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Bookmark this pageWaterloo Bridge (1940)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
As air raid sirens sound, British army colonel Taylor finds himself on Waterloo Bridge, the very spot where he fell in love with ballerina Leigh on the eve of the previous war. Before their relationship had a chance to flower, however, he was called away to the front, unaware she was subsequently fired from her troupe and left on the streets. Although James Whale's 1931 version of the Robert E Sherwood play was more explicit about the heroine's plight, a little suggestiveness goes a long way in this superbly crafted MGM tearjerker. Leigh, in her first film since Gone With the Wind, is fresh, needy, poignant, while Taylor's unexpectedly assured restraint allows her to carry the film's surge of emotion. Purest corn, of course, but the exquisitely lit and scored 'Auld Lang Syne Waltz', with nightclub candles extinguished one by one as couples embrace on the dancefloor, is a romantic set piece to haunt the memory.Author: TJ
User reviews of this film
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- john reeder said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2009 01:11 I don't think there were many air raids on London in WW1-in fact, hardly any. But the picture was great!
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- Carrie said...
- Posted on Aug 12 2007 13:37 I simply adore this movie because of Vivien Leigh's portrayal. She managed to create a different from her Oscar-winning Scarlett part portrait of a sweet but miserable girl whose life is to be short and unhappy. I think she deserved an Oscar for her part of Myra. Great pitty she was not even nominated.
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Cast & crew
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Producer: Sidney Franklin, Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Virginia Field, Lucile Watson, Maria Ouspenskaya, C Aubrey Smith, Janet Shaw, Janet Waldo full cast
Rated: PG
Duration: 108 mins
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