A Yank at Oxford (1938)

Director:

Jack Conway

Writers:

John Monk Saunders (idea)
Leon Gordon (story) ...

Release Date:

18 February 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

Here's The Yankee Clipper Himself ! A two-fisted terror from the States . . . who landed in England with a chip on his shoulder . . . but let a blue-eyed beauty walk off with his heart ! Bob Taylor's Biggest Picture Hit !

Plot:

Lee Sheridan, a young American comes to study at Oxford University, but is instantly disliked by the other students...

Plot Keywords:

College | Book Seller | Oxford | Rowing | Unsportsmanlike Behavior

Cast

Robert Taylor	...	Lee Sheridan
Lionel Barrymore	...	Dan Sheridan
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Molly Beaumont
Vivien Leigh	...	Elsa Craddock
Edmund Gwenn	...	Dean of Cardinal
Griffith Jones	...	Paul Beaumont
C.V. France	...	Dean Snodgrass
Edward Rigby	...	Scatters
Morton Selten	...	Cecil Davidson, Esq.
Claude Gillingwater	...	Ben Dalton
Tully Marshall	...	Cephas
Walter Kingsford	...	Dean Williams
Robert Coote	...	Wavertree
Peter Croft	...	Ramsey
Noel Howlett	...	Tom Craddock

Runtime:

USA:102 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4009)

Filming Locations:

Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Trivia:

In a scene shortly after arriving at Oxford, Sheridan meets with his assigned tutor, who asks him, "What are you reading?" by which he means what is your field of study. Sheridan, confused, replies, "Well, I am reading 'Gone With The Wind', but I am only halfway through it." Vivien Leigh, also in this movie, would of course portray Scarlett in Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released the year after this movie. Reportedly, it was known as early as 1937 from a Selznick memo that Leigh had secured the role.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Vivien Leigh: Scarlett & Beyond (1990) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Academic Festival Overture in C, Opus 80

Distinctly anti-American comedy is easy to resist...

ROBERT TAYLOR is refreshingly natural in the role of a brash American Yank who immediately succeeds in alienating his fellow Oxford classmates to the extent that they play practical jokes on him. The entire tone of the film seems to want to portray Americans as distinctly out of their element among the British elite. There's a distinctly mean-spirited flavor to some of the proceedings.

MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN is pleasant as Taylor's chief love interest, but it's hard to detect any of the qualities VIVIEN LEIGH would later show as Scarlett O'Hara in her role as a flirtatious bookstore worker. Her pencil thin eyebrows and unflattering hairdo don't suggest any of the attractive make-up that transformed her into a Southern belle just a year later. She looks almost dowdy here before Hollywood gave her the glamor treatment.

Taylor and Leigh would exhibit much better chemistry in 1940's WATERLOO BRIDGE. Here she is somewhat irritating in a small role.

Sports-minded individuals will get more of a kick out of this than the casual movie-goer looking for a good romantic comedy.