My review - Movie "Waterloo Bridge"

We are really into classic movies recently !

We haven't seen much new movies since several years ago because of other interests.

Also, we noticed that in the more recent movies  there were too many digital types of effects and movements, which I felt were very unnatural.

While I appreciate nowadays high technology, I felt there has been a decreasing warmth and decreasing heart felt feeling whenever I watched recent films or listening to digital music songs.

After re-watching the famous classic movie " Gone with the wind ", we also watched Vivien Leigh's other movie  " Waterloo Bridge " last weekend.

My review - Waterloo Bridge
 

I really love this movie !

This was my second time to watch this movie and it was first time for my husband.

I first saw this movie a long time ago, before seeing " Gone with the wind " .

I don't remember when, but it was more than 30 years ago, my mother and my step-father were watching this film " Waterloo Bridge "  one Sunday night. and I joined to watch it together.

 I remembered that there was a very beautiful actress in the movie, she was a big impact and the story was a tragic love story, and  felt really sad at the end.

I didn't realize that the very beautiful actress was Vivien Leigh and that she was also the star of " Gone with the wind " as the character of Scarlett O'Hara in the movie , which I watched a few years later .

It took a while to realize this because the part she played  in Waterloo Bridge,  " Myra" and the part she played in " Gone with the wind "  "Scarlett " , looked like totally different people to me.

and when I re-watched Waterloo Bridge the second time last weekend, I felt it was even more touching than before !!

The movie started from a scene on the Waterloo Bridge in London.

It was great to see 1940's beautiful scenery in London, UK in this movie.
I felt it looks so romantic. 

I realized that it's actually amazing we can watch such an old film which was made in 1940 !!!  ( with such a clear picture )

It's not a film with many present day actors playing an old generation's story , but it's the real deal,  real scenery with people who were in that generation !

My favorite things in this movie are the scenery, fashion, and true love story. 

I'm not a fan of tragic stories, they are usually not for me, but in that generation, it might have been hard to imagine a story about love without war being somewhere in the background, because the reality at that time was that there was a world war -  World War I.

Fashion

I love this generation's ladies fashion very much.

Maybe because it was Vivien Leigh who was wearing that generation's outfit, is  one of the reasons it looks attractive ??

All the outfits Vivien was wearing look very elegant and refined, and her very thin waist and curvy body, besides her beautiful face was so attractive to watch.

I also love her friend Kitty's fashion as well.  Love the hats especially.

I always need attractive fashionable woman in every movie, I don't know why ?


Story review


The story was very touching and it made me tears. 

Very romantic. 

I feel this is the example of true love.

A ballet dancer Myra ( Vivien Leigh ) and a Captain in the army, Roy Cronin  ( Robert Taylor ) meet and fall in love each other on the Waterloo bridge in London during an air raid in World War I.

They go to a bomb shelter area, and they get to know each other while waiting for the air raid to end.

When they first meet on the Waterloo Bridge, Myra drops her handbag on the sidewalk while everyone was rushing to run away from there. 

and Roy helps her to pick up all the stuff which was in her handbag. and she saw her lucky charm fell into the busy road and she quickly picks it up, and Roy pulls her away from the road to avoid accident.

During their talking in the bomb shelter, Roy says that he's been ordered to report with the army in just a couple days.

It must be even more passionate and emotional in such a situation, when there is no guarantee they can ever meet each other again.

and she gives her lucky charm to him to wish him good luck and for protection.

Myra tells Roy she's studying ballet and invites him to see her perform on stage with the ballet group.  

Roy wants to go but cannot guarantee it because of all the army duty preparations.

But Roy finds a way and goes to Myra's ballet dance stage to see her, and Myra soon noticed and is surprised see Roy is in the audience, because he told her he was not sure he can go to see her stage.

Vivien Leigh's ballet dancing scene was shown only a little bit but her movements were elegant and beautiful.  I feel she knew ballet.

and then after the stage show was finished, all the ballet dancers had to listen to the director of the ballet organization's nitpicking criticisms.

and during this, they had a guest knocking the door and the director told Myra's friend Kitty to answer the door.

and then Kitty handed a note from the guest to Myra, and the director soon noticed that and told Myra to read it in front of them.

