by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Mae Clarke had the best role of her career as the heroine of Waterloo Bridge, the first of three filmizations of Robert L. Sherwood's play. Douglass Montgomery (here credited as Kent Douglass) plays a young American soldier who, while on leave from World War I, meets Myra (Clarke) during an air raid in London and falls in love with her, unaware she is a prostitute. Directed with a delicate mixture of realism and impressionism by James Whale, the 1931 Waterloo Bridge is head and shoulders above its heavily laundered 1940 remake -- which in turn is vastly superior to the 1956 re-remake, Gaby.
characteristics
- British
- Soldier
- Streetwalker
- Hooker
- Courtesan
- Call-girl
- Whore
- Prostitute/prostitution
- Deception
- Deceit
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Forbidden-love
