A Yank at Oxford **** (1937, Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, Edmund Gwenn, Griffith Jones) – Classic Movie Review 6455

Robert Taylor stars as Lee Sheridan, an arrogant US undergrad among the British dreaming spires in this spirited MGM British comedy, directed Jack Conway in 1937. Naturally, he shows that he is a true blue, taking the rowing prize and winning fair Brit maiden Molly Beaumont (Maureen O’Sullivan).

Taylor has got the handle on the part, commendably so, and arrogance isn’t easy to turn into a winning act as Rob Lowe found in the 1984 dismal remake Oxford Blues.

Lionel Barrymore is fun as Taylor’s dad, Dan, and Vivien Leigh is Elsa Craddock, the girl O’Sullivan’s brother Paul (Griffith Jones) is having an affair with. Edmund Gwenn is also especially welcome as the Dean of Cardinal.

Heart-throb Taylor was mobbed when he came to England to make the film. It is the first film of Peter Murray-Hill (later the DJ Pete Murray).

Just look at this: it is written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan, Walter Ferris, George Oppenheimer, Leon Gordon, Roland Pertwee, John Monk Saunders, John Paddy Carstairs, F Scott Fitzgerald, Angus MacPhail and Frank Wead, based on a story by Sidney Gilliat and Michael Hogan.

It is shot in black and white by Harold Rosson, produced by Michael Balcon and scored by Edward Ward and Hubert Bath.

Also in the cast are Robert Coote, C V France, Griffith Jones, Morton Selten, Edward Rigby, Claude Gillingwater, Tully Marshall, Walter Kingsford, Peter Croft, Noel Howlett, Edmund Breon, Clive Dunn, Richard Wattis, Doodles Weaver, John Warwick, Kenneth Villiers, John Varley, Ronald Shiner, Syd Saylor, Phillip Ridgeway, Jon Pertwee, and Anthony Hulme.

It is spoofed in Laurel and Hardy’s A Chump at Oxford (1940).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6455

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