"(The Abused Love Letters) possesses a quality almost nonexistent in the Swiss cinema: charm," writes Hervé Dumont in Histoire du cinéma suisse. Its comedy reflects, Dumont notes, as much the delicate irony of the original story by Keller (author also of Romeo and Juliet in the Village) as the Viennese sensibilities of the director. Here again, a period piece is rendered with particularly poetic feeling for its rural setting while playing farcically on the morality of the times. A plot involving a pseudonymous poet, his simple wife, and the Cyrano-like ghost writer she employs to impress him, is the occasion for a colorful if slight fairy tale about appearances. The cinematography-a sun-patterned forest, a candlelight parade of peasants-aids and abets the charade.