From the 1940s: Waterloo Bridge

1940 Romance Drama
From MGM
Screenplay by S. N. Behrman
and Hans Rameau
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Starring
Vivien Leigh
Robert Taylor
Lucile Watson
Virginia Field
Maria Ouspenskaya
C. Aubrey Smith

If one's passions are aroused by a good romance movie, here is one of the best.  At its center both tender and tragic, the story tends to grab a hold and not let go.  It doesn't hurt that toplined are two of the most beautiful stars of that or any other day, Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor.  They were work pals having costarred in A Yank at Oxford two years earlier. For both films and more, she campaigned for her lover, Laurence Olivier, to get the role. 

They say that movie fans the world over were waiting to see what her new movie would be.  She had last completed Gone with the Wind and had won an Oscar for her portrayal of the fiery Scarlett O'Hara.  Taylor was one of MGM's most in-demand actors and unquestionably its most handsome.  His romantic leads in a number of their films were always very popular.  To add to the glow, he had recently married Barbara Stanwyck and female moviegoers were positively giddy.  MGM knew it had a hit going into this film.

The film opens with Taylor, a Scottish army captain currently serving in WWII, standing on the bridge and reminiscing about the love he found and lost during WWI.  Their story then unfolds in flashback.

It is love at first sight.  She is a ballerina who meets him when she passes him on the same bridge at the time of an air raid.  They learn more about one another in an underground shelter.  Trying to see him later becomes a problem when the ballet's mistress (Ouspenskaya), whom Leigh calls cruel and hateful, reminds her that she has no time or permission to engage in a relationship.

He is the romantic one here and asks her to marry him immediately.  Leigh, while not saying no, tells him that he doesn't know her.  He replies that he'll spend the rest of his life discovering her.  (Sigh.)  He must ask for permission from the army and fortunately that person is his uncle (Smith).  But the church cannot do it until the next day and before that happens, Taylor is told he'll be leaving for the front later in the day.

Leigh is devastated and against orders from the ballet, she misses a performance so she can say goodbye at the train.  She is disappointed when they barely see one another and more aggrieved when she is fired from the ballet.  Also canned is her good friend and roommate, Field, who gives a piece of her sassy mind to the mistress.   

Both women vainly attempt to find work and as they sink into poverty they seek work as prostitutes.  That word is never used nor do we see anything to cause the 1940 censors to have heart palpitations.  On the other hand, not saying it seems to shine a light on her shame.

Worse, Leigh glances at a newspaper and completely falls apart when she reads that Taylor is missing in action and presumed dead.  She is at a restaurant where she is waiting to meet her future mother-in-law (Watson) for the first time.  

Months later as she's cruising the train station she runs across Taylor who is returning.  She can't believe it while he can't believe how she knew to come to the train to meet him.  He is overcome with joy in seeing her and while she inwardly feels the same, she cannot quite muster it in her behavior.  Nonetheless, they pick up from where they left off.

He takes her to his mother's country estate where her guilt about her recent past haunts her to the point that she is stiff and remote.  Both mother and son are concerned.  In the late evening she rushes into the mother's bedroom.  She doesn't confess (remember those censors) but she works it so that the older woman guesses correctly.  Leigh concludes that she is unworthy of him and what does she do?  What's the title of this movie?

For me, at least, there are two glorious dancing sequences (and not ballet) well worth mentioning.  The first and best takes place at a candlelit cabaret, prior to his departure, where appropriately and touchingly Auld Lang Syne is being played.  There is no dialogue but there is the beauty of the candles on stands being extinguished as the pair glides by.

The second time is when they are at the mother's estate.  She is giving a party for them.  He is in his dress uniform and she is transcendent in her flowing gown as they dance to Let Me Call You Sweetheart, twirling, whirling, smiling... all unforgettable.

The public's response was enthusiastic and to a degree it has never waned.  The money came pouring into the studio.  There were some naysayers, mainly reviewers, who carped about two main issues.  One was the notion that Leigh's character had no other work options after losing her job with the ballet.  Apparently there was a great need for unskilled female workers who were in high demand during WWI.  That may be so but most importantly, as I see it anyway, this is a work of fiction.

There was, however, much more moaning with respect to someone so obviously American as Taylor playing a Scot.  There was apparently no attempt at including an accent.  It was also said that Taylor was too brash, suave and overconfident to play a Scot.  I saw his character as being very enthusiastic, loving, kind... some of those types must reside in Scotland, too.

It was a good role for Taylor aside from the physical radiance. What upbeat moments the film has come mainly from him.  It is one of the actor's most endearing performances.  One other note, certainly known to every female at the time, is this was the film that first featured Taylor's pencil-thin mustache.  He thought it made him more manly and took away from all the pretty-boy craziness.   

Leigh's performance is laced with nuance and is as natural as one could hope an actress would be.  She seamlessly moves through the arc of her character's consequences... the fresh anticipation of the ballet dancer, the hardness of the prostitute and the despair of the fragile woman who has lost hope.  (If remade in 2020, she'd just tell him the truth and if he didn't like it, he wasn't worth having in the first place.  Buh-bye.)

Lucile Watson, a formidable character actress, pulls off blue-blood aristocracy as though she were born to it.  Her restaurant scene with Leigh is a wonder as is the bedroom scene where Leigh confesses to her.  Maria Ouspenskaya makes Watson look like a kitten.  Always stern and controlling in her roles, she is most believable as an unrelenting taskmaster.  Plucky Virginia Field had one of her best roles as the devoted friend and C. Aubrey Smith used his own aristocratic manner and sly humor to nail the uncle.  His short scene trying to make Leigh feel comfortable and valuable at the big party is charming.

LeRoy creates a dream-world of sentimentality by which he also creates a great sense of sincerity.  I didn't find a single false note.  He and/or his cinematographer came up with a galaxy of closeups of both stars.  Leigh's fragile beauty sometimes made me kind of woozy.  I wonder if those who got weak-kneed over Taylor's looks would agree with me when I say he never looked more handsome than he does in this film.

Waterloo Bridge was filmed on English locations but an extra bridge was also built on the MGM backlot for those pesky retakes.
It was first made in 1931 at Universal.  And then there was a 1956 version, re-imagined somewhat, and re-titled Gaby starring Leslie Caron and John Kerr.

If you've not seen Waterloo Bridge and you like romance stories and/or these actors, check it out.  I see it as one of the great classic movies with two of the most golden stars from Hollywood's Golden Age.  It says a lot about a movie when both lead actors, independent of one another, say it was the favorite of all their films.

Here's a look:

Next posting:
a most-appropriate followup