WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940)

A moving love story about a ballerina who turns to prostitution when she believes her lover was killed at war.

Running Time: 103 minutes (black and white)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Producer: Sidney Franklin
Screenplay: SN Behrman, Hans Rameau, and George Froeschel

Based on the play by: Robert E. Sherwood
Photography: Joseph Ruttenberg
Costumes: Adrian, Gile Steele
Music: Herbert Stothart

Fees: Vivien's fee was $100,000
Opened: New York May 17, 1940; London, November 17, 1940.
Starring: Vivien Leigh (Myra Lester), Robert Taylor (Capt. Roy Cronin), Lucile Watson (Lady Margaret Cronin), Virginia Field (Kitty), C. Aubrey Smith (Duke), and Maria Ouspenskaya (Madame Olga)

Academy Award Nominations: Best (black and white) Cinematography, Best Original Score

Director Mervyn LeRoy planned a three-minute ballet number in the film. Vivien Leigh had to rehearse daily for three weeks. When she began rehearsing, Vivien received a telegram of condolence from Clark Gable, who spent six agonizing weeks in the same rehearsal hall learning his tap dance touting for Idiot's Delight.

January 17, 1940, Vivien Leigh wrote Leigh Holman:
I have to have ballet lessons for this film [Waterloo Bridge] and have asked to be between two strong girls who can prop me up! Robert Taylor is the man in the picture and as it was written for Larry, it's a typical piece of miscasting. I am afraid it will be a dreary job but I won't think about it, and just concentrate on Romeo and Juliet. ...
Vivien

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