User Reviews

Robert Taylor was an inspired choice for the role... Not only does he have an imposing screen presence, but he brings the perfect mix of enlightenment, humor, compassion and emotion to the part...

Opposite him, Oscar Winner Vivien Leigh, perfect in her innocent lovely look, radiantly beautiful, specially that evening in a trailing white chiffon gown... Leigh floods her role with personal emotion giving her character a charismatic life of its own... As a great star, she delivers a heartfelt performance turning her character into a woman who undergoes an emotional awakening...

In this sensitive motion picture, Mervyn LeRoy captures all the tenderness and moving qualities... He makes every small thing eloquent, concentrating the highly skilled efforts of many technicians on the telling of a very simple bittersweet love story... Vivien Leigh paints a picture that few men will be able to resist... Her performance captures the audience to the point of complete absorption... Robert Taylor (carrying sympathy all the way) quietly throws all his vitality as an ambition actor into the task... Their film, a credit to both, is a heavily sentimental tale about the vagaries of wartime...

Love is the only thing this movie is about... The story is simple: Myra Lester (Leigh) is a frail creature, an innocent young ballet dancer and Roy Cronin (Taylor) is an aristocratic British army officer... When their eyes met it took no time at all for their hearts to feel the loving call... They meet on London's Waterloo Bridge during an air raid, and fall deeply in love... Their romance is sublime, and they soon agree to marry...

The lover's marriage has to be postponed when the handsome officer is suddenly called to the front... Sadly, the sweet ballerina misses her performance to see her captain off at Waterloo Station... Fired from the troupe, she is joined by her loyal friend, Virginia Field (Kitty Meredith), and the two vainly try to find work, finally sinking into poverty and the threatening fear that goes with it...

The film is replete with beautiful and poignant scenes, specially the 'Auld Lang Syne' waltz scene in the Candlelight Club, before Taylor leaves for France…

Seen today, 'Waterloo Bridge' has retained all its charm and power, all its rich sentiment, and tragic evocations...

When pressed to name her favorite of her own films, Vivien Leigh brushed aside both GONE WITH THE WIND and STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in favor of this now little-known film based on a failed 1930s stage drama of the same name previously filmed in 1931 with Mae Clark: WATERLOO BRIDGE, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Leigh had good reason for her choice. Although she was dazzling as Scarlett O'Hara and elegantly depraved as Blanche DuBois, she was never as beautifully photographed as she was in this 1940 film.

WATERLOO BRIDGE is perhaps best described as one of a number of films "with an English accent" that played to American sympathies for England in the years when England largely stood alone against Nazi Germany. The story itself has a wartime setting: beautiful ballerina Myra (Vivien Leigh) meets and falls passionately in love with officer Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor), only to be parted from him when he is called to duty during World War I. Alone and increasingly destitute, she learns that he has been killed in action--and so, broken hearted and unconcerned for herself, she drifts into prostitution, plying the world's oldest profession along Waterloo Bridge.

Although Robert Taylor is a bit miscast, Leigh carries the film with a truly remarkable performance. In the opening portion of the scene, she is at the height of her youthful beauty, and cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg makes the most of it; later, when experience has hardened her, she turns the graceful charm of her earlier scenes upside down to create the bitter, brassy tart that Myra has become. The cast also features an exceptional performance by Lucile Watson as Lady Margaret and notable turns by Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith, and a host of others.

Although less well known than such tragic romances as Garbo's CAMILLE, WATERLOO BRIDGE is easily the equal of such and considerably better than most. The romantic aura is powerful, the production values are meticulous, the direction, photography, and script are first rate. And at the center of it all we have perhaps the single most beautiful actress of her era, Vivien Leigh, in one of her finest performances. You'll need a box of tissues for this one; don't miss it.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I liked the movie and until I searched the internet did not realise there is an earlier (more original version), The first noticeable error was that there were no air raid sirens in 1914 as the Germans and the Allies had few bombers or even aircraft that could be used as such, So the presence of searchlight batteries in the background is a surprise. There were Zepplins of course but the first actual raid on London (which was considered to be an accident) was in 1915.There were raids on the ports and facilities closer to coast but in 1914 the usual method of attacking flying craft was with machine guns and rifles, most artillery had to be adapted to be able to rotate the barrels higher, The first allied air force of any consequence was in France.There were no air raid shelters or even anyone authorised to make use of any facilities for their use. The first two purpose built AA guns were used in 1915 and had their first success in April of that year (one aircraft was shot down), The air precautions act was not passed until 1934 and the first Government circular was not issued until 1939 designating and creating the role of air raid wardens and that the underground stations could be used for that purpose.The second error was that they could not be married due to their residential status under the existing (at that time) marriage act, regardless of the time of day. The most puzzling thing to me is how did Robert Taylor get the "lucky charm" back ?. unless she had some form of identification (which was not required) on her person when she was killed and who would be able to identify the body and inform him so that the charm could be obtained from the police.

