Waterloo Bridge

Whale, fresh off Journey's End, working up another veteran-written play, though this one focusing as it does on a prostitute gets more at the heart of how society can tear a person down with or without the war. In a magic year for Mae Clarke full of so many leads (from taking that grapefruit to the face to getting carried off in a certain other monster of a Whale film) this was the one that was all hers to carry—and did she.

A powerful drama/romance set during World War I with prostitution creating the conflict in the form of self-hatred.

"I should have known a decent girl when I saw one." "You've never been around much with girls, have you?" Mae Clarke is rather sweet as the hooker that love finds, and Douglass Montgomery the earnest, likable, naïve soldier from a rich family that falls for her. This is also one of Bette Davis's very first movies--she's the soldier's good-hearted sister (weird, huh?). Some overly-broad comedic touches--luckily, not too many. So much renunciation--makes predictable the nihilistic ending.

Pretty good.

73.500

Douglass Montgomery or Kent Douglass as he was called at the time was clearly a handsome guy. In a way he had a lot of the same qualities as Rudolph Valentino had before him. His acting, even if it did probable melt young girls hearts, was not all that natural, but it wasn't so bad that it ruined the picture. In fact it turned out to be a fairly well paced love story with Mae Clarke as the prostitute he falls in love with. So a very satisfying movie.

Pretty decent pre-code film about love in the Depression.

Mae Clarke is no Vivien Leigh, but she acquits herself well and is believable. Her transition from chorus girl to streetwalker occurs in the blink of an eye, and the emotional trajectory of the film is rather flat compared to the 1940 version.

While I didn't buy some of the things, like falling deeply in love after a couple of hours of chatting, and the male lead seemed a bit overenthusiastic in acting, overall it is a very decent drama. Notice how in the first act camera floats searching for something, and after Roy and Myra meet shots become more static. I thought it was a very nice touch. Furthermore, a scene in the first act with close-up shot of different people as they run to the bomb shelter is incredible.