, enjoying the sex and intimacy for the time being, until feelings develop and she begins to desire a permanent relationship, intruding on Oliver's privacy in the process, with unhappy consequences for all. In the end she finally meets the man her mother had an affair with and she decides to take a job offer at a radio station in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to give herself a fresh start in life.

Cast

as Anna Winter *

as Oliver Andrews *

Bonnie Bartlett Bonnie Bartlett (born June 20, 1929) is an American actress. Her career spans seven decades, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, ''Love of Life''. Bartlett is known for her role as Grace Snider Edwards on the Michael Lando ...

as Maggie Winter * Matt Clark as Chuck Winter *

Amy Madigan Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film '' Twice in a Lifetime''. Her other film credits include '' Love Child'' (1982), ''Places ...

as Wendy *Brian Wood as Frank *Phil Coccioletti as Ralph Glass *

Larry Cedar Larry Frank Cedar (born March 6, 1955) is an American voice, film and television actor, best known as one of the players of the Children's Television Workshop mathematics show ''Square One TV'' on PBS from 1987 to 1994. He played Max, Alex the B ...

as Jake *

Rance Howard Rance Howard (born Harold Engle Beckenholdt; November 17, 1928 – November 25, 2017) was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He was the father of actor and filmmaker Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard, and grandfather of actr ...

as Joseph Chesley *

Jeff Doucette Jeffrey Doucette (born November 25, 1947) is an American character actor. Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was the second of eight children born to Elizabeth (Betty Andres) and William (Bill) Doucette. Jeffrey attended Marquette Universit ...

as Hippy *

Sally Kirkland Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film, television and stage actress and producer. A former member of Andy Warhol's The Factory and an active member in 1960s New York avant-garde theater, she has appeared in more than 250 fi ...

as Sally * Lyman Ward as Morgan Crawford *

Bud Cort Walter Edward Cox, known professionally as Bud Cort, is an American actor and comedian, known for his portrayals of Harold in Hal Ashby's film ''Harold and Maude'' (1971) and the eponymous hero in Robert Altman's film ''Brewster McCloud'' (1970 ...

as Danny De Fronso

Production

Amy Holden Jones had just made her feature film debut as director with ''

Slumber Party Massacre ''The Slumber Party Massacre'' (also known as ''The Slumber Party Murders'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown. It is the first installment in the ''Slumber Party Ma ...

'' and wanted to follow it up with something non-horror. She and her husband had written love letters to each other several years previously when living on different coasts; she rediscovered them and wondered what would happen if their daughter came across the love letters. At the same time Jones saw ''

Shoot the Moon ''Shoot the Moon'' is a 1982 American drama film directed by Alan Parker, and written by Bo Goldman. It stars Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, Karen Allen, Peter Weller and Dana Hill. Set in Marin County, California, the film follows George (Finn ...

'' about a man who has an affair and thought that while the story of an affair told from the point of view of the unfaithful married man had been done many times, she had never seen the story from the point of view of the girlfriend to the married man. Jones:

I put that together with the love letters and thought it would be interesting if someone came upon the love letters and realized that their parents had had an extramarital affair, if the love letters were not in fact between her mother and father, as ours were, but between the mother and a lover. In other words, what would happen if you were confronted with an understanding of a time period in your parents' life which you never really understand -- none of us have a real idea of what our parents were like in their twenties. How would that affect your life? And I thought it would be interesting if that then thrust her into an affair with a married man, trying to replicate what she saw her mother had. Basically, it was designed to be a movie about what happens to the woman outside of the marriage, who is usually, in fiction, painted as a terrible villain and often is kind of a victim who gets left in the end.Amy Holden Jones on "Love Letters" ''Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts'' 19 February, 2009
accessed 10 November 2013

Jones said she was inspired to do flashbacks by the screenplays of

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

. Her first choice for the lead was

Meg Tilly Meg Tilly (born Margaret Elizabeth Chan on February 14, 1960) is an American-Canadian actress and writer. For her role in the 1985 film '' Agnes of God'', she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting ...

but her agent was demanding more money than Corman was willing to pay.

agreed to play the role for only $25,000 despite several nude scenes as it gave her a chance to break away from the horror films she had been mostly making up until that stage of her career.Christopher T Koetting, ''Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures'', Hemlock Books. 2009 p 226 The film was financed by Roger Corman who insisted on the inclusion of some nudity.Chris Nashawaty, ''Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen and Candy Stripe Nurses - Roger Corman: King of the B Movie'', Abrams, 2013 p 190 Jones:

He wants either sex, violence or humor. He actually told me that lovemaking wasn't so much required as nudity. And he didn't mind if she could just be lounging around the house nude, but there had to be nudity. He had to have some way to sell the thing. It's actually the one thing that troubles me about it. I find some of the nudity really gratuitous. But it was the price we paid to get it made.

It was filmed at the Los Angeles Venice Canals in the house located at 412 Carroll Canal Ct. Venice, CA.

References

External links

* * {{Amy Holden Jones 1984 films 1984 romantic drama films 1980s English-language films American romantic drama films Films produced by Roger Corman New World Pictures films Films directed by Amy Holden Jones Films about adultery in the United States Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Los Angeles Films about radio people Films with screenplays by Amy Holden Jones 1980s American films