NOTES: Oddly, despite Vivien Leigh's box-office power following her triumph in Gone With The Wind, this picture failed to become the tremendous domestic hit M-G-M hoped for. It did ignite the U.K. box-office, winning the number 4 spot for the most popular films of the year. In Australia, it did even better coming in third. Only Gone With The Wind itself and Mr Smith Goes To Washington sold more Oz tickets. But as far as M-G-M and Hollywood generally were concerned, overseas triumphs, no matter how bountiful, were at most the cream on the pudding. The wishes of the great American public were all that really counted. American filmgoers had failed to warm to Miss Leigh, so she was let go. She was not invited back to Hollywood until 1951, for A Streetcar Named Desire. And after that she made only one more Hollywood movie, her last, Ship of Fools (1965). The stage play opened on Broadway at the Fulton on 6 January 1930. June Walker, Glenn Hunter and Cora Witherspoon starred. Reviews were at most lukewarm, and the play lasted only 64 performances, returning its backers less than 50% of their money. Sherwood did manage to sell the screen rights to Universal who produced a film version in 1931. M-G-M made a third screen version in 1956 called Gaby. COMMENT: Robert E. Sherwood's update of Romeo and Juliet has become a classic in Australia. It was always popular in Oz. When M-G-M re-issued the movie with a spectacular season at Sydney's prestige Liberty Theatre in the 1950s, it took even more Oz money than on its initial release. It's not hard to understand why. Most everybody, including Australians, love well-told tales of star-crossed lovers. Waterloo Bridge, with its powerful plotting, believable characters, remarkably stylish direction and absolutely lavish production values, is probably the best ever made. Perfectly cast, Vivien Leigh makes a most appealing heroine. In a difficult role, she superbly brings off a compelling, richly shaded portrayal. Co-star Taylor is convincingly earnest, whilst Virginia Field is so moving, she almost steals the picture. Other supporting players who are not outdone include Lucile Watson, who figures in one of the film's strongest dramatic scenes; C. Aubrey Smith, always a delight; and the rivettingly cruel Ouspenskaya.A war not so much between two families as two classes, here we have Shakespeare brilliantly transposed to wartime England. Field is Juliet's nurse. There's even a friendly but impotent friar ("I'm sorry, but it's the law!") and much talk about honor - though the hero has no Tybalt to defend it. When it comes to technical expertise, it's hard to excel M-G-M (except of course for sound recording). This Waterloo Bridge is a class production, produced with taste and style. Evocatively photographed - every black-and-white image is a masterpiece of attractive lighting and composition - in marvelously detailed sets, with powerfully skillful film editing - as in the climax where lumbering ambulances are made to loom out of the mist like ravaging monsters - and a superlatively atmospheric music score.

Very strong performances by a cast that seemed to know the writing was very good. Vivien Leigh's face was a silent mirror as she ran the emotions of love and then horror when she knew she would be found out. Taylor gives an inspired performance, and they seemed to have strong chemistry on screen. The supporting cast was terrific. As an amateur historian, I am mystified by the terrible costuming and hair that fit the 1940 issue date, not the 1914-15 period of the story. How could all the trucks (lorries) be so right and the soldier's equipment and the men's and women's costumes be so wrong? I wish Vivien Leigh had made a hundred more films for us.

I have a very bad habit when watching old films (something I do most evenings) in that I rarely pay much attention to who the director was. As I began watching this film, which I inexplicably had never seen, even as the opening credits passed by I thought it reminded me of the opening credits for my second favorite film (after GWTW) -- "Random Harvest". And then there's the classical music, which is common to both films. I jumped up to check the computer and realized that, yes, the same director for both films -- Mervyn LeRoy.I do think that LeRoy made one mistake in this film. For the first 58 minutes it's a simple love story of a soldier (in this case officer Robert Taylor) who quickly falls in love with a young woman during World War II. The fling went on for so long that I began to wonder if there was actually much of a plot. Then, just about an hour into the film you finally begin to realize what the plot is going to be. That left less than 50 minutes for the real meat of the story -- the mistaken belief that Taylor has been killed in the war, the turning of Vivien Leigh's character into a prostitute, the realization that Taylor is not dead, her attempt to hide her past...for a while, his search for her, and her suicide. The appetizer portion of the film should have been shortened by at least 15 minutes so that the meat of the film could have had more depth.One of the most interesting aspects of this film is that despite the fact that the plot hinges on prostitution, and because of the censorship code in force at the time of the filming, the word prostitution (or any synonym) is never mentioned, only implied.Was Robert Taylor ever more handsome or suave? Vivien Leigh was striking, of course, although even in GWTW, I always felt that a certain dark nature was evident, and of course that was true in her later real life. There's not much opportunity to savor supporting actors here...all their parts are key, though their screen times were minor. C. Aubrey Smith is always a delight, as is Maria Ouspenskaya. Lucile Watson as Taylor's mother was wonderful, and so much more could have been done with her role, had the film been reorganized a bit. But if one costar stood out, it was Virginia Field, as Leigh's friend, fellow dancer, and fellow prostitute.It was tempting to give this film a 9, but the weak, overly long first hour's story line makes me reduce it to an 8. But this is a film that should not be missed.

Very romantic film with fine actors. Robert Taylor is quite American, but it seems that Hollywood intentionally used Americans in films that were supposed to have all (or nearly all) British characters so that American audiences would not find the films too 'foreign.' Some of the supporting characters in Frank Capra's 1936 "Lost Horizon" come to mind, for instance. While Robert Taylor is of ideal stature and appearance in "Waterloo Bridge", a British actor like Ronald Colman would have been a better fit (though he was beginning to get on in years by 1940). Colman did appear in Mervyn LeRoy's "Random Harvest" two years later, and, interestingly, the haunting music of "Swan Lake" makes its way into that film, too. Vivien Leigh does not even seem to be acting in "Waterloo Bridge". It is as if she and the role were one, which is a supreme compliment to an actor. And it is always a pleasure to see a veteran character actor like C. Aubrey Smith, usually cast as blustery (but lovable) curmudgeons---retired generals and the like.