Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

=== ''Waterloo Bridge'' (1940) ===

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to [[Waterloo Bridge (play)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] from [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], which had produced an adaptation filmed in 1931 by [[James Whale]] and starring [[Mae Clarke]] as the [[fallen woman]], Myra.<ref>Landazuri, 2003. TCM: Filmed by James Whale at Universal, with Mae Clarke giving the best performance of her career as Myra. It would be remade as [[Gaby (film)|Gaby]] (1956), starring [[Leslie Caron]]."</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 146</ref>

LeRoy's [[Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] (1940), served as a vehicle to capitalize upon the meteoric rise of [[Vivien Leigh]], heroine of [[David O. Selznick]]'s epic [[Gone with the Wind (film)|''Gone with the Wind'']] (1939). In a period when foreign markets were in jeopardy, profitable films were at a premium.<ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 85: The 1940 ''Waterloo Bridge'' a LeRoy "money-spinner" for Metro.<br />Canham, 1976 p. 153-155: See here for Canham plot analysis and praise for acting: Though a "soap opera [it] stands on the strength of its casting...so much depends on the strength and conviction of the cast in terms of winning modern audience response."<br />Higham and Greenberg 1968 p. 172-173: Higham and Greenberg describe the performance of "the leading players [Leigh and Taylor]...appalling, but the film has considerable visual charm."</ref>

A silent film era technician and director in his early Hollywood career, LeRoy utilized silent film methods to film a key nightclub love scene with Leigh and costar [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]]. LeRoy describes his epiphany:

{{blockquote |No dialogue!...No dialogue at all!...I realized at that moment what all silent directors had always known...in great emotional moments, there are no words. A look, a gesture, a touch can convey much more meaning than spoken sentences [and] that's the way we played the scene...<ref>Landazuri, 2003: "Director Mervyn Leroy, who had begun his career in silent films, knew when to let the images tell the story without dialogue, and his touch is evident in the memorable scene in the nightclub." And: Landazuri quotes from LeRoy's memoir re: "a look, a gesture..."<br />LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 146-147: LeRoy: "the scene was one of those times when silence was more expressive than dialogue." See p. 147 for full quote.</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg 1968 p. 172-173: Higham and Greenberg praise the "visual charm...of the lover's candlelit dance…" in the mostly silent restaurant scene.</ref>}}

LeRoy directed Robert Taylor, [[Norma Shearer]] and [[Conrad Veidt]] in the 1940 [[Escape (1940 film)|''Escape'']], the first of a number of anti-Nazi features suppressed by [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and which ultimately led to the banning of all M-G-M pictures in Germany.<ref>Johnson, 2002. TCM: "Based on a popular 1939 novel by [[Ethel Vance]], Escape (1940) was one of MGM's first anti-Nazi films."</ref><ref>Higham and Greenberg, 1968 p. 98: LeRoy's anti-nazi film "Escape was equally crude as [[Frank Borzage]]'s ''[[The Mortal Storm]]'' (1940), and even less effective..."<br />Johnson, 2002 TCM: "Hitler banned Escape in Germany for its critical depiction of the country. When MGM continued making anti-Nazi films, Hitler eventually banned all MGM films."<br />Canham, 1976 p. 155: "...part of the anti-German propaganda which characterized American films...before Pearl Harbor."</ref>