While the pre-release version of Baby Face (1933) may be the hottest title in Warner Home Video's new Forbidden Hollywood DVD collection, the 1931 Universal Pictures version of Waterloo Bridge is also of tremendous interest. When MGM acquired the rights to this story for its more famous 1940 remake starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor, the negative to the 1931 version was placed in storage and forgotten. For years it was considered a lost film, only to resurface in the 1970s at the Museum of Modern Art. Even in the years since that rediscovery, screenings and TV airings have been rare.

The best way to see it on DVD would have been as a double bill with the 1940 remake (which, sadly, is still not available on DVD), but its packaging with two other delicious pre-Code movies (Baby Face and Red-Headed Woman) is definitely the next best option. That said, Waterloo Bridge is the least shocking of the three, and in fact it's not particularly bold or daring even without the comparison to those two racy pre-Code productions. Sure, it pushes some boundaries for its time with its depiction of prostitution, but it doesn't ooze sex or sleaze as overtly as Baby Face or, say, any number of Warren William starrers of the same period.

As good a movie as it is, this first version of Robert Sherwood's play does suffer a bit from "early talkie" syndrome, with a theatrical feel throughout that comes both from director James Whale's staging and from overdone acting styles - though Mae Clarke still delivers a very strong performance. The glossy look of the 1940 remake, one of the all-time great tearjerkers, is not to be found here. While the remake greatly re-works Sherwood's story into a romantic weepie, Whale's film doesn't try for such an effect, instead keeping to the grittiness of the play.

And so we find Mae Clarke as Myra, an American chorus girl in WWI London who turns to prostitution to pay her bills. She meets Roy (Kent Douglass, later known as Douglass Montgomery), a Canadian soldier on furlough, who promptly falls in love with her, too young and naïve to figure out the truth. He takes her to visit his rich relatives in the countryside, with whom Myra obviously does not fit in. (Bette Davis, in her third film role, plays Roy's sister Janet. She doesn't have much to do but you can't take your eyes off of her.) Myra throws Roy out cruelly, then takes him back - twice. Roy proposes, and Myra refuses, and on the film goes in showing the push-pull of Roy's love and Myra's internal conflict. Our focus is certainly kept on that internal struggle, as Myra loves Roy but tries not to let herself feel it because of her shame. Clarke's performance is affecting, and she uses the sexual frankness of the material to her advantage. Whale also works in some nice moments like Clarke's yawn during an opening stage number and a funny sequence where, in the country estate, she is asked by the family maid if she wants her morning bath drawn cold. "No, hot!" says Clarke with a delighted laugh. "Oh," replies the maid disapprovingly with an upward turn of the nose.

Mae Clarke will probably always be best remembered as the girl who gets the grapefruit shoved in her face by James Cagney in Public Enemy (1931), but Waterloo Bridge, with possibly her best performance now available for viewing, shows how unfair that assessment is. The girl could act. Kent Douglass is wooden and awkward by comparison. Their final scene together on Waterloo Bridge, however, is unexpectedly touching and tender.

The transferred print has not been restored. There are scratches throughout, and the overall picture quality is far from perfect. Also the sound seems muffled, and you'll have to turn the volume up quite a bit more than normal to get it to an acceptable level. But since we should be thankful to have the chance to see this movie at all, these flaws aren't too bad.

Packaging looks good, though the studio made one noticeable boo-boo. The artwork on the case and the DVDs themselves indicates that Waterloo Bridge and Red-Headed Woman are on Disc 1, and that Baby Face is on Disc 2. It's actually the other way around!

For the record, this collection of three films is presented by Warner Home Video in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies (the packaging carries a "TCM ARCHIVES" label) and is called Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 1. Let's hope these volumes of pre-Code movies keep coming steadily.

For more information about Waterloo Bridge, visit Warner Video. To order Waterloo Bridge (which is only available as part of the Forbidden Hollywood DVD set), go to TCM Shopping.

by Jeremy Arnold