Silver Screen Stories

O'Sullivan, Taylor, and Leigh

Haven’t written in awhile, but I wanted to write a little today about a delightful film, A Yank at Oxford. This 1938 film stars Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Vivien Leigh, and Maureen O’Sullivan.

Lee Sheridan (Taylor) is a well known local athlete whose overly proud father (Barrymore) sends him to Oxford to study journalism.

Sheridan doesn’t receive the welcome he expects, but through his outgoing personality, does eventually make friends. Soon, Oxford students, and one woman in particular,  is won over by Sheridan. He leads the track and rowing teams to victory as well.

I enjoyed this film, especially Taylor’s performance of the brash young American.

Vivien Leigh is also great in the film just before Gone With the Wind. In my opinion, her character is similar to Scarlett O’Hara and Leigh of course does a great job in both roles.

Side note: Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor also star in another great film, Waterloo Bridge. Haven’t seen it in awhile, but I remember it being a great story.

Today, TCM has a marathon of movies about brides and brides-to-be. I decided to watch the charming film The Bride Goes Wild starring Van Johnson and June Allyson.

The plot revolves around the famous children’s book author Greg Rawlings (Johnson) who ironically dislikes children. Martha Terryton (Allyson) is a teacher from a small town who wins a contest to illustrate Rawlings’ newest book.

Rawlings immediately gets on Martha’s bad side when they first meet. She threatens to quit and doesn’t want anything more to do with Rawlings after he gets her drunk and makes a pass at her. But Rawlings’ publisher John McGrath (Hume Cronyn) scrambles for an idea to get Martha to stay. He pays a boy from a nearby orphanage to pose as Rawlings’ son. Feeling sorry for the motherless boy, Martha stays on to spend time with Davey and Greg.

The charade works for awhile and Martha and Greg do fall in love. But Rawlings must find a way to cover his tracks when the good-hearted teacher Martha wants to visit the boy’s home during her time off from drawing. Hilarity ensues as Rawlings and McGrath sneak onto the property of the boy’s home and try to tell Davey to keep up the charade if he sees Martha.

In the end, the truth does come out, and Martha is understandably upset. The “bride” part of the title comes into play when Greg tells Davey to do whatever it takes to stall Martha’s wedding to another man. Davey and his pet ants do a great job of creating chaos. Greg makes it to the wedding in time and true love prevails and an instant family is born as the two adopt Davey.

Bride is a fun comedy with great lines and acting. Cronyn’s character is acted especially well. The poor frazzled publisher runs around like crazy trying to reign in his flaky author and get him to finish the book on time for the Christmas rush.