The note was from Roy to Myra asking her out on a date.

and the director told Myra to write to him to decline his approach.
and Roy received the note from the security person in the ballet organization.

He was disappointed to read the note and then just as he was leaving the place, Myra's friend Kitty rushed to him and told him and explained what happened, and arranged a date between him and Myra.

So , Roy and Myra had a date at a fancy Romantic restaurant in that night.

I really love the scene of it at the restaurant bar and dancing scenes with traditional Irish music.

Their kiss scene was amazingly romantic and touching. 

Their acting was really awesome.

This may be the best kiss scene I've ever seen. 

There is also a Japanese version of that Irish music used in this movie, with lyrics.

It's a very touching and emotional song, so that music was often used as a ending theme when something or event closes or in the graduation  ceremony in Japan.

In the next day, it was a rainy day, and Myra was in her second floor apartment, she happened to look out the window and was surprised to see Roy standing in the rain in front of the building where she and all the ballet dancers live.

She was glad to see him and got a panic about what to wear, then she rushed to him. 

There is another very romantic scene there while they kiss in the rain, and soon Roy proposes to her and they get engaged. 

He wanted to get married with Myra as soon as possible so that Myra can stay with his mother while he is in the army.

Roy asked to the top of the army in which he belonged, for permission of his marriage with Myra.

Their marriage was approved, but they were unable to get married in that evening because of a law restricting marriage ceremonies to to be held at certain times on certain days , the preacher declined  but told them they can get married in the next morning.

Myra and Roy understand and decided to wait and come back the next morning.

Myra was happy to go back to the ballet dancer's dormitory, buying many clothes including the wedding dress and told her friend Kitty she will marry with Roy the next morning.

They all congratulated Myra.  

However she then got a phone call from Roy and was told that the army suddenly ordered him to leave to Germany to join the army that night.

Then Myra rushed to the train station to see him.

However, she was late and they could only see each other after the train started running, he saw her from the train window while it was leaving, and she was running towards the train and reaching out to him from the train station platform. 

They called each other's names. 

That scene was heart breaking.

After that Myra came back to the ballet dancer's dormitory, the director of the ballet organization fired her because she didn't attend the stage without telling her and went to the station instead.

and Kitty was upset at the director , she was already tired of her mean attitude, and as a result both of them got fired.

Myra and Kitty rent an apartment together, but they could not find jobs.

Then, Roy's mother had arranged to meet Myra at a fashionable restaurant. and  Roy's mother was late and while Myra was waiting for her, the waitress gave a newspaper to Myra and she happened to see a news article with a list of dead army soldiers and she saw Roy's name in it.

After seeing Roy's death information, Myra fainted, and a waitress was helped her and gave her red wine.

When Roy's mother arrived there Myra was already drunk and could not communicate to her well, and then Roy's mother left.

They both could not find jobs and got into a serious financial situation.  
At the end Kitty became a prostitute secretly to cover both of their living and expenses.

But soon Myra figured it out  and she felt bad because Kitty was doing it to support both of their living. 

So eventually Myra also became a prostitute.


Time past,  Myra, convinced that Roy was dead ( actually he was not, it was a newspaper error )  continued to have financial troubles and difficulty finding a job so she was still working as a prostitute and she went to the train station looking for customers among returning army soldiers, while there on the platform she was shocked to see Roy coming off the train, she was so happy to see him alive but at the same time got a complicated feeling because of how she was making her living.

Roy was so happy to see Myra again, and told her it's a miracle to see her immediately after getting off the train.

But he noticed something is wrong with Myra and asked her if she was in love with someone else,  but Myra told him that Roy is the only person she's really loved and he will be her love forever. and Roy told her that he feels the same for her and that's all he wants to know.

He gave her the lucky charm back, hoping it will help her as it helped him ( but still not knowing what was troubling her ).

Then they visit Roy's house Scotland where his mother lives and announced they are getting married.

Myra was going to get married with Roy until she heard information from Roy's relative and also a Sr. Military officer about how Roy's relatives are very traditional and strict about occupations and they will not approve dancers, even though Roy loves dancers.

