Waterloo Bridge

Having seen Mae Clarke being carried away by Frankenstein and getting a grapefruit in the face by James Cagney, I had a clear image of her but not of her talent.

I agree with the other reviewers that this is one knock-out performance. At a time when many actors in early talkies were still being very stagey (with stilted manners and playing to the back row), Mae Clarke built a performance that was modern and genuine.

The whole production is good (especially Arthur Edeson's cinematography and James Whale's direction), but Clarke's acting is what I'll always remember.

Really excellent pre-code film, set in wartime London where an ex-chorus girl/current street walker (played by Mae Clarke) heads over to Waterloo Bridge to try and find herself a soldier on leave, and she meets wealthy, baby-faced, nineteen-year-old raw/green Roy and invites him up to her flat. He immediately falls in love and thinks she's a "good girl", unaware of her real walk of life. She falls for him too, but keeps putting him off, racked with guilt over her secret "career". Meanwhile he keeps pressing on, sneaking in her window, tricking her into meeting his family for a weekend of tennis, tea, and cocktails, asking her to marry him, etc. - he's completely smitten!

Top-notch acting and a good deal of chemistry between the two leads helps make this a really interesting, absorbing film. Their conversations together come across as quite realistic, and the performance given here by Mae Clarke is amazing - extremely well-done and memorable. I also enjoyed seeing a very young Bette Davis who appears here in a very small role as Roy's sister. Only one thing that bothered me about this film is, why oh why, as I have often seen done in period films made during this time, do they have the actresses appearing in modern, early 30s dresses, rather than period costume? Oh well, still a really first-rate film, well worth seeing.

I wasn't prepared for how radically different this first film version of Waterloo Bridge was from the MGM version in 1940 that starred Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. For one thing this was before the Code was in place and we could be a lot more frank.

This version was a lot less romantic. Mae Clarke was an unapologetic street walker. She started out as an American chorus girl stranded in London during World War I when a lot of the theater closed. Now she's got to do what a girl's got to do to pay the rent. She picks up a most innocent Douglass Montgomery on Waterloo Bridge and it's his innocence that gets to her.

Without going into detail she takes a stab at happiness, but after meeting his family she sees that she can never fit in. And if you've seen the more popular Leigh/Taylor version as Paul Harvey used to say you know the rest of the story.

Waterloo Bridge was originally on Broadway in 1930 and ran for 64 performances, closed no doubt due to the Depression as many shows were. It starred Glenn Hunter and June Walker and I daresay this is probably close to the original stage version that Robert Sherwood wrote if not an exact transfer.

Bette Davis had a small supporting role as Montgomery's sister in this film. Certainly Davis would have been outstanding in the lead, but I have no complaints with what Mae Clarke did with the role. Also outstanding is Ethel Griffies as Clarke's mercenary and realistic landlady who has no qualms about gentleman callers.

If you like the classic MGM version, this original screen version from Universal is worth a look to contrast.

I never thought I would enjoy this production of "Waterloo Bridge" more than the 1940 remake with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. For one thing, this version is a straight narrative which is more suspenseful than the flashback construction of the remake. Secondly, Kent Douglass has that boyish quality which makes his naiveté much more believable than Robert Taylor's. And finally, the pacing and casting of the supporting actors by James Whale couldn't be beat. Ethel Griffies, as the heartless landlady, Enid Bennett, as Douglass' sympathetic but forceful mother, and Doris Lloyd, Clarke's practical but unfeeling prostitute friend, were all standouts. I had never seen Mae Clarke in such a strong dramatic role, which she handles more beautifully than I ever thought she could, conveying her anguish at loving a man but being ashamed of having become a prostitute. And, of course, there is Bette Davis in a small inconsequential role very early in her career; she was still a pleasure to watch. By all means, see this film! You won't regret it.

Mae Clarke is a revelation as a prostitute in the original "Waterloo Bridge". The film was eclipsed by the 1940 remake starring Vivian Leigh and until recently this earlier version was unavailable. This pre-code version holds up beautifully and is better in many ways because of its frankness and because of Mae Clarke's ferocious performance. Kent Douglas plays the 19 year old soldier who falls in love with the prostitute, not realizing her true profession.The movie seems more realistic than the remake because, Douglas looks and acts like a callow 19 year old,and Clarke is very believable as the prostitute who tries to protect her soldier lover from the truth about herself. Neither Clarke nor Douglas became major stars and you can see that they lack the larger than life glamour of Vivian Leigh and Robert Taylor who starred in the remake.However, Clarke and Douglas add a touch of realism which was a hallmark of many of the pre-code movies and which wouldn't be found in American movies in abundance until the 1970's.