Commentary
When I heard that there was a 1940 movie of “Waterloo Bridge,” I was surprised. Having seen the 1931 film of the same name with Mae Clarke and Douglass Montgomery, I knew the controversial story: during World War I in England, a naïve young soldier meets a prostitute and falls in love with her, not realizing her profession. She tries to reform and become what he thinks she is, but she is unable to maintain the façade when she meets his loving mother. Sadly, she realizes that their love isn’t enough to wash away the past.
Stories like this have been common in every art form for centuries, but modes and morals change with the years. The standards of film content were very different by 1940 than they had been in 1931, so I was curious to see how the taboo topic of prostitution would be handled. I got a chance to see this movie for the first time at the Turner Classic Movie Film Festival in April, and I was delighted to discover that it’s an excellent example of the power of subtlety….