Best movie of this year hands down!

Load of rubbish!!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Mervyn LeRoy probably wasn't the right man to direct "Waterloo Bridge"; the film's producer, Sidney Franklin, would almost certainly have made a better job of it. It's a remake of the 1931 weepie about the ballet dancer who, thinking her soldier lover is dead, turns to prostitution...as you do, I suppose. Here she's played by Vivien Leigh, fresh from her success in "Gone with the Wind", but it's a bad performance; she's let down both by her material and by her director.Robert Taylor is the soldier, (apparently he's meant to hail from Scotland though you would never guess it), and he's a little less wooden than usual while that croaking frog Maria Ouspenskaya is the ballet mistress. As was so often the case back then the great Lucille Watson walks off with the picture as Taylor's mother and Joseph Ruttenberg richly deserved the Oscar nomination he received for his black and white cinematography. Perhaps not surprisingly this 'women's picture' was a huge hit and was remade again as "Gaby" with Leslie Caron as the dancer. It's watchable and mildly entertaining but it's certainly not the classic its reputation might suggest.

Both the 1931 and 1940 films of 'Waterloo Bridge' are very good and well worth watching in their own way. Some elements are done better in one than the other if one must compare, but despite being in the shadow of the 1940 film the 1931 version is much underrated.The 1931 version is darker, grittier, steamier and more ahead of its time (plus more faithful to the original story), but this reviewer leans a little more towards the more lavish and even more poignant 1940 film, despite it being tamer and more romanticised. There is one element that is preferred personally in the earlier version than here and that's the male lead.Robert Taylor is certainly dashing, shares a very tender chemistry with Vivien Leigh and has very rarely been more handsome, but he is also a little stiff and dull in places for my liking (Leigh apparently wanted Laurence Olivier for the role and he would have been a better choice) and Kent Douglass was more effective bringing out the character's naivety.On the other hand, it is very lavishly produced with sumptuous costumes and sets with immaculately directed. Mervyn Leroy directs with elegant simplicity, atmosphere and momentum always consistent, while Herbert Stothart's music score is even more memorable, more lush and more haunting, in perfect keeping with the more "melodramatic" feel.'Waterloo Bridge's' (1940) script is intelligent and surprisingly multi-faceted, and the execution of the story is what gives this version the slight edge over the earlier film. Despite being tamer, lacking the darkness and grit of the 1931 film due to code constraints, the story did move me a little more and the ending is less erratic, less random and less abrupt - it's incredibly moving too- if ever so slightly contrived still.The characters are very well written, and the chemistry between the two leads is remarkably tender. There is a sterling supporting cast, with a scene stealing and charmingly loyal Virginia Field, a sly C. Aubrey Smith and a sympathetic Lucile Watson. Vivien Leigh's heart-breaking performance- to me she and Mae Clarke are about equal- is the one that dominates and it one for the ages and every bit as good as her performances that garnered her Oscars.In summary, such a beautifully done and tear-jerking. If you're asking which of the 1931 and 1940 films to watch, check out both of them, they are well worth it. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Mainly I wanted to know how Taylor found that lone lost suicide survivor, the kewpie doll. It had to have been crushed during cleanup of the accident scene but of course, he could have just purchased another good luck charm. This, among other non-sequitur questions, remain after viewing this film. Another, after reading of her fiancé's death in the paper, how could she contain her grief to Mama given that she was a dancer, NOT an actress! A simple search for her name would turn up a kid or two unless she had changed her name which most fallen women do, right? Hmmmm, doesn't make much sense to resort to this profession when so much help was available. Perhaps the unwritten script is that she secretly liked to dance naked for money? I was most impressed with how they aged Taylor over 20 plus years, a hint of baby powder on the mustache and voila! vs Leigh in "That Hamilton Woman" end scene.Despite the above mentioned issues, I really enjoyed the film immersed in it's many foibles. And, oh I forgot the dress code of the early 20th century in England, good thing Downton Abbey got it right! Have you ever fallen in love with such urgency and not just based on attraction alone? It is quite a spectacular moment in life and very rare indeed but occurs more in real life than on screen truth be told.Leigh never looked more ravishing in exquisite gowns, ballet attire, and close ups were her dearest ally. What a refreshing face, so expressive and eyes divine. Even Ol Blanche was positively lovely. A great loss to the film world with her limited productions.Be prepared for a tear jerker though, the many decisions in life that forced her to depart reality were reminiscent of that crazy unpredictable element named, Fate. Many feel they were irresponsible, rash decisions with little forethought but how easy it is to judge.High recommend for Leigh fans, a new take on a Ouspenskaya role (LOL), and several lost in dreamworld dance moments that will be retained in memory.