This is such a beautiful film, with such outstanding performances, that it is unique only to itself. Robert Taylor as Roy, and Vivian Leigh as Myra, are beautiful together and it is hard to believe that any other actors could have ever played the parts of the doomed lovers. Roy meets Myra by accident during an air raid and in that brief instant he believes he is in love. He goes to the ballet where she is a dancer and asks her to join him for dinner. Her ballet instructor, Madame Olga, played by Maria Ouspenskaya, refuses to let her girls become involved and tells Myra to refuse his attentions. The part of the Madame is small but very effective, with an outstanding performance by Maria. Kitty (Virginia Field) stops Roy before he leaves to tell him Myra will meet him at the Candlelight Club. They dine, and at the end of the evening they dance to Auld Lang Syne, as the musicians snuff the candles one by one, until the room is darkened and Roy gently kisses Myra. They part and the next day since the channel is full of mines, he has leave. She spots him standing in the rain, outside her flat, and runs to him, with a wonderful breathlessness. They kiss, and he tells her they are to be married. He is so full of innocent bliss, and she is so enamored of him, you can feel their enthusiasm through the screen. Such is the story, but when he has to leave suddenly and they can't get married right then, she tries to go to him at the station, but just catches a glimpse of him on the train. He is gone and the Madame fires her and her friend Kitty who tells her off for ruining Myra's blissful day. They come upon hard times, and Kitty turns to a life of prostitution. Virginia Field is great as the friend with an Oscar caliber performance. When Myra hears from Roy that his Mother will be coming to meet her she goes to a tea room and while waiting for her, reads in the paper that Roy is presumed dead. She is so disraught that when the Mother finally arrives, very late, she seems strange and incoherent to her. The mother played by Lucile Watson, is not such a wonderful person, who is quite stuffy and sees only what she wants and rejects Myra without even trying to ask what is wrong. From then on it is downhill. Myra thinking Roy dead, goes to prostitution to live, until one day at Waterloo Station, looking for a date, she sees Roy in the crowd. They embrace, and he is still so in love that he doesn't even notice how she looks. She tells Kitty she is going with him to the family estate and they are to be married. The Mother strangely welcomes her, and they have a party where Roy introduces her to the family, and they dance to the same song. Realizing that she might ruin him she tells his mother that there is no way they can wed, because of her past. She leaves, he follows, and even after he finds out what she has done, he still loves her, but she has made the decision to kill herself to save him from himself. The token, a lucky piece that they have shared is all you see in the street after she throws herself into the path of a military truck. The opening and ending scenes of Roy remembering Myra while he strokes the small lucky piece, are sad and poignant, and you will cry for a love so pure, and so unfinished, you wish it had ended differently. Robert Taylor was as great as his former performance as the tragic Armund Duval in Camille many years prior to this part. It was his favorite film, and also was Ms. Leigh's favorite. Beautiful, stunning love story. A classic that never gets old, even 65 years after it's release.

Based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1930 stage play and the Pre-Code 1931 film of the same name, Waterloo Bridge was remade here in 1940 with (in my opinion)--mixed results.

At the beginning of World War II, Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor), now an elderly army colonel, recalls his days as a young captain on leave in London at the beginning of the First World War in an extended flashback. Quite by chance he meets Myra Lester, a ballet dancer (Vivian Leigh), which marks the beginning of a whirlwind romance lasting a couple of days before Roy must return to the front in France.

The romance between the two is quite engaging marked by some really smart dialogue. We get to see how Myra must cope with the tyrannical Madame Olga (Maria Ouspenskaya), the ballet troupe head who forbids her from having any contact with Roy. The dashing captain obtains permission to marry from his uncle the Duke (C. Aubrey Smith), a high-ranking army officer, who assents to the union.

Due to certain laws of the time, the couple is rebuffed from marrying after 3pm and must return the following morning to get hitched (I am not sure if such a law existed in reality). By then Roy must leave for France, and Myra only is able to wave goodbye as his train pulls out after she's caught in traffic on the way to the train station. Defying Madame Olga's orders, Myra loses her job at the ballet along with her best friend Kitty (Virginia Field)

This is where the rest of the narrative becomes problematic. Myra and Kitty supposedly are unable to find work in wartime London and Kitty decides to work as a prostitute to support them (due to the Production Code, the word "prostitution" is never mentioned and her activity as a "fallen woman" is only subtly alluded to).

Soon afterward Myra too decides to become a lady of the night. We're asked to buy the idea that the women cannot find any legitimate work when most of the men are away at war and women often found jobs formerly held by men at this time.

