diff --git a/Lib/test/test_re.py b/Lib/test/test_re.py
index 92d2c1386de464..a1953209e49b53 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_re.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_re.py
@@ -1400,6 +1400,8 @@ def test_ascii_and_unicode_flag(self):
     def test_locale_flag(self):
         import locale
         enc = locale.getpreferredencoding(False)
+        bletter = None
+        bpat = b'A'
         # Search non-ASCII letter
         for i in range(128, 256):
             try:
@@ -1413,9 +1415,6 @@ def test_locale_flag(self):
                 break
             except (UnicodeError, TypeError):
                 pass
-        else:
-            bletter = None
-            bpat = b'A'
         # Bytes patterns
         pat = re.compile(bpat, re.LOCALE | re.IGNORECASE)
         if bletter: