Un americano a Oxford

This film is a humorous examination of the differences between American and British college youth just prior to WWII with an American take on the situation. Robert Taylor plays Lee Sheridan, an American who comes to Oxford to study and also to run track and field. He runs into difficulty with everything from the English driving on "the wrong side of the road" to the British valuing tradition and teamwork over rugged individualism. Not helping matters is that Lee is a swaggering over-confident albeit talented braggart by the standards of any nation. To complicate matters, Lee's chief rival on the track team is the brother of a girl (Maureen O'Sullivan) in whom Lee is romantically interested.

To make such an "American fish in British waters" film just three years later after the war broke out and the US and England were allies would have been practically a precode in the eyes of the censors, even though cultural differences are always a problem, especially where boisterous youths are involved. It's an enjoyable little film featuring a young Vivien Leigh as she was waiting to become Scarlett O'Hara, and some fine character actor work from Edmund Gwenn as a dean who is still lovable as always even though he is openly contemptuous of Lee whose forward ways leave him shocked and flustered.

A skilled, albeit highly egocentric young athlete becomes A YANK AT OXFORD when he accepts a scholarship to the English university. Romance and various personal problems help punch a hole through his self-conceit.

Robert Taylor gets to show-off his athletic prowess (running, rowing) in this pleasant, lightweight film. Produced by MGM's British division, it is an enjoyable look at a privileged world about to be changed forever by World War Two.

Taylor does a fine job in the title role, but he is also aided immensely by excellent co-stars from both sides of the Atlantic: Lionel Barrymore, giving another acting lesson as Taylor's peppery, loyal father; lovable Edmund Gwenn, as the long-suffering Dean of (fictional) Cardinal College, Oxford; beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan, as Taylor's English girlfriend; and enchanting Vivien Leigh, one year before her tremendous success in GONE WITH THE WIND, as a philandering young wife with an eye for male students.

Equally impressive is a gaggle of less well known British actors: stalwart Griffith Jones, as Taylor's main college rival; Robert Coote, as a cheery student forever looking for new ways to get sent down; Walter Kingsford, as a benevolent dean; ancient C. V. France as a delightfully forgetful academician; and cuddly Edward Rigby as Taylor's elderly attendant.

Claude Gillingwater appears as Barrymore's caustic banker. Movie mavens will recognize Ethel Griffies as an Oxford proctor.

When all-star athlete Robert Taylor gets accepted to go to Oxford, his entire small American town is extremely proud of him. His newspaper owner father Lionel Barrymore prints glorious articles, and he gets a great sendoff when he sails off the continent. In England, he gets an entirely different welcome. His classmates tease and haze him, he makes a bad impression with the dean, Edmund Gwenn, and he gets entangled in a love affair with a married woman.

Vivien Leigh didn't seem to get the memo that she was in a different movie from Gone With the Wind. She played every line and expression as if she were Scarlett O'Hara, and her character wasn't much different, either. In this movie, she plays an unsatisfied wife who makes a sport out of seducing young college boys. She flirts constantly, and the only saving grace is that she's not the leading lady in this movie. Maureen O'Sullivan, who would have been equally as good - if not better - as Scarlett O'Hara, is Robert Taylor's real love interest.

I've never really been a Robert Taylor fan, but this was a fun movie of his to watch. He shows off his athletic prowess in running, rowing, and cycling. What an athlete! If you've got a crush on him, you've got to check him - I mean, this movie, out.

Hollywood's MGM, wanting to capitalize on the United Kingdom law that required its theaters to show at least 20 percent of its films be made in the commonwealth, created an English subsidiary company called MGM-British Studios. Its first movie released under the new branch was February 1938's "A Yank in Oxford." MGM longed to establish a presence in England ever since the 'Cinematograph Films Act of 1927' was passed by the Parliament, which was designed to project the UK movie industry from being overrun by Hollywood films. One product of the law produced a large number of cheaply made English B-movies, called 'Quota Quickies.' MGM felt it could improve upon the quality of the British pictures, using a mix of the county's talented actors with a few Hollywood stars. MGM production head Louis B. Mayer wanted to give one of his newfound actors, Robert Taylor, a more masculine edge to counter his 'pretty boy' image males viewers found a bit feminine. "A Yank at Oxford's" screenplay, with a contribution from writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, focused on college athlete Lee Sheridan (Taylor), a track and field specialist. His athleticism attracts the attention of one of the colleges making up 'the University of Oxford' network of schools, the fictitious Cardinal College. He meets student Molly Beaumont (Maureen O'Sullivan) as well as a philandering wife of a book store owner, Elsa Craddock (Vivien Leigh).

Taylor's macho image was forever imprinted because of "A Yank in Oxford," an objective Mayer had intended. Said Taylor biographer Lawrence Quirk, "He rows, he races, he wears brief track suits which demonstrate to everyone's final satisfaction that he has a good mat of hair on his chest, and he even gets into fist fights during the course of the film." It helped Taylor excelled in track when he attended Doane College years earlier. Before the camera the actor ran the foot races and the rowed in the skulls without needing any body double. Taylor later played in a number of World War Two combat films as well as in rough-and-tumble Westerns.

English producer Michael Balcon, responsible for elevating Alfred Hitchcock into his director chair, was head of the new MGM-British Studios. He was directing "A Yank in Oxford" when Louis Mayer, attentive towards his new overseas studio's first film, visited the set several times early in the production. Balcon and Meyers soon clashed over his methods, and shortly was replaced by MGM stalwart Jack Conway.

Balcom remained as producer for MGM-British Studios until heading to Ealing Studios. He saw the potential star power in English actress Vivien Leigh, and recommended to Mayer her for the role of the promiscuous Elsa. Leigh had a great acting experience with Robert Taylor in making "A Yank at Oxford," who related that fact to producer David O. Selznick. This was the movie, along with a series of positive screen tests, that convinced Selznick Leigh would be perfect for his Civil War epic. Film reviewer Laura Grieve noticed, "There are glimpses of Scarlett O'Hara in Leigh's bookstore vixen, yet her performance does not hint at the power and depth she would bring to her role in 'Gone With The Wind' the following year."

While making "A Yank at Oxford," Leigh sustained an infection on her foot and took some time off to treat the injury. One of her toes became so inflamed a hole was punched out of her shoe to relieve the pressure. The actress went through several personal pairs of her own during filming, and later claimed MGM refused to pay for them. MGM refuted her contention, saying it did. Leigh's manager, producer Alexander Korda, warned her to back off or he wouldn't not renew her contract. She did.

MGM's tactical plan to invest in England paid off. "A Yank in Oxford" was a success in both the United States and the UK. MGM made a Mickey Rooney sequel in 1942's "A Yank at Eaton" while Rob Lowe had his first lead role in another remake, 1984's "Oxford Blues." MGM-British Studios produced a couple of classics, 1938's "The Citadel" and 1939's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," before suspending its filming during World War Two. The studio resumed operations after the war until closing for good in 1970, partly because of Stanley Kubrick's richly ambitious 1968 film, "2001: A Space Odyssey.

Robert Taylor is "A Yank at Oxford," a 1938 comedy also starring Maureen O'Sullivan, Lionel Barrymore, Vivien Leigh, Edmund Gwenn, and Griffith Jones. Taylor is Lee Sheridan, an all-American athlete who is accepted into Cardinal College at Oxford and leaves his hometown and his dad (Barrymore) who owns a newspaper. Lee has no idea what he's in for, as his egotism makes him an easy mark for a fake "reception" by the students and other barbs. He immediately becomes attracted to the lovely Molly Beaumont (O'Sullivan), whose brother Paul (Jones) is having an affair with one Mrs. Craddock (Leigh). Due to a series of unfortunate events, Paul and Lee become mortal enemies.

This film surely had the women drooling in 1938 as Taylor uses his muscular arms to row, his strong legs to run, and his beautiful smile to charm. He glistens with youth and vitality, and there are plenty of shots of "the world's most perfect profile" to please his fans. Normally Taylor exhibits a very likable personality in films, but in this one, he comes off as too aggressive, finally becoming aggravating to this viewer. He was probably directed that way so that he would appear as a bull in a china shop among all the Oxford gents.

Taylor has fallen into disregard since declaring himself a good American and ratting out Howard da Silva and others during the '50s Communist witch hunts. No one came out a winner who was involved, not the victims nor the blabbermouths. The sad thing about Taylor is, he truly believed every word he said. If you can separate his politics from his career, he was a very good actor, a gorgeous man, and a very big star back in the day.

Maureen O'Sullivan is perky and pretty as Taylor's love interest - that same year, she and Taylor worked together in "The Crowd Roars." British actor Griffith Jones plays her brother and is not only excellent but very handsome. According to IMDb, he worked into the 1980s and is apparently still alive at 95.

The supporting cast is marvelous, including Edmund Gwenn as a professor and Lionel Barrymore as Lee's proud father. Vivien Leigh plays a flaky, flirty bookshop owner married to a much older man and not adverse to a little hanky-panky on the side. It's not much of a role, and though she was a natural beauty, no one would have considered her for Scarlett just watching this film. Her last line, however, given the character she portrays, is hilarious. She and Taylor would meet again for the classic "Waterloo Bridge."

"A Yank at Oxford" shows an England untouched by war and young men who worked at being superior athletes and gentlemen as they roamed the hallowed halls of Oxford. That would all end soon. It was a nice fairytale while it lasted.