A Yank at Oxford

In 1938, when the Great Depression had ended and a World War was about to begin, it was easy for elitist British college students to make fun of a transplanted American athlete. But the romantic counterpoint to the culture clash works very well thanks to the great chemistry between Robert Taylor and Maureen O'Sullivan.

A memorable quote from this enjoyable period piece needs to be acknowledged. In a morning after scene, Robert Taylor says to Maureen O'Sullivan: "Don't wipe the sleep from your eyes. It's a beautiful sleep." The scriptwriter responsible for that line was F. Scott Fitzgerald.

After his early days at MGM when Robert Taylor was marketed as a modern romance magazine cover, it was perceived by Louis B. Mayer that Taylor needed an adjustment of image to expand his casting potential. It was perceived by Taylor as well who was not happy with some of the snide powder puff comments he was getting in some quarters.

Accordingly A Yank At Oxford was an original screenplay written specifically for him in mind. As Taylor in real life was an athletic sort, the casting was no stretch that way.

In his part as an American on scholarship to Oxford Taylor was going into Tyrone Power's territory of the hero/heel. Taylor was more often a nice guy 100% in this stage of his career. But he does very well with the part.

Arriving at Cardinal College in Oxford, Taylor doesn't do much for Anglo-American relations with his braggadocious ways. He makes particular enemies with three classmates, Griffith Jones, Robert Coote, and Peter Croft. But he also backs his brag up and when he meets Maureen O'Sullivan who is Jones's sister who planes out the rougher side of Taylor.

The film was produced by MGM and shot over in the United Kingdom with the real Oxford locations used. Take a look at the writing credits of this film. I'm quite flabbergasted that so many talented hands went into the screenplay. Usually that means a muddled mess, but it all works here.

Several of the players had only worked in British cinema before and A Yank At Oxford was America's first look at a lot of them. Most importantly Vivien Leigh. She had a really interesting part as the wife of a bookstore owner. Her husband is a good deal older than her and she amuses herself with her pick of the young Oxford students. She sets her cap at one point for both Taylor and Jones and it's on her flirtatious ways that the plot hinges. Her naughty flirt in this film may very well have made one David O. Selznick cast her as the ultimate young flirt in Gone With The Wind.

A Yank At Oxford was remade almost 50 years later as Oxford Blues with Rob Lowe in the lead. As an actor in his Brat Pack days, Lowe was cast in a lot of parts that would have gone to a Robert Taylor or Tyrone Power. Still A Yank At Oxford became one of Robert Taylor's most popular roles with the general public and with his enduring legion of fans.

A YANK AT OXFORD is notable for several reasons. This was MGM's first British production with Mayer in charge (co-produced by Michael Balcon who quit after a fight with Mayer). Despite Mayer's reservations, Balcon hired Vivien Leigh for one of the leads, and this was a key film in getting her noticed by Selznick for the Scarlett casting battle. Star Robert Taylor thought highly of Leigh, and they were reteamed several years later. A-level film boasted a big cast and used quite a few British actors. Besides Taylor (who did his own stunts) and Leigh, film also boasted Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edmund Gwenn, and Griffith Jones (fairly big star in UK). Also C.V. France, Robert Coote, Claude Gillingwater, Tully Marshall, Edward Rigby, and Richard Todd as an extra. Stock footage of Oxford but film was mostly shot as Denham Studios. No idea where the boating scenes were filmed. I didn't recognize anything.

What struck me about the film was that MGM had dusted off the old William Haines formula of braggart goes off to (fill in the blank) where he acts like an a-hole until he gets his comeuppance and rallies the team for a big win and becomes a true hero, In this case, film follows the general plot of Haines' BROWN OF HARVARD minus the homoerotic subtext (sort of) right down to the crewing scenes.

Breezy performance by Robert Taylor in one of his best films.

In the glory days of Hollywood, young stars in amid the studio system were given several chances to display their talent. Here is one for the budding young star later known as Robert Taylor. In this movie of which there are several versions is entitled " A Yank at Oxford " it is Taylor who plays Lee Sheridan, an U.S. athlete who wins a athletic scholarship to prestigious Oxford University in England. Lionel Barrymore plays Dan Sheridan his proud father, while beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan is Molly Beaumont his college sweetheart. Vivien Leigh, Edmund Gwenn, Griffith Jones as Paul Beaumont all gather to recreate life at the Oxford during the depression. Wedged between light humor and serious attention, the movie sails easily along and Taylor is able to deliver one of his many renditions of an up and coming actor. A good B/W film and notable offering. **

A black-and-white trip back to the glory days of the studio system, "A Yank at Oxford" was MGM's first feature movie filmed in England. Released in 1938 as the Depression was slowly losing its grip on America and the shadow of an inevitable global conflict was sensed by too few, this rollicking comedy about a clash of cultures - small town America and elitist Oxford - is a glimpse of a world that never existed except in movie theaters.

Robert Taylor is super-athlete Lee Sheridan from somewhere in quintessential, rah-rah, white America. His newspaper publisher dad, Lionel Barrymore, holds the presses so that his son's latest track and field victory can be bannered on the front page. Lee is the All-American collegiate sports hero.

Along comes an opportunity for Lee to go to Oxford and he's sent off with a parade, the first of several big processions in this film.

Lee is a boastful American but he's received with good humor and sharp pranks by the English students at the fictional Cardinal College. Conflict develops when Lee is attracted to Molly Beaumont, played by Maureen O'Sullivan. Molly is the sister of Paul, Griffith Jones, a fellow student whose rivalry with Lee is fueled by the latter's arrogant and, from an English viewpoint, unsportsmanlike behavior. The contretemps between the two handsome men is the center of the fable about competition and honor.

Complicating everything is Paul's relationship with pretty, flirtatious Mrs. Elsa Craddock, wife of a curmudgeonly and older bookshop proprietor. Elsa, clearly to our eyes an adulteress, may have been for original audiences little more than a simple charmer who professes love for serial college males but is never shown doing anything less chaste than planting quick kisses. Elsa is acted by Vivien Leigh who two years later had a starring role in some Hollywood spectacle about the Civil War.

"A Yank at Oxford" is a funny, light period piece most interesting for its reflection of a Hollywood that would soon shift gears as the world burned. It did allow Taylor to recast his image as a more manly character, his athleticism a change from the more effete roles for which he was better known. MGM had a plan here and it worked.

7/10 - worth renting.