Movie #2159 ........................."Waterloo Bridge" (TCM)

 Movie #2159 "Waterloo Bridge" (TCM)  Shown in February on TCM because it was  Oscar- nominated for cinematography and music , I didn't realize that it was quite popular for portraying a "bad girl" and as a love story.   It was also made about 10 years earlier and this was a remake --- IMDB points out that "the flower lady" on the bridge was played by the same woman in both versions.  Anyway, Vivien Leigh, famous for GWTW the year before, does another stellar performance --- she is able to be melodramatic but still believable (think:  Streetcar Named Desire, end scene she also shined in) so I expected her to run the film, but Robert Taylor, whom I never really liked in what I have seen him in, wasn't bad -- and supposedly this was his favorite film that he ever made.  So I'm glad I got a chance to see it.  It has the frame of a "citizen Kane" story --- one object that he focuses in on the bridge, and the rest of the film is a flashback that explains the meaning behind the object.  It was meant to be a tearjerker and a romantic film, and it was.  But I still prefer "Random Harvest"  was the best romantic script of all time.  One note of interest --- 1940, doing a WWI film.  hmmmmm. I wonder whose idea that was?

"WATERLOO BRIDGE"   TCM   1940       1 hour and 48 mins

During World War I, believing her fiancé to be dead, a young ballerina loses her job and is forced to turn to prostitution.

Director:

 Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

 S.N. Behrman (screen play), Hans Rameau (screen play)  |

Stars:

 Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson