Waterloo Bridge is a 1931 American pre-Code drama romance war film directed by James Whale and starring Mae Clarke and Kent Douglass. The screenplay by Benn Levy and Tom Reed is based on the 1930 play Waterloo Bridge by Robert E. Sherwood.
The film was remade in 1940 as Waterloo Bridge and as Gaby in 1956. Both remakes were made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which bought the 1931 version from Universal. Today, the rights to all three films are held by Warner Bros. and their subsidiary Turner Entertainment. This film was one of Bette Davis' early movies.
Plot
Unable to find work in London at the height of World War I, American chorus girl Myra Deauville resorts to prostitution to support herself. She sometimes meets her clients on Waterloo Bridge, the primary entry point into the city for soldiers on military leave. During an air raid, she meets fellow American Roy Cronin, a soldier serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Distracted from her original plans by the air raid, she makes no attempt to solicit him, and the naïve young soldier remains unaware of her profession. After the bombing stops, Roy escorts her to her apartment, where the two have dinner.
Describing herself simply as an unemployed chorus girl, Myra gains Roy's sympathy. He offers to pay her overdue rent, but she rejects his offer. After the all clear is sounded, Roy departs, and Myra returns to the streets. The following morning, Roy returns to visit her, and landlady Mrs. Hobley lets him into her apartment. There he meets Myra's friend and neighbor Kitty, who tells him Myra needs someone to love and protect her. Myra later berates Kitty for interfering and rejects her advice to marry Roy to ensure a better future for herself.
Roy takes Myra to visit his family at their country estate, where he proposes to her. Later that night she tells Roy's mother, Mary, the truth about herself. Mary is sympathetic but implores Myra not to marry Roy. The following morning, Myra slips away and returns to London by train. Eventually Roy visits her and asks her to explain her abrupt departure. Because he is on the verge of returning to the battlefields in France, he begs Myra to marry him immediately. Initially she agrees, but after asking him to wait outside in the hall, she changes her mind and escapes through the apartment window. Seeking the rent, Mrs. Hobley enters, and believing Myra has run off to avoid her financial obligation, reveals her true profession to Roy.
Although shocked, Roy searches for Myra and eventually finds her on Waterloo Bridge, where he tells her he still loves and wants to marry her. The military police insist Roy join a truck of departing soldiers or be considered a deserter, and once he secures Myra's promises to marry him upon his return, he departs. The air raid sirens sound, and as Myra seeks shelter, she is killed by a bomb.
Cast
Mae Clarke as Myra
Douglass Montgomery (aka, Kent Douglass) as Roy Cronin
Doris Lloyd as Kitty
Frederick Kerr as Major Wetherby
Enid Bennett as Mrs Wetherby
Bette Davis as Janet Cronin
Ethel Griffies as Mrs Hobley
Rita Carlyle as The Old Woman (as Rita Carlisle) Ruth Handforth as Augusta, the Maid
Production
Robert E. Sherwood had based his play on his own wartime experiences, including a chance meeting during a 1918 air raid with an American chorus girl turned streetwalker. The Broadway production opened on January 6, 1930 at the Fulton Theatre, where it ran for only 64 performances. Despite the fact it was neither a critical nor commercial success, film producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. considered it a prestige project and purchased the film rights for Universal Pictures.
Having been impressed by the film Journey's End (1930), Laemmle hired James Whale to direct Waterloo Bridge. Sherwood's play had evolved into a war film in the original screenplay, Benn Levy was hired to restore it to a character drama, and Tom Reed provided "continuity and additional dialogue." Because Universal was undergoing financial problems, Laemmle budgeted the film at $252,000 and gave Whale a 26-day shooting schedule.