This script desperately needed another revision.After learning that Britain has just declared war on Germany in 1939, the movie opens with an aged army officer driven through London to catch a train in order to sail to France to begin fighting in WWII. He seems a solid chap, and he turns out to be Robert Taylor, who orders his driver to detour his route to Waterloo Station by going via Waterloo Bridge. We learn this man fought in WWI. He's a hardened soldier. He stops at the bridge and calmly reminisces about a woman. He even has a small good luck charm.Utter nonsense. As we learn by the end of the movie, the man loved the woman in a tragic, miraculous romance. No soldier would cheerily allow himself the indulgence of "fondly" thinking about something that came to such a horrible, tragic end. This movie is a heart-render, a tear-jerker of the first order. Your guts get cut out. No man would want to relive this. A soldier would simply close the door of his memory and blot it out of his mind just like he would a horrible battlefield experience. Yet Taylor with a bit of a smirk goes and daydreams on the bridge about a woman who he one time said he will "love forever". The bulk of the movie is seen through this flashback contrivance which has you gritting your teeth with annoyance five minutes into the picture.That's your opening. A tragic twist of mistaken identity causes the crisis in the movie. Our heroine Myra (played by the astounding Vivian Leigh - more on her in a moment) learns of the tragedy as she is just about to meet her future fiancé's mother. Myra is in shock and comes off badly with the future mother-in-law, who is very gracious and still hopes that the two can one day be "good friends". Fast forward to the climax of the movie, where Myra is wrestling with the results of the tragic twist. She seeks out the future mother-in-law, who again has said that she knows that the two of them will be "good friends." But in Myra's time of need - in great crisis - the mother-in-law DOES NOT act like a good friend; she DOES NOT take her years of experience and guide young Myra through her crisis. She stands idly by like she just met someone at the library. Either take out the multiple references to "good friends" - OR - have her act like a good friend! Total failure of vision. The mother is a fine full character until the moment of crisis and then she becomes a cardboard cut out, leaving us alone in agony waiting for the destruction of Vivian Leigh. No movie with such a sequence can be a 10.Hence the movie gets an 8.On the plus side is the incredibly beautiful Vivian Leigh bathing us in a large array of emotions via her heavenly face. Her beauty is striking. And the emotions that shine through that beauty make them all the more powerful. She walks the line of frailty trying to become strong with great grace. Taylor, who always seems to be aping that annoying Errol Flynn "what, me worry?" positivism, has found the perfect role here for his talents and dispositions. His optimism about his new fiancé', his instantaneous love, only serve to remind us just how beautiful Myra (Ms. Leigh) is. It underscores the miracle of the movie: if YOU were to randomly meet Vivian Leigh in a bomb shelter, wouldn't YOU fall in love with her? Those things do happen in life, and having them happen with Ms. Leigh makes them especially precious. Once you get swept up in the miracle, the movie sails away and takes you on a fine ride - until the crisis, and a good friend acting badly.The beginning, the ending, the lucky charm are all incredibly weak and annoying. But in the middle is a fine film and perhaps Ms. Leigh's greatest performance.