Review of Waterloo Bridge (1940) by Orion W — 10 Jul 2008

On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front. Myra stayed with him past curfew and is thrown out of the corps de ballet. She survives on the streets of London, falling even lower after she hears her true love has been killed in action. But he wasn't killed. Those terrible years were nothing more than a bad dream is Myra's hope after Roy finds her and takes her to his family's country estate.

I've had this on my HD for along time and forgot about, boy do I regret taking so long to see it. I was watching the extras to my new Gone With The Wind DVD set, and this movie was mentioned in Vivien's Bio and I instantly remembered that I had it. This film is not as well known as it should be, it had everything, a great cast, a great director, a great score, and most importantly great characters and story.

I've read that this was Vivien's favorite out of all the films she was in, and I can see why. She looked her very best here, so beautiful and charming, She really seemed to love Robert Taylor's character, I could almost feel it. Later, in her despair, I felt a bit of the weight of sorrow that Myra must have been feeling, like the world was collapsing around her. I was certainly saddened that she seemed to lose all hope and ceased to care about herself. And When Roy (Robert Taylor) returned, I sensed they joy and the fear that she must have felt, Joy that the man she loved was alive, and fear for what he would say if he knew what she was doing to survive. Leigh was a great actress and it saddens me to know she only made 19 films in her whole career, I'd have loved to see her more throughout the 1940s. And I wish I could find some of her pre-GWTW films from the 30s.

Robert Taylor was good, but hardly suitable to play a british officer, since he was american and had no accent. He did a great job anyways, so I can't begrudge him, besides he was great in other romantic tragedies like Camille. I certainly felt his exuberance when he fell in love with Myra, had I been him I'd be that exuberant too. Later I certainly felt his sorrow, and it was pretty deep.

The supporting cast were largely unknown to me, but I think british audiences would probably have been more familiar with them. They all turned in worthy performances, some of them were better than others and I'm tempted to look up their IMDB profiles.

Mervyn LeRoy was MGM's golden boy producer after the passing of Irving Thalberg, he was responsible for producing and directing some of MGM's greatest films of the 30s and 40s. He did a great job of putting this film together, and its sad more people are familiar with it. Though I wonder how he'd feel knowing that it is one of the most popular western films of all time in China? Yes, Apparently when The Chinese Govt. started to allow Hollywood films to be shown again this was one of the many classics that were first shown (along with Gone With The Wind), and the Chinese people loved it and still love it to this day.

Its a beautiful romance and a deep tragedy, I'd rank it with the best of the genre. Its out on DVD so I suggest anyone looking for a good cry to pick this one up.