Waterloo Bridge (1931)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- In World War I London, Myra (Mae Clarke) is an out-of-work American chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy (Douglass Montgomery), a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. They fall for each other, and he tricks her into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, where his stepfather is a retired British Major (Frederick Kerr). However, Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy because she has not told him about her past.
- Actors:
- Mae Clarke, Douglass Montgomery, Doris Lloyd, Frederick Kerr, Enid Bennett, Bette Davis, Ethel Griffies, Rita Carlyle, Ruth Handforth, Billy Bevan, Symona Boniface, Elspeth Dudgeon, Louise Emmons, Mary Gordon
- Directors:
- James Whale
- Producers:
- Carl Laemmle Jr
- Writers:
- Robert E. Sherwood, Benn W. Levy, Tom Reed
- Aka:
- Natt över London
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Romance
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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... This is partly due to the superior dialogue lifted from Robert Sherwood's Broadway play. And even more for James Whale's fluent and sensitive direction. But most of all, 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 shock. She is heartbreaking in an extremely natural portrayal and really delivers in a some agonising closeups. This is one of the great dramatic performances of the decade.
She plays an ex-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 (1940) became popular. But Whale's version is supreme and much more realistic. And features Clarke's definitive portrayal, as yet another casualty of war.