Then there's the issue how Myra seemingly learns of Roy's death. She sees his name under the list of those declared dead. But in the absence of a body, usually the army will list such soldiers under the heading of "missing in action." Still the mistake could have occurred-albeit unlikely--as it does here.

But when Roy's mother Margaret (Lucile Watson) arrives at a restaurant to meet Myra, she doesn't mention that she's learned of Roy's death, seemingly because she doesn't want to upset her future mother-in-law. But would a normal person have kept such information from her fiancé's mother? After all she will soon be finding out about it anyway.

What's more when she found out about Roy having been killed, wouldn't it have been prudent to at least inquire into the circumstances? Perhaps she would have learned there was still some hope because it indeed may have been a case of "missing in action."

Once Roy and Myra are reunited and Roy eventually learns from Kitty that Myra took up as a prostitute, I was hoping he would say it didn't matter to him. Echoing his mother's promise to Myra to keep her secret, Roy tells Kitty he expects never to find Myra after she disappears-the implication is that he has a premonition that she will take her own life-and that of course is what she does.

The production code demanded Kitty had to commit suicide as she was now a "fallen woman." And probably if there was such a person who lived during those times, it's quite possible that she would have decided to take her own life. Myra instinctively realized she would no longer be allowed to be a part of Roy's family as they were of upper-class stock and would not have tolerated Myra's "faux pax" no matter what the circumstances were. Therefore Mrs. Cronin agreed to keep Myra's "secret."

I didn't like Waterloo Bridge's downbeat ending--not because I didn't think such a thing couldn't happen. Rather it's because I don't believe a "nice girl" like Myra would have turned to prostitution. I just don't believe that both she and Kitty could not have been able to find employment given their backgrounds.

Robert Taylor is pretty good as the dashing suitor, but the use of his American accent compromised the film's overall verisimilitude. Vivian Leigh is especially good in the first half of the film especially where her character hints of sad things to come (Roy's admonition to her not to be a "defeatist" foreshadows Myra's underlying fatalism).

But Myra's transformation into a hopeless, guilt-ridden sad sack took the sheen off Leigh's performance in the first half of the film. Despite holding my interest, Waterloo Bridge unfortunately cannot recover completely from its downbeat denouement.

"Waterloo Bridge" started life as a stage-play; this is the second of three cinematic adaptations. (The others are a 1931 film, also called "Waterloo Bridge", and "Gaby" from 1956). The film opens on 3rd September 1939, the day World War II broke out. Roy Cronin, a senior officer in the British Army, is travelling to France to join his regiment. He briefly stops on Waterloo Bridge to reminisce about his experiences during the First World War, and the rest of the story is told in flashback. His memories, however, are not of the actual fighting but of his romance with a beautiful ballerina named Myra Lester whom he first met on the bridge. The two plan to marry, but are prevented from doing so by circumstances. Myra loses her job with the ballet company whose formidable director, Madame Olga Kirowa, objects to her relationship with Roy. (Her surname was presumably chosen to suggest an association with the famous Kirov Ballet, although the ballet did not acquire that name, that of an assassinated Soviet politician, until 1934). Believing- wrongly- that Roy has been killed in action, and unable to find alternative employment, Myra and her friend Kitty descend into prostitution to prevent themselves from starving.

Yes, you heard right. Prostitution. And that in the heyday of the Production Code. I have never seen the 1931 version of this story, but understand that it dealt with the subject much more frankly and as a result was banned in America after the Code came into force. It is therefore surprising that MGM could get away with making a remake, although the subject is dealt with very cautiously. (As Dr Johnson said of a dog walking on its hind legs, it is not done well, but one is surprised to see it done at all). The dreaded p-word is never actually uttered, and the dubious nature of Myra and Kitty's method of earning a living is conveyed only by euphemism and innuendo. Nevertheless, the audience is left in no doubt that the two are what would have been called, in the language of the day, "fallen women".

Which leads us to the film's greatest plot-hole. The screenwriters were doubtless influenced by memories of the "hungry thirties" when many women may well have faced the unenviable choice which confronts Myra and Kitty. As others have pointed out, however, economic conditions in 1917/18 were very different. Even if Myra and Kitty could not find work as dancers (and there must have been many West End shows catering for soldiers on leave), there were a great number of other jobs available to women, either in work directly related to the war effort (nursing, munitions), or in industries left desperately short of labour by the exodus of men to join the Forces. The film's central premise, therefore, just does not ring true. The "extended flashback" structure also struck me as a mistake because it means that the viewer is aware, from the very beginning of the film, that Roy survives the war and therefore knows that the report of his death must be erroneous. It might have made for greater emotional impact if we had been allowed to believe, with Myra, that Roy has died.

