Waterloo Bridge (1940)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Myra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualities. Heartbroken after Roy is reportedly killed in action, Myra turns to prostitution to make her way. The report, however, is false. Roy later returns from a POW camp, eager to begin life anew with his beloved. But Myra's shattered spirit may no longer hold any room for happiness.
Vivien Leigh plays Myra, at once winning and breaking viewers' hearts in this exquisite melodrama. In a compassionate performance that was his all-time favorite, Robert Taylor is gallant Roy. Under Mervyn Le Roy's astute direction, they make Waterloo Bridge a meeting place for lovers. - Actors:
- Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field, Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith, Janet Shaw, Janet Waldo, Steffi Duna, Virginia Carroll, Leda Nicova, Florence Baker, Margery Manning, Frances MacInerney, Eleanor Stewart
- Directors:
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Writers:
- S.N. Behrman, Hans Rameau
- Others:
- Joseph Ruttenberg, Herbert Stothart
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Holidays Film Collection, Romantic Film Pairings for Valentine's Day
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Reviews (1) of Waterloo Bridge
Precode Melodrama. - Waterloo Bridge review by Steve
My pick for the best precode Hollywood melodrama, which exploits a range of standard situations but elevates them with quality. This is partly due to the superior dialogue taken from Robert Sherwood's Broadway play. And even more for James Whale's fluent and sympathetic direction. But most of all, for Mae Clarke's stunning lead performance.
Anyone who only knows her from having half a grapefruit shoved in her face by James Cagney (in The Public Enemy, also '31) is in for a big shock. She is heartbreaking in an extremely natural portrayal. She's well directed by Whale and really delivers in a some agonising closeups. This is one of the great dramatic performances of the decade.
She plays a former chorus girl forced into sex work when the theatres close down during WWI. She meets a Canadian soldier (Douglass Montgomery) on leave and gets the customary glimpse of redemption before fate, and her overwhelming shame, closes down all hope. This doesn't deal with the facts of life as bluntly as the play, but it's still pretty candid.
Plus the 23 year old Bette Davis has an early support role! The vast painted Thames and the slum interiors bring atmosphere. It wasn't seen for decades after the code was enforced in '34. Then the cleaned up MGM remake became popular. But Whale's version is supreme and far more realistic. And features Clarke's definitive portrayal, as yet another casualty of war.