Waterloo Bridge

I've been watching the 1931 version of Waterloo Bridge, part of TCM's Forbidden Hollywood Collection, and a title I must have somehow missed. It's shamelessly melodramatic, of course, but Mae Clark has a natural quality that few actors in that era seemed to possess. (If you've ever seen a movie from the 1930s, you'll know what I mean.) There was an uncomfortable sense of familiarity about the story, though the less said about that, the better.

MGM bought this film outright (from Universal) when, not quite ten years after the original release, they wanted to film the story again — it had been kept it mostly hidden away from view in the years since. Unlike the version made by MGM, though (with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor), this film leaves no question of how the heroine makes her living.

Also on this disc was Red-Headed Woman, from 1932. This was as close as MGM would every come to the sort of overt sexuality demonstrated by the heroines of the Warner Bros. films of that era — in fact, the plot is more or less the same as Babyface (which would be released the following year), with Jean Harlow seducing and marrying her way into high society. But here, without the sordid and unpleasant themes of Babyface, the story is a good deal more fun and playful — and Harlow had a great gift for comedy.