Boring

Absolutely Brilliant!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

NOTES: Oddly, despite Vivien Leigh's box-office power following her triumph in Gone With The Wind, this picture failed to become the tremendous domestic hit M-G-M hoped for. It did ignite the U.K. box-office, winning the number 4 spot for the most popular films of the year. In Australia, it did even better coming in third. Only Gone With The Wind itself and Mr Smith Goes To Washington sold more Oz tickets. But as far as M-G-M and Hollywood generally were concerned, overseas triumphs, no matter how bountiful, were at most the cream on the pudding. The wishes of the great American public were all that really counted. American filmgoers had failed to warm to Miss Leigh, so she was let go. She was not invited back to Hollywood until 1951, for A Streetcar Named Desire. And after that she made only one more Hollywood movie, her last, Ship of Fools (1965). The stage play opened on Broadway at the Fulton on 6 January 1930. June Walker, Glenn Hunter and Cora Witherspoon starred. Reviews were at most lukewarm, and the play lasted only 64 performances, returning its backers less than 50% of their money. Sherwood did manage to sell the screen rights to Universal who produced a film version in 1931. M-G-M made a third screen version in 1956 called Gaby. COMMENT: Robert E. Sherwood's update of Romeo and Juliet has become a classic in Australia. It was always popular in Oz. When M-G-M re-issued the movie with a spectacular season at Sydney's prestige Liberty Theatre in the 1950s, it took even more Oz money than on its initial release. It's not hard to understand why. Most everybody, including Australians, love well-told tales of star-crossed lovers. Waterloo Bridge, with its powerful plotting, believable characters, remarkably stylish direction and absolutely lavish production values, is probably the best ever made. Perfectly cast, Vivien Leigh makes a most appealing heroine. In a difficult role, she superbly brings off a compelling, richly shaded portrayal. Co-star Taylor is convincingly earnest, whilst Virginia Field is so moving, she almost steals the picture. Other supporting players who are not outdone include Lucile Watson, who figures in one of the film's strongest dramatic scenes; C. Aubrey Smith, always a delight; and the rivettingly cruel Ouspenskaya.A war not so much between two families as two classes, here we have Shakespeare brilliantly transposed to wartime England. Field is Juliet's nurse. There's even a friendly but impotent friar ("I'm sorry, but it's the law!") and much talk about honor - though the hero has no Tybalt to defend it. When it comes to technical expertise, it's hard to excel M-G-M (except of course for sound recording). This Waterloo Bridge is a class production, produced with taste and style. Evocatively photographed - every black-and-white image is a masterpiece of attractive lighting and composition - in marvelously detailed sets, with powerfully skillful film editing - as in the climax where lumbering ambulances are made to loom out of the mist like ravaging monsters - and a superlatively atmospheric music score.

Mainly I wanted to know how Taylor found that lone lost suicide survivor, the kewpie doll. It had to have been crushed during cleanup of the accident scene but of course, he could have just purchased another good luck charm. This, among other non-sequitur questions, remain after viewing this film. Another, after reading of her fiancé's death in the paper, how could she contain her grief to Mama given that she was a dancer, NOT an actress! A simple search for her name would turn up a kid or two unless she had changed her name which most fallen women do, right? Hmmmm, doesn't make much sense to resort to this profession when so much help was available. Perhaps the unwritten script is that she secretly liked to dance naked for money? I was most impressed with how they aged Taylor over 20 plus years, a hint of baby powder on the mustache and voila! vs Leigh in "That Hamilton Woman" end scene.Despite the above mentioned issues, I really enjoyed the film immersed in it's many foibles. And, oh I forgot the dress code of the early 20th century in England, good thing Downton Abbey got it right! Have you ever fallen in love with such urgency and not just based on attraction alone? It is quite a spectacular moment in life and very rare indeed but occurs more in real life than on screen truth be told.Leigh never looked more ravishing in exquisite gowns, ballet attire, and close ups were her dearest ally. What a refreshing face, so expressive and eyes divine. Even Ol Blanche was positively lovely. A great loss to the film world with her limited productions.Be prepared for a tear jerker though, the many decisions in life that forced her to depart reality were reminiscent of that crazy unpredictable element named, Fate. Many feel they were irresponsible, rash decisions with little forethought but how easy it is to judge.High recommend for Leigh fans, a new take on a Ouspenskaya role (LOL), and several lost in dreamworld dance moments that will be retained in memory.

