mamalv Review of Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

A most beautiful love story set in England during the War.

[10/10 · 4 March 2005]

This is such a beautiful film, with such outstanding performances, that it is unique only to itself. Robert Taylor as Roy, and Vivian Leigh as Myra, are beautiful together and it is hard to believe that any other actors could have ever played the parts of the doomed lovers. Roy meets Myra by accident during an air raid and in that brief instant he believes he is in love. He goes to the ballet where she is a dancer and asks her to join him for dinner. Her ballet instructor, Madame Olga, played by Maria Ouspenskaya, refuses to let her girls become involved and tells Myra to refuse his attentions. The part of the Madame is small but very effective, with an outstanding performance by Maria. Kitty (Virginia Field) stops Roy before he leaves to tell him Myra will meet him at the Candlelight Club. They dine, and at the end of the evening they dance to Auld Lang Syne, as the musicians snuff the candles one by one, until the room is darkened and Roy gently kisses Myra. They part and the next day since the channel is full of mines, he has leave. She spots him standing in the rain, outside her flat, and runs to him, with a wonderful breathlessness. They kiss, and he tells her they are to be married. He is so full of innocent bliss, and she is so enamored of him, you can feel their enthusiasm through the screen. Such is the story, but when he has to leave suddenly and they can't get married right then, she tries to go to him at the station, but just catches a glimpse of him on the train. He is gone and the Madame fires her and her friend Kitty who tells her off for ruining Myra's blissful day. They come upon hard times, and Kitty turns to a life of prostitution. Virginia Field is great as the friend with an Oscar caliber performance. When Myra hears from Roy that his Mother will be coming to meet her she goes to a tea room and while waiting for her, reads in the paper that Roy is presumed dead. She is so disraught that when the Mother finally arrives, very late, she seems strange and incoherent to her. The mother played by Lucile Watson, is not such a wonderful person, who is quite stuffy and sees only what she wants and rejects Myra without even trying to ask what is wrong. From then on it is downhill. Myra thinking Roy dead, goes to prostitution to live, until one day at Waterloo Station, looking for a date, she sees Roy in the crowd. They embrace, and he is still so in love that he doesn't even notice how she looks. She tells Kitty she is going with him to the family estate and they are to be married. The Mother strangely welcomes her, and they have a party where Roy introduces her to the family, and they dance to the same song. Realizing that she might ruin him she tells his mother that there is no way they can wed, because of her past. She leaves, he follows, and even after he finds out what she has done, he still loves her, but she has made the decision to kill herself to save him from himself. The token, a lucky piece that they have shared is all you see in the street after she throws herself into the path of a military truck. The opening and ending scenes of Roy remembering Myra while he strokes the small lucky piece, are sad and poignant, and you will cry for a love so pure, and so unfinished, you wish it had ended differently. Robert Taylor was as great as his former performance as the tragic Armund Duval in Camille many years prior to this part. It was his favorite film, and also was Ms. Leigh's favorite. Beautiful, stunning love story. A classic that never gets old, even 65 years after it's release.