She became panicked, thinking that if they do not accept dancers, then what they would feel if they ever discovered that she worked for awhile as a prostitute.

and while hearing about it from the military officer, she lost confidence to get married with Roy and thought she will never be approved by his relatives.

She was terrified to lose Roy as well, if he knew what she had been doing after she quit the ballet company.

So Myra left from Roy and left a note to him. 
Then Roy tried to find Myra by going to her previous apartment. but she was not there and her friend Kitty who is in the next door told him to come in .  

He asked Kitty where Myra is.  But Kitty was afraid to take him to the place where there are many prostitutes to look for her and if he knew about what Myra was doing. 

But Roy was not patient and told her that he will go to the police to find her, so Kitty took him to several places she knows. and while running around the places, Roy realized what Myra had been doing. But they could not find Myra. 

Roy's face was extremely sad, and said she's escaped from them but he will always look for her.

Meanwhile, Myra was on the Waterloo bridge with a very sad face.

One of the other prostitutes asked her if she will go to the station. 
and Myra said no and after the woman left, Myra walked to the road where there are many running trucks and cars and committed suicide by jumping in front of one them.

Her lucky charm ( called billiken ) was on the road.

Time flew by , and many years past.

The ending scene shows Roy, now an elderly gentleman,  standing on Waterloo bridge and being nostalgic, remembering his tragic love and romance experience with Myra, while gripping her lucky charm.  

 (the scene also shows what he's thinking by replaying Myra's voice saying she will love him forever, and his voice saying he will love her forever )  

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What a beautiful true love story.

I still can not believe Vivien Leigh was older than my grand mother when I watched this movie, ( of course when she acted in this movie she was only about 27 ) but she doesn't look like an old generation's lady to me , as far as fashion and trends and everything, even watching now in 2015. 

She was so elegantly beautiful.

I was looking at only Vivien Leigh mainly, but while we were repeatedly watching this movie recently, I also felt Robert Taylor is so handsome and a great actor too.

The producer of the film chose Robert Taylor because he was very popular at that time, besides his acting talent.

Surprising thing was the image of a "dancer" was not good in that generation.

I mean even " ballet dancer " 's image was bad ???

Because in my generation in Japan, the image of people who were learning ballet dance or ballet dancer were rich daughter or bourgeois.

According to the information I've read, this movie was Vivien Leigh's personal favorite,  and also Robert Taylor's personal favorite,   of all the  movies they had ever played. 

I found their acting was so touching, like really in love with each other.

I feel their kiss scene while dancing in the dark is the most romantic and touching scene in all the movies I've ever seen.

and although this story is a tragic love story,   there are some parts which made me laugh because Robert Taylor was something so funny when he was being so passionate to her.

and I feel Vivien Leigh also could played more in   comedy movies as well, because of her humor.

The ending was imaginative, in his later years we don't know whether Roy got married with someone later or not. While he was being nostalgic to think about Myra, Roy had ever had a partner later, ever got married, or not ?  

The movie doesn't say.


The character of Myra's friend Kitty was so nice. 
Always thinking about Myra's well being, maybe even more than herself. 

Almost too nice to to be real.  In real life it seems that everyone is usually thinking about oneself and not so care for others, including friends. 

This is a fiction story, so it was made mainly for Myra and Roy's love story. 

 and I personally don't think there are such a sweet person like Kitty. The world would be a better place if there were more people like her.

About a Lucky Charm which was used in the film,
 
I remember it was called Billiken and saw it in one of my books about lucky charms. 

The creator of  Billiken was an American sculptor.
One day, she had a dream in which a god like image appeared in front of her and told her that I'm a god who brings world happiness. 
Anyone who scratches the sole of my feet, will bring good luck.

That was the message of the image of the god in her dream. and then it is said that when you are scratching the soles the statues feet, that if the Billiken starts laughing, your wishes will come true.

In 1908, the American sculptor offered it to an art gallery. 

Soon, it was already forgotten about in America, but in Japan it became popular for awhile, and then it was also forgotten.  but it seems like there  are antique stores that sell them.


The cinematography of this film is romantic and beautiful. 
The music is so touching. 

No wonder this film got two academy awards, best music for Herbert Stothart and best cinematography.

It has become one of my all time favorite movies and I already watched it three times and will surely re-watch again.