El puente de Waterloo

... and I can hardly ever say that about precode films remade in the production code era.

The original Waterloo Bridge starred Mae Clarke and was considered a pre-code, with more stark portrayal and language about the heroine's fate. Although this 1940 version was under the heavy hand of the censors, I still like it just as much as the original version. Basically we have a young woman who believes the man she loves is dead and has no way to survive but the world's oldest profession. It's not a fate she chooses, just one that she has to choose in order to eat. Yet society judges her although nobody gives her an alternative.

Everyone remembers Vivien Leigh for "Gone with the Wind", but I think that this film and "That Hamilton Woman" are truly her best performances. The romance and chemistry between her and Robert Taylor is genuine, and just adds to the tragedy of the entire film, and then there's the final scene - which I can't tell you about without spoiling it for you. Just let me say that one piece of jewelry and one line spoken in remembrance makes the film complete.

I've often thought that if Vivien Leigh hadn't had such a rocky and depressing life (manic depression, lost love in Lawrence Olivier, miscarriages, tuberculosis) she would have found a place among Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, and the like. She only made 19 films during her 30 year career, although that includes making legend as Scarlett O'Hara, and helping usher in a new era of acting by providing a pitch perfect classical foil as Blanche DuBois to Brando's smoldering and revolutionary Stanley Kowalski. But her favorite performance was that of Myra Lester in the tragic film Waterloo Bridge. Watching it it's no surprise: the film is subtly directed with a powerful story and well built characters that are an actor's dream to inhabit.

The story revolves around Myra, a ballerina turned prostitute during WWI when she believes her fiancée has died and she is plunged into poverty. The film was perfect fodder for melodrama, but rather it's a taut and realistic and uncompromising film. Direction is not overbearing and lets the film play out delicately except for several bold shots here and there which deeply accent it. Although the melodramas of the 40s are wonderful creatures, this film gained a lot by taking a rare path and going realistic.

Misfortune rules the day and is invited in after a series of near misses and miscalculations, and yet the plot doesn't feel technical or forced. Thanks to the script and performances, it all feels like the ebb and flow of the lives of these characters, pride and honesty and a slightly naive fiancée are the cause of Myra's downfall. And Leigh gives a performance on par with anything she's ever done, if not as epic as Gone With the Wind or wild as Blanche.

Leigh had a special way of handling the screen, of inhabiting her character with a certain distracted quality that made you feel as if she didn't realize there was a camera in the room or that she wasn't in fact the character she was playing. There are few actresses who could make it look as easy as she did, it seems like breathing. She was fierce and fearless, versatile; she could lose all her dignity on screen or be the living embodiment of it, and she possessed the rare quality of immediately communcating any emotion that was as tangible as anything with her face. That said, this is probably her most realistic character and her most tragic, and Leigh makes it profound and gut wrenching by being sophisticated and dignifed, and then at the right moments she takes the fall and gets ugly.

There's a brazen brilliant tracking shot where Myra, the former innocent ballerina, walks through Waterloo station in full slinky getup looking for johns, wearing a stone cold face that would intimidate O'Hara herself. It's seductive and we know she hates herself. Still, Leigh doesn't play an ounce of self pity or tragedy, she's determined to survive and get a client. In that way its very much a modern acting performance. It could be sexy, nowadays they'd try to make it sexy, but in the delicately built context of the story it's both mesmerizing and heartbreaking. And when she meets up with her not-dead-at-all love, played with sweet nobility by Robert Taylor, she tries to wipe off her lipstick when he goes to make a phone call, and the shame spills out from the screen.

The writing is very graceful (partly out of necessity to appease the almighty Production Code), at times remarkably candid and light (particularly with the earlier love scenes), and not very sentimental or stylized at all (not to say those are bad things, it's just that this film isn't). A lot of the dialogue sounds like conversation. It's romantic, but it doesn't resort to cliché or the easy way out: its tragedy is harsh and entirely unnecessary, the way it usually is in life. And Leigh's performance single handedly keeps you from forgetting Myra's story once the credits roll and you return to life in 2005. Not many actresses have that power. I only wish I could have seen what she would have done with less sorrow in her own life.

In the World War I, British Captain Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor) meets the young ballerina Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh) at the Waterloo Bridge during a German air strike and they head together to the bomb shelter. They immediately fall in love with each other and before leaving to the front, Roy proposes to marry her. However his troop anticipates the embarking to the front and they do not get married. The ballet company owner Madame Olga Kirowa (Maria Ouspenskaya) dismisses Myra and her best friend Kitty (Virginia Field) and they do not find a new job. When Myra reads on the newspaper that her fiancé has died in action, she becomes a prostitute to survive. One day, Myra is seeking out clients at the train station and she sees Roy arriving in London and rekindling their love. Will Myra support to hide the truth from her beloved fiancé?

