Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
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100% of critics liked it
(21 reviews) -
86% of users liked it
(2,389 ratings)
Perhaps the finest American film from the famed European director Max Ophüls, the film stars Joan Fontaine as a young woman who falls in love with a concert pianist. Set in Vienna in 1900, the story is told in a complex flashback structure as the pianist, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), comes upon a… More Perhaps the finest American film from the famed European director Max Ophüls, the film stars Joan Fontaine as a young woman who falls in love with a concert pianist. Set in Vienna in 1900, the story is told in a complex flashback structure as the pianist, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), comes upon a letter written to him by Lisa Berndl (Fontaine), a girl who has been in love with him for years. Stefan is in the process of fleeing Vienna on the eve of fighting a duel. As he prepares himself for the nocturnal journey, the letter arrives. It begins, "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead." As Stefan sits back in his study to read this letter, it turns out to be a confession of unrequited love from Lisa. The story flashes backs to when Lisa was 14 years old and Stefan was her neighbor. After following Stefan with a girlish obsession, the romance gets much more serious, and they have a brief encounter. Stefan promises to come back to her after a concert tour, but he never does. Meanwhile, Lisa marries another man when she discovers that she is pregnant with Stefan's child. When she runs into Stefan years later, he doesn't remember her and tries to seduce her. After Stefan reads the letter, he wants to rush to her side, but now poor Lisa is dying from typhus. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Directed By
- Max Ophüls
- Written By
- Howard Koch, Stefan Zweig
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- In Theaters
- Apr 28, 1948 Limited
- Studio
- Universal Pictures
Critic Reviews
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, Time Out
Of all the cinema's fables of doomed love, none is more piercing than this.
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Don Druker, Chicago Reader
A breathtaking, bitter, exquisitely orchestrated exploration of love and selfishness by Max Ophuls.
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Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm
...a women's picture that nonetheless turns on male chauvinism.
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Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
The waltzing heartbreak of Letter from an Unknown Woman serves as the gateway to Max Ophüls's late-period string of masterpieces.
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Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
[Max] Ophuls' first personal project in Hollywood and he injects this exquisitely stylish romantic melodrama with his continental sensibility.
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Cast
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Joan Fontaine
as Lisa Berndle
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Louis Jourdan
as Stefan Brand
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Mady Christians
as Frau Berndle
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Marcel Journet
as Johann Stauffer
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Art Smith
as John
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Carol Yorke
as Marie
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Howard Freeman
as Herr Kastner
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John Good
as Lt. Leopold von Kaltnegger
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Erskine Sanford
as Porter
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Otto Waldis
as Concierge
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Louis Austin
as Elderly Woman
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Sonja Blyden
as Frau Spitzer
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Betty Blythe
as Frau Kohner
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Paul E. Burns
as 2nd Concierge
- Douglas Carter Beane
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Edmund Cobb
as 2nd Carriage Driver
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Jack Gargan
as Man
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Lisa Golm
as Woman Musician
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Ilka Gruning
as Woman Ticket Taker
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Ramsay Hill
as Col. Steindorf
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Rex Lease
as Station Attendant
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Will Lee
as Mover
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Arthur Lovejoy
as Footman
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Celia Lovsky
as Flower Vendor
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Michael Mark
as Cafe Customer
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John McCallum
as Store Helper
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Torben Meyer
as Carriage Driver
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Leo Mostovoy
as Older Man
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Fred Nurney
as Officer on Street
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Leo B. Pessin
as Stefan Jr.
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Shimen Ruskin
as Older Man
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Lester Sharpe
as Critic
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Lotte Stein
as Woman Musician
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Hermine Sterler
as Mother Superior
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William Trenk
as Fritzel
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Roland Varno
as Second
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Audrey Wilder
as Pretty
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Manuel Paris
as Baron's Second
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Jean Ransome
as Maid
- Diane Stewart
- Doretta Johnson
- Cy Stevens
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Vera Stokes
as Girlfriend