MovieChat Forums > Waterloo Bridge (1940) Discussion > Was Taylor supposed to be British?

Was Taylor supposed to be British?

posted 9 years ago by danashley
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm assuming Robert Taylor was playing a British officer yet he has a clearly American accent. Did I miss some explanation like he was Canadian or grew up in the US?

[–] joystar5879 9 years ago

No explanation whatsoever. Roy was supposed to be British, and "Devil take the hindmost". (g) Sadly, Robert Taylor's natural accent stood out like a corn field at Buckingham Palace! It's interesting, because Lucile Watson was an American, and did an excellent job of playing Roy's mother.

I do hope he won't upset Henry...

[–] danashley 9 years ago

Thanks for replying. I'm sure glad Vivien Leigh did not go with her natural accent in Gone With the Wind.

[–] jnathan 9 years ago

His character was a British captain, but more specifically I think he was Scottish as well. He mentioned his familial estate being in Scotland and the butler that raised him as a child also had a Scottish accent when they showed up there. But I figure since this movie was made only 10-12 years after the first talkies in the late 20's, most audiences weren't too particular about the accents in movies. I'm guessing that he (Taylor) couldn't do a believable accent, so they decided that his natural voice would have to suffice.

My vote history: http://us.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=9354248

[–] danashley 9 years ago

I think you are right about Taylor. He looked good but was not a great actor. Tyrone Power, who I think was a better actor, did not attempt an Irish accent in
"This above All" and his character, being Irish but forced to fight in the British army, was central to the plot.

[–] vinidici 8 years ago

In the original 1931 version, Roy (Douglass Montgomery) is Canadian, and many Canadians speak and sound much the same as Americans.

But with Robert Taylor as Roy in the 1940 remake, Roy's wealthy family all live at their British estate; therefore one must use one's imagination and suppose that Roy's blue-blooded family sent him to American or Canadian boarding schools, where Roy acquired his "west of the Atlantic" accent.