Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Irene Hervey This is the best of the filmed versions of this story. There isn't a lot of plot in this gritty, earthy early talkie but there is an astonishingly powerful tour de force performance by Mae Clarke. I had always admired her fragile beauty and strong second lead performances in many films over the years but I'd never seen this one in which she plays a prostitute or "party girl" as they used to call them in the early sound films, a girl who is forced into prostitution in London after her show closes and she cannot get decent work. There's a blitz going on and zeppelins are reigning bombs down onto London streets and people must take shelter underground. Life is extremely difficult but onto the scene comes American Douglass Montgomery whose family, wealthy as can be, live outside of London on a marvelous estate and his sister turns out to be none other than Bette Davis. Will the family accept her? Will she tell them she is a street walker? The drama unfolds and gradually grips you fully if you like pre-code movies. Montgomery and Clarke as the young lovers have a real chemistry between them. Clarke's performance totally inhabits her space as she handles objects, uses her entire body in her performance and shows a remarkable range of emotion that seems to ripple through her entire body. I had the feeling that the actress was almost possessed by the spirit of her character. At times quiet and introspective,she then her emotions rush to the forefront and in one near final scene she belts out her anguish with astonishing power and range that blew me away. I take this to be one of the great acting performances in the history of movies and it is absolutely THE most underappreciated Academy Award quality performance ever given. You may not agree but over the last 46 years I've been teaching film history at the university level and I'd stake my reputation that for its period of time there isn't anything quite like it. It is whole decades ahead of its time. You may marvel as I did at how modern her acting is and not stilted or theatrical as her contemporaries such as Bette Davis come across now. It is a performance that one would marvel at if given today. And yet her projection is also worthy of a great stage performance as well, for this is also after all basically a filmed play. James Whale is always a fascinating director. What he coaxed out of Mae Clarke in this film is something for the ages and any acting student can learn a lot about how to move about a room, use your hands, modulate your voice and use every part of your body to create a real character. It is all the more extraordinary that Whale did this in just a few weeks and with a shoestring budget. After the film I just sat for a while in rapt amazement, so grateful that this performance has been captured on film and I had the privilege to watch it. In a word, wow!.

jacobs-greenwood This original version of the Robert Sherwood play is quite different than the more famous MGM remake starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. The story is more efficiently told, and without flashbacks, such that this film is nearly half an hour shorter.It was directed by James Whale, and the screenplay was written by Benn Levy and Tom Reed. The most notable aspect of this movie is Mae Clarke's terrific performance as the conflicted streetwalker Myra Deauville; Kent Douglass aka Douglass Montgomery is pedestrian as the soldier from a wealthy family she meets, Roy Cronin, who's unaware of her (oldest) profession.Whereas the later film version of the play has Myra and Roy meet and fall in love before she turns to prostitution, as her only means of support, after she's been led to believe that he's died in the war, in this one they meet after the former chorus girl had already been walking the streets for a couple of years, with friend Kitty (Doris Lloyd). Myra meets Roy on the titled London bridge during an air raid while both help an old woman (Rita Carlisle aka Carlyle) to the safety of a shelter. They then spend some innocent time together in her shabby apartment, interrupted by her landlady Mrs. Hobley (Ethel Griffies), who'd earlier asked for Myra's back rent. Naive Roy sees Myra as an out of work chorus girl who's just down on her luck, but she refuses to take advantage of his innocence, is insulted by his offer to pay her bills, and even throws him out, before they reconcile briefly and he leaves on friendlier terms.Roy is only nineteen, and even though he's no longer under the illusion that the war in France is a fun adventure, he's still worlds away from the weary realist that Myra has become. In their brief time together, Roy fell hopelessly in love with Myra and he pursues her with flowers and a new pink dress she'd mentioned in that prior meeting. Neighbor Kitty emboldens Roy's savior complex, and plants the seed that all Myra needs is a (wedding) ring. Later, Roy tricks Myra into visiting his family's estate in the country, where she reluctantly meets his mother Mary (Enid Bennett), sister Janet (Bette Davis), and father-in-law Major Fred Wetherby (Frederick Kerr). Ruth Handforth plays Augusta, their maid. Roy's family welcomes her with open arms but Myra's guilt about "what she is" causes her to tell Mary that she's not really a chorus girl. The next day, it's clear that Mary hasn't told the others what Myra had shared about her life. Finding herself still accepted among Roy's family is too much for Myra and, still feeling unworthy, she flees back to London by train.Myra is conflicted, she tries but can't seem to go back to doing what she always had. Roy returns to Myra's apartment in London, but finds only Mrs. Hobley, who tells him what he didn't know about the woman with whom he'd fallen in love. But still, he searches for her. Myra successfully avoided Roy until she can't help but try to glimpse him as his regiment meets to leave for the front on Waterloo Bridge. He sees her and makes her promise to marry him when he returns. An air raid begins just as the troop truck has driven away, and Myra is killed by a bomb dropped from a German Zeppelin (in lieu of Leigh's suicide) as the film ends, her monogrammed purse and white fox fur lay on the pavement.

TheLittleSongbird Comparing the 1931 and 1940 versions of 'Waterloo Bridge' reminds one of comparing the 1940 and 1944 versions of 'Gaslight'. In that the earlier version is well in the shadow of the later version, but despite being different films and having elements done better in the other both are very good to great in their own way.It is hard to say which is the superior version to me, while leaning towards the more lavish and more visually polished and glitzy later version this version, which is grittier and more steamy whereas the later version is more romantic and tamer (which may be a disappointment to some), is also very good in its own way. Bette Davis, despite still being good, does have little to do in a very early role (safe to say that she did go on to better things), but more problematic is the somewhat erratic and abrupt ending, granted there is emotional impact but the outcome just seemed also too random and contrived.However, while not as lavish as the 1940 film it is a beautiful-looking film with plenty of atmosphere, the cinematography being one of the film's highlights. James Whale's impressionist-like direction also conveys a compelling realism and ensures that atmosphere and momentum is always consistent. Uncredited Val Burton's music score is lush and sometimes haunting, while there is a very intelligent script and a story that's genuinely emotional and intriguingly ahead of its time.It's driven also by the pivotal chemistry between Mae Clarke and Douglas Montgommery (or Kent Douglass), which is depicted beautifully here and some great acting. Doris Lloyd, Frederick Kerr and especially Enid Bennett give priceless supporting contributions, and Douglass' inexperience does not show in a surprisingly naturalistic turn that neither overstates or underplays the naivety, but it's the astonishing and quite heart-wrenching performance of Mae Clarke that's most unforgettable, genuinely reducing me to tears on several occasions.Overall, while this version of 'Waterloo Bridge' is in the shadow of the later version, it is just as good and well worth checking out. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Lee Eisenberg James Whale's "Waterloo Bridge" was one of the many movies filmed before the Hays Code, and so it got put under an unofficial ban for many years. Naturally, in the era when we can find all sorts of lewd stuff on the Internet, this sort of movie looks very tame. Even so, you have to imagine being a moviegoer in 1931 and seeing some of the stuff that the movie shows.James Whale is of course best known for directing "Frankenstein", and "Waterloo Bridge" star Mae Clarke played Dr. Frankenstein's fiancée and got carried around by the monster. Talk about some dissimilar roles! There was apparently a more sanitized version of "Waterloo Bridge" made after the Hays Code got established, starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor, and it became the more famous version. As it stands, the Mae Clarke version is the only one that I've seen, and I really recommend it.