Top 50 Actresses, #9 - Vivien Leigh: "Waterloo Bridge" (1940)

Movie Stats:
Released 1940 (USA)
American, in English
Director - Mervyn LeRoy
Stars - Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Virginia Field

Plot Summary:
On the eve of WWII, British officer Roy Cronin (Taylor) reflects on his lost love, ballerina Myra Lester (Leigh), who he met during WWI. Field co-stars as Kitty, Myra’s BFF.

Warnings:
None.

Bad Stuff:
I don’t care for plots that hinge upon a character’s complete inability to communicate properly. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. If only Myra had been honest with Roy or his mother (Lady Margaret Cronin, played by Lucille Watson) at several key points of the film, she wouldn’t have met her tragic end.

The costuming is surprisingly bad. It’s almost like they didn’t try to make it look like it took place in the 1910s at all.

The racist good luck charm Myra & Roy share is pretty cringe-inducing.

Good Stuff:
I really liked that Myra wasn’t angelic or perfect or quirky or whatever trope you’d like to pick for a female romantic lead. Although she’s a pessimist/realist, she’s still very likable. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen a female lead that felt like a representation of me.

Kitty’s steadfast, unflinching friendship with Myra was very touching to me. She’s a true blue friend.

Loved the score.

About the Performance:
I’m very impressed by Leigh. She’s different in every role I’ve seen her in. As Myra, she has an almost ethereal quality (so different from Scarlett O’Hara). When she meets Roy, she’s already been battered enough by life that she’s not exactly optimistic about the future. Roy inspires that optimism in her again, and it’s a pleasure to watch Myra open up and blossom on-screen. Of course, just as she originally feared, it all comes to a terrible end (perhaps a self-fulfilling prophecy). Leigh is excellent at portraying all the complex layers of Myra’s personality.

Other performances of Leigh’s I’ve reviewed: A Streetcar Named Desire; Gone with the Wind.

The Verdict:
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected to. I thought, like many of the war movies of that era, it would be sentimental and overly dramatic, but it’s not. I wasn’t even bothered by the too-quick romance, because the characters themselves acknowledge that it’s all very rushed (as many war-time relationships were back then). My big problem lies with that old “I’m an adult who’s incapable of communicating” trope. I wish Hollywood would portray people having mature, effective conversations more frequently. I just wanted to shake Myra & tell her to stop being such a dumbass. Other than that, I enjoyed the film greatly. Leigh and Taylor had excellent chemistry. Everything that wasn’t trope-y was great. It was a nice counterpoint to Since You Went Away, showcasing a far less wholesome side of what it can be like for the women left behind during wartime.

I give it 4.5 stars.