Waterloo Bridge (1940)

During World War I, believing her fiance to be dead, a young ballerina loses her job and is forced to turn to prostitution. From there, things only get worse for her in this tragic, heart-wrenching, love story.

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

S.N. Behrman (screen play), Hans Rameau (screen play)

Stars:

Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Vivien Leigh	...	Myra
Robert Taylor	...	Roy Cronin
Lucile Watson	...	Lady Margaret Cronin
Virginia Field	...	Kitty
Maria Ouspenskaya	...	Madame Olga Kirowa
C. Aubrey Smith	...	The Duke
Janet Shaw	...	Maureen
Janet Waldo	...	Elsa
Steffi Duna	...	Lydia
Virginia Carroll	...	Sylvia
Leda Nicova	...	Marie
Florence Baker	...	Beatrice
Margery Manning	...	Mary
Frances MacInerney	...	Violet
Eleanor Stewart	...	Grace

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

tragedy | tragic ending | sad ending | downbeat ending | suicide of girlfriend | 

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Taglines:

Her First Picture Since "Gone With The Wind"

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

17 May 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

El puente de Waterloo

Filming Locations:

Bath, Somerset, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was first telecast in Seattle Saturday 15 December 1956 on KING (Channel 5), followed by Los Angeles 18 January 1957 on KTTV (Channel 11); it first aired in Philadelphia Friday 6 September 1957 on WFIL (Channel 6), in Altoona PA 6 October 1957 on WFBG (Channel 10), in Minneapolis 6 December 1957 on KMGM (Channel 9), in Chicago 11 January 1958 on WBBM (Channel 2), and in San Francisco 11 April 1958 on KGO (Channel 7), but in New York City it was not aired until 4 September 1958 on WCBS (Channel 2).

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Goofs

When Myra reads the list of 'Fallen Officers', there are names with the ranks of Sergeant (Sgt) and Gunner (Gnr). These are not Officer ranks.

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Quotes

Roy Cronin: I knew I wouldn't sleep so I've been walking in the garden, confiding my good luck to the stars.
Myra Lester: Were they pleased?
Roy Cronin: No, they seemed indifferent. They went on glittering, the little exhibitionists!

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Alternate Versions

Also shown in computer colorized version.

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Connections

Referenced in Two Tigers (2007)

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Soundtracks

Candlelight Waltz
(1940) (uncredited)
Music by E. Flat
Lyrics by Artur Beul
Played as the final dance at the Candlelight Club
Danced to by Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor and other couples
Contains sections of "Auld Lang Syne"

User Reviews

Very nice - couldn't be made today

LeRoy made a film which flings prostitution in our faces, and in the faces of its characters - yet he doesn't dare mention the word or show the deed explicitly. I'm not complaining; the fact that no one dares utter the p-word helps the film immeasurably. The tragedy plays out best in an atmosphere in which Myra's moral stain, or purported moral stain, is LITERALLY an unspeakable one. No modern director (with the possible exception of David Mamet) would dare NOT be explicit.

Unfortunately for a love story, the love scenes are the only interactions lacking in electricity, the only interactions, in fact, that aren't interactions at all. They're the dull bits we endure in order to enjoy the real story. I should stress that they're still pleasant enough, so it's not MUCH of an endurance test.

And what IS the real story? The delightful thing about it, I think, is that it's perfectly ambiguous. Taken one way, the romance between hero and heroine is destroyed because of the power of a pervasive, yet false, moral belief: the belief that a prostitute is tainted, unfit for marriage, love, life itself. Taken this way the story is a social tragedy. But arguably the film is asking us to make believe that the pervasive moral belief is in fact true, that the heroine really is (through no fault of her own) tainted; taken THIS way, it's a kind of moral fantasy. Either way it works.