This was Dalton Trumbo's only Oscar nomination under his real name. Both Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, and Stewart were later blacklisted, using fronts for their work. Robert Rich was Trumbo's pseudonym as writer of “The Brave One,” and Ian McLellan Hunter as scribe of Roman Holiday.”

In 1940, “The Letter” lost in each and every category of the seven it was nominated for, including Best Picture. “Rebecca” won Best Picture and the black-and-white Cinematography Oscar for George Barnes. Ginger Rogers won Best Actress for “Kitty Foyle,” and Walter Brennan won his third Supporting Oscar in five years (a record) for Wyler's “The Westerner.”

Despite five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Charlie Chaplin's timely political satire emerged as one of the biggest losers–and ideologically problematic–film in 1940.

In 1940, John Ford, like Hitchcock, had two movies in contention for the Best Picture Oscar: “The Grapes of Wrath,” starring Henry Fonda (in his first Oscar nomination), and “The Long Voyage Home,” with John Wayne.

In 1940, Hitchcock's Oscar winner “Rebecca” competed for the top award with nine other films: Hitchcock's own “Foreign Correspondent” (on of his lesser movies), “All This and Heaven Too,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Great Dictator,” “Kitty Foyle,” “The Letter,” “The Long Voyage Home,” “Our Town,” and “The Philadelphia Story.”