This script desperately needed another revision.After learning that Britain has just declared war on Germany in 1939, the movie opens with an aged army officer driven through London to catch a train in order to sail to France to begin fighting in WWII. He seems a solid chap, and he turns out to be Robert Taylor, who orders his driver to detour his route to Waterloo Station by going via Waterloo Bridge. We learn this man fought in WWI. He's a hardened soldier. He stops at the bridge and calmly reminisces about a woman. He even has a small good luck charm.Utter nonsense. As we learn by the end of the movie, the man loved the woman in a tragic, miraculous romance. No soldier would cheerily allow himself the indulgence of "fondly" thinking about something that came to such a horrible, tragic end. This movie is a heart-render, a tear-jerker of the first order. Your guts get cut out. No man would want to relive this. A soldier would simply close the door of his memory and blot it out of his mind just like he would a horrible battlefield experience. Yet Taylor with a bit of a smirk goes and daydreams on the bridge about a woman who he one time said he will "love forever". The bulk of the movie is seen through this flashback contrivance which has you gritting your teeth with annoyance five minutes into the picture.That's your opening. A tragic twist of mistaken identity causes the crisis in the movie. Our heroine Myra (played by the astounding Vivian Leigh - more on her in a moment) learns of the tragedy as she is just about to meet her future fiancé's mother. Myra is in shock and comes off badly with the future mother-in-law, who is very gracious and still hopes that the two can one day be "good friends". Fast forward to the climax of the movie, where Myra is wrestling with the results of the tragic twist. She seeks out the future mother-in-law, who again has said that she knows that the two of them will be "good friends." But in Myra's time of need - in great crisis - the mother-in-law DOES NOT act like a good friend; she DOES NOT take her years of experience and guide young Myra through her crisis. She stands idly by like she just met someone at the library. Either take out the multiple references to "good friends" - OR - have her act like a good friend! Total failure of vision. The mother is a fine full character until the moment of crisis and then she becomes a cardboard cut out, leaving us alone in agony waiting for the destruction of Vivian Leigh. No movie with such a sequence can be a 10.Hence the movie gets an 8.On the plus side is the incredibly beautiful Vivian Leigh bathing us in a large array of emotions via her heavenly face. Her beauty is striking. And the emotions that shine through that beauty make them all the more powerful. She walks the line of frailty trying to become strong with great grace. Taylor, who always seems to be aping that annoying Errol Flynn "what, me worry?" positivism, has found the perfect role here for his talents and dispositions. His optimism about his new fiancé', his instantaneous love, only serve to remind us just how beautiful Myra (Ms. Leigh) is. It underscores the miracle of the movie: if YOU were to randomly meet Vivian Leigh in a bomb shelter, wouldn't YOU fall in love with her? Those things do happen in life, and having them happen with Ms. Leigh makes them especially precious. Once you get swept up in the miracle, the movie sails away and takes you on a fine ride - until the crisis, and a good friend acting badly.The beginning, the ending, the lucky charm are all incredibly weak and annoying. But in the middle is a fine film and perhaps Ms. Leigh's greatest performance.

A year or so ago I saw the original cinematic adaptation of this Robert E. Sherwood play. Directed by James Whale and starring Mae Clark, it was a near masterpiece in the genre of tragic romance. I had doubts about the remake. I figured, since it was made in 1940, the Hayes Code would have destroyed any reference to prostitution and the film would be much weaker. Thankfully, that isn't true at all. I have no idea how they got away with it, but the female protagonist, here played by the always remarkable Vivien Leigh, is a prostitute. She doesn't start off that way (as she does in the original), but she does eventually slide into the world's oldest profession. And there's no attempt to hide it whatsoever. You'd have to be pretty dense, even in 1940, to miss it. I also had some fear that I might dislike this version because, of late, I've been kind of bored with studio era Hollywood melodrama. But, damn, this film really worked for me, just as well as the 1931 version. The film kind of starts off like The Clock, with Robert Taylor, a soldier, falling hard for Leigh. The two of them, barely knowing each other, share a whirlwind romance (the candle dance to "Auld Lang Syne" is one of cinema's most romantic sequences). It's supposed to end in marriage, but Taylor is abruptly called back to duty. Leigh, a dancer, ends up losing her job over the romance (Maria Ouspenskaya plays her harsh employer), and she and her best friend (Virginia Field) end up as prostitutes on the streets of London. It plays out a bit differently than the '31 version, but it's no less effective. Leigh is much better here than she was in either of her Oscar winning roles. I'm shocked she didn't get nominated here. Taylor is good enough, but it's Leigh's movie all the way.