The film's other main weakness is the miscasting of Robert Taylor as Roy. (Vivien Leigh would have preferred her husband Laurence Olivier as her leading man, but was overruled). When the film began I wondered why Roy had an American accent and two possibilities occurred to me, besides the obvious one that Taylor did not want to attempt a British one. The first was that Roy was a Canadian, the second that he was an American who had volunteered for the British Army before America's entry into the war and had subsequently acquired British nationality. Neither, however, turned out to be correct. It transpires that he is actually a member of an aristocratic Scottish family, and as such Taylor seems completely unconvincing. Had the script been rewritten to make him an American he might have been quite good.

On the positive side, Leigh is heartbreakingly beautiful. (This was her first film after "Gone with the Wind"). The film was a box-office success when first released, and her popularity must have played a major part in this. Her role may have been badly written, but she plays it with great sincerity and enables the viewer to empathise with Myra. I would say that she is the best thing about the film, although there are also good contributions in smaller roles from Maria Ouspenskaya as Kirowa and C. Aubrey Smith as Roy's elderly uncle. Overall, however, "Waterloo Bridge" is a film which does not hold up well today, partly because this sort of sentimental melodrama has gone out of fashion, partly because of its own weaknesses in plot and casting. It is hard to understand why both Leigh and Taylor considered it a personal favourite; both acted in much better films than this. 5/10

Some goofs. The church where Roy and Myra hope to marry appears as a vast Gothic cathedral from the outside and as a modest chapel in the Classical style from the inside. We learn that the badge of Roy's regiment (the fictitious Rendleshire Fusiliers) is a broken lance, but he wears a different badge on his cap, the flaming grenade of the Grenadier Guards. The style of his uniform looks more American than British, and other British soldiers, even in scenes set at the end of the war in 1918, are seen wearing the uniforms of 1914/15, with peaked caps rather than helmets. The list of officers killed in action is headed by a Gunner; the term "Gunner" in the British Army refers to a private solider in the artillery, not to an officer. And why are Myra and the other female characters all dressed in the fashions of 1940, even though the action takes place more than twenty years earlier?

The Waterloo Bridge movies were based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood, written in 1930. The play itself is in fact based on an incident in the authors life: namely, he was an American who joined the Canadian Army during the First World War. When based in London he had a brief affair/fell in love with an American girl, who turned out to be a street-walker. He never forgot her. I couldn't find any details whether she actually died at that time or not.

This movie works on so many levels for me it is not possible to really cover them all. Of course it isn't perfect, as there has to be some artistic license taken here and there, but I think it is Vivien Leigh's best movie performance, and Bob Taylor's best also. They are just about perfect for each other. As it was made in 1940 it was severely affected by the Production Code in what it was able to say and show (apparently the 1931 version, which I haven't seen, was a lot more forthright about the prostitution theme, for instance), making it necessary to invent an explanation as to why Myra had turned to hooking (in the play and the 1931 film version she was already a hooker when she met Roy and the reasons for it are unexplained).

Still, the story and the performances are great. When watching the movie I think sometimes I just want to shake Myra, to make her just be honest and truthful, and let the chips fall where they may. But it's important to try to keep the movie in the context of happening early in the twentieth century in a class structured United Kingdom. The attitudes of the guests in the Scottish ball sequence attest to the fact that the love affair is doomed - even if Roy, his mother, and the Duke are prepared to accept Myra (and remember at that stage the Duke is unaware of Myra's past as a working girl)it is obvious that most of the rest of the Scottish aristocracy won't. It is obvious that even if Myra married Roy, life would be a nightmare of judgement and recrimination, and she couldn't ever be happy.

The complaints about the accents being wrong on these pages are irritating - remember Roy was based on an American in the Canadian Army, and anyway many of the aristocracy in Scotland are of English heritage (they don't all talk with a brogue you know). And I'm not so sure that employment for young women in London in 1914-15 would be as available as people are suggesting. The film makes quite an issue about the girls' search for and failure to find work - any work, such in teas shops etc. Definitely it would have been easier for women to find work in the munitions industries or in nursing later in the war - but early in the war not ALL men had volunteered and the war was not yet draining the life blood of the nation. It finally took military conscription to keep the meat grinder in Europe fed.

I prefer to focus on the beauty (in fact sometimes the tragic beauty) in the movie, rather than it's faults. Surely the Auld Lang Syne scene in the Candlelight Club is one of the most beautiful, romantic things in movie-making. Just as Myra going under the ambulance's wheels at the end is one of the saddest tragedies. His desperate search for her before her suicide only compounds the tragedy. Roy still having her lucky charm more than 20 years later was a nice touch. It looked as though he might have never married, perhaps as he could never love any one else as he had loved her. His fond remembrances for a time and a love long ago make it even sadder.

One thing that keeps coming back to me is how, when Vivien/Myra stares straight ahead with those beautiful blue eyes, unblinking and deep in thought and emotion (this happens several times in the film) it made me think of Olivier. It is the exact same look he used to use, maybe a technique they shared? Richard