"Waterloo Bridge" is a beautiful and dramatic love story and one of the best roles of Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. Their chemistry is fantastic in the first and romantic part of the story. The plot point turns one of the most beautiful and unforgetable romances into a heartbreaking drama with a very sad conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Ponte de Waterloo" ("The Waterloo Bridge")

Robert Taylor's favorite movie is also rumored to be one of Vivien's favorites--although at the time she was sorry that Laurence Olivier had not been cast in it. (She was always seeking him as her screen partner!) But Taylor delivers the goods--great charm, presence and obviously respecting the fine role that he plays. Vivien Leigh is a revelation--here she is fresh from Scarlett O'Hara and able to inhabit another character's skin with ease, back in her oh-so-British mode and looking as young and beautiful as ever. It's a pleasure that two such charismatic stars are still being seen in this--their finest moments on screen in one of the greatest tear-jerkers of the '40s. Special mention should be given to Lucille Watson for the way she plays the restaurant scene with Leigh at their first meeting--the mother-in-law getting the wrong impression from Leigh's reception. All of it is romantic, tender and charming--with an Anna Karenina-like ending after a surprising twist. For fans of Taylor and Leigh, it doesn't get any getter than this.

Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor in the lead...that cast made many viewers in 1940 look forward to seeing them in the movie by Mervyn LeRoy based on the play by Robert E. Sherwood. They badly wanted to see Scarlett O'Hara from GONE WITH THE WIND and Armand Duval from CAMILLE, at that time their most celebrated roles. Nowadays, when we, as classic buffs, come back to such films like WATERLOO BRIDGE, it appears that this has three most significant prompts: to admire artistic performances far from computerized voices, to have a rest in classical imagination separated from the robotic world of machines, to turn into subtleness, a bit of sentimentality and romantic love separated from the automatically selfish noise of colorful vanity. Although some films of the era cannot be described in all those categories, WATERLOO BRIDGE can.

It's first of all a classical love romance of two people torn apart in the difficult times of WWI, a ballet dancer Myra (Vivien Leigh) and Lieutenant Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor). Since the action takes place in the London of the 1910s, the realities of that time are deeply rooted in Anglo Saxon elegance, calmness, public life. The Waterloo Bridge is a special place for the two: on the one hand, so significant and unforgettable; on the other hand, so tragic and nostalgic. The characters are very easy to identify with since the problems that they face are universal. War is only a background but all the feelings of fear, treason, separation, dreams, honor, desire for understanding and sincerity are every day bread for people of all times. Roy and Myra are very convincing as a pair and as a man and a woman in general. Their romance is short but very beautiful and particularly subtle. Pity we don't find many of such interpretations nowadays. The dialogs are first rate, the chemistry between Taylor and Leigh is the right one.

The performances are exceptionally fine. Vivien is beautiful and talented. She is not Scarlett O'Hara, she is even better in some moments. Robert Taylor is also magnificent as Cronin: very good looking and genuine in the role. No wonder he said once that WATERLOO BRIDGE had been his favorite film since here, he gives his finest performance. From the supporting cast, Lucile Watson is worth attention as an elderly kind hearted Lady Cronin, Roy's mum and Myra's mother-in-law to come. She wonderfully portrays someone of a very good heart and the first moment you see her, it's just obvious that you are looking at a decent person (dream to have such a mother-in-law...) Virginia Field is sweet as Kitty, Myra's friend but the performance is shadowed. The last of the cast I'd focus on is the great C. Aubrey Smith with this specific face and an aristocratic way of acting manners. He's brilliant as the Duke who at last has a chance to dance with Myra.

The direction by Mervyn LeRoy is outstanding together with cinematography and lighting. Vivien is beautifully photographed. But, finally I'd like to concentrate on a slightly different aspect that perhaps does not appeal to people today as much as it did 67 years ago but still a significant one: the movie touches the problem of people in poverty. What is there to do if a dream for any wealth or at least for slightly better financial conditions are in vain? What do people usually turn to? The director seems to be with them who are making terrible decisions in order to survive somehow. Mervyn LeRoy, having been poor himself in childhood, perfectly directs our attention on Myra, her psyche, her decisions and sorrows, her thoughts, her conscience, her exceptionally hard situation. Is it right to judge such people? What would we do in such circumstances?

But not to address the philosophical side of reflections since that is not the gist of the movie, I'd like to say something at the end. This film is very good, very worth seeking. I heartily recommend everyone to see WATERLOO BRIDGE, a movie where you will surely find something decent for yourself. Like love build bridges between people, WATERLOO BRIDGE builds bridges between generations now. It's a pure entertainment in silver screen but with a golden spirit of message! 8/10