Waterloo Bridge

London during the First World War. Myra, an American, was a chorus girl; unable to find work, she has taken to the street. During an air raid a young soldier speaks to her on the bridge. Roy does not know what she does and does not want to; he proposes. Myra cannot accept, because his family will learn the truth. The subject is not love but a woman unable to forgive herself. Roy never judges her; the obstacle is what Myra thinks of herself, having accepted what society has told her. The form is the plain arrangement of the early sound period: a fixed camera, long scenes, little music. James Whale made this before his horror films and the difference is large; here he stays entirely away from display. It is an example of the pre-Code period. Myra's occupation is stated outright, which became impossible a few years later; in the better-known 1940 remake the same strand is reduced largely to implication. The source is Robert E. Sherwood's play. Mae Clarke plays Myra and Douglass Montgomery plays Roy, with a still-unknown Bette Davis in a small part. Who it is for: viewers curious about pre-Code Hollywood and the early sound era. Who it is not for: anyone expecting technical fluency; the sound and cutting carry the limits of the period.