A Ponte de Waterloo

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.

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.

... 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.

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.

When asked what her favorite film of her own was, Vivien Leigh brushed aside her Oscar winning roles as the southern belles Scarlet O'Hara and Blanche Dubois, settling on this little-known but much loved gem, Waterloo Bridge. This may come as a surprise to many whose favorite movie is Gone With the Wind or stage actresses who study every nuance of her Blanche, once you see this movie there is no doubt that this may be her loveliest performance--while her Oscars prove that she could deliver astoundingly good work under the notoriously difficult shoots on her famous two films, Waterloo Bridge is a testament to her grace, her subtlety, and her ability to never feel sorry for herself or beg the audience for pity--and therefore earns every inch of our attention.

Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor), an aging soldier on the eve of WWII, remembers years earlier during the First World War (it's better if you ignore the obviously "modern" clothing and just enjoy the damn movie). He met and ballerina Myra Lester (Leigh), and oh boy how the fell in love (I have yet to see a sweeter or more beautifully photographed love scene than the Candlelight Club). However, just before they can find a way to get married, Roy is called unexpectedly early to the front. Myra misses a performance to say goodbye to him and is fired from the dance company. Along with her faithful best friend Kitty, Myra sinks lower and lower into poverty, and her faith is lost when she believes Roy is dead. Hopeless, she falls into prostitution (this is where Leigh is at her best--there is not a shred of self-pity in her performance when Myra becomes a "fallen woman."). How will she cover up her past when Roy shows up alive and suggests that she meet his crusty, upper-class family?

The synopsis provided above has all the inklings of a sappy, forgotten melodramatic "woman's movie" that were popular in the 1940s. So why is it so good? Because in the hands of director Mervyn LeRoy and his stars Leigh and Taylor, they make you believe in these characters, hope for them and root for them. Myra is no Scarlet in the sense that she does not whine and wait for her love to come home. Even while delivering lines like, "I loved you, I've never loved anyone else. I never shall, that's the truth Roy, I never shall," Leigh is never flashy as her Scarlet may have been--when Leigh sinks into a role, she gets lost in it. Vivien Leigh gives a spirited and beautiful performance--she proved that her handling of Gone With the Wind was not mere luck but that she was talented and here to stay. Though Robert Taylor's role is not as complex as Leigh's--remember, this is a "chick flick"--they have wonderful chemistry together, obviously comfortable with each other's presence. While most romantic movies of today are simply composed of throwing two stars together without much chemistry, this is a movie that makes you ache for the old days and the old movies full of ambiguity, wry double-entendres and, above all, a sense of hope for real love.

Do you think you'll remember Waterloo Bridge now?

NOTE: Because of some cosmic fluke, this movie isn't available on (Region 1) DVD and a VHS copy is rare, but because of some cosmic fluke, this is one of the most popular movies of all time in China, resulting in many various imports. This is a movie worth seeking out, but double-check where you buy it.