A Yank at Oxford

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A Yank at Oxford
Image:A Yank at Oxford.JPG
Directed by	Jack Conway
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Starring	Robert Taylor Lionel Barrymore Maureen O'Sullivan Vivien Leigh Edmund Gwenn
Music by	Hubert Bath Edward Ward
Cinematography	Harold Rosson
Editing by	Margaret Booth Charles Frend
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	18 February 1938
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

A Yank at Oxford is a British 1938 film comedy produced by the British branch of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Jack Conway from a screenplay by John Monk Saunders and Leon Gordon.

It stars Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Vivien Leigh.

Plot Summary

A cocky American named Lee Sheridan (Robert Taylor) receives a scholarship to attend Oxford University. At first Lee is reluctant to go to the college due to his father's limited income, but he finally does attend. Once in England, Lee brags about his athletic triumphs to Paul Beaumont (Griffith Jones), Wavertree (Robert Coote), and Ramsey (Peter Craft) on the train to Oxford. Annoyed they trick him into getting off the train at the wrong stop. However, Lee does make his way to Oxford and is again tricked when the campus fools him into thinking that he is getting a grand reception. Angered he follows one of the pranksters impersonating the Dean and after chasing him is thrown off and ends up kicking the Dean of Cardinal (Edmund Gwenn) before retreating.

Lee considers leaving Oxford but stays on after being convinced by Scatters, his personal servant. Lee meets Elsa Craddock (Vivien Leigh) (a married woman who "helps" the new campus students) and starts a relationship with Paul Beaumont's sister Molly (Maureen O'Sullivan). Lee makes the track team and just when he begins to fit in he is hazed for pushing Paul out of the way during a track meet when asked to rest. In a fit of anger Lee goes to a local bar and finds Paul in a private booth with Elsa. He starts to fight with Paul when Wavertree comes in and warns them of campus officials coming. Lee and Paul run and when they are almost caught by one of the campus officials Lee punches him. Wavertree tells his friends that he saw Paul throw the punch and it is Paul who gets in trouble for hitting the official. He is scorned for saying it was Lee who punched him and Lee is soon the favorite of Paul's old friends. Molly begins to see him again, but Lee still feels poor for what has happened between he and Paul.

Lee begins rowing and tries to make amends to Paul after winning a race, but Paul rejects the offer of friendship. Though his offer of friendship was rejected Lee still helps Paul by hiding Elsa in his own room when Elsa is looking for Paul. The Dean catches the two of them together and expels Lee from Oxford. Lee's father, Dan Sheridan (Lionel Barrymore), comes for the bump races having not heard of Lee's expulsion from Oxford University. When Lee tells him that he had been having an affair with Elsa, Dan believes he is lying. Judging from Lee's letters about Molly he feels that Lee could not possibly have had an affair with Elsa due to the way he feels about Molly. Dan meets with Molly and the two devise a plan to get Lee back into college. Dan meets with Elsa at the bookstore and convinces her to talk to the Dean. After flirting with the Dean and telling him that Lee was only hiding her from Wavertree, Lee is allowed back into Oxford and Wavertree (who had been trying to get expelled for an inheritance from his uncle) was let off with a slap on the wrist. Lee and Paul finally make amends and win the bump races.

Trivia

This film was instrumental in getting Vivien Leigh noticed by David O. Selznick for the film Gone with the Wind. However it was known perhaps as early as 1938 that Vivien Leigh had (secretly) secured the role of Scarlett O'Hara. A funny piece of either ironic or planned scripting was when Lee Sheridan goes in to his tutor. His tutor asks him what he's reading, meaning in British parlance what he planned on majoring in. Confused, Lee replies he is "about half way through 'Gone with the Wind.' Vivien Leigh went on to play Scarlett O'Hara the following year.

It was followed a year later by a film entitled A Yank at Eton which was not filmed on location. Although the films portrayed the United Kingdom in a mainly positive light it was thought to harm US-British relations at such a sensitive time. It tellas the tale of an uncouth American attending Eton and having difficulty fitting even even though people try to accommodate him. It has the Eton boating song as its theme tune. It is rendered at a much faster pace than is normal for that air. Needless to say this film was not shot on location. It has been shown on TNT in 1995 and on UK TCM 30th September 2007.

Before this film, Robert Taylor was seen as the "romantic love interest" somewhat earning him a comparison to 1920s silent film star Rudolph Valentino. Men had come to doubt Taylor's masculinity. MGM head Louis B. Mayer cast Taylor in the film in an attempt to reclaim his doubted masculinity, and, surprisingly, the film did the trick. Taylor's reputation with both men and women went up dramatically.

Studio head Louis B. Mayer made several visits to the set as this was MGM's first British production. He even got into a fight with producer Michael Balcon within earshot of Vivien Leigh and Maureen O'Sullivan. Balcon resigned. (Courtesy TCM)

At first, Mayer was reluctant to cast the then unknown Vivien Leigh in the role of Elsa Craddock. Michael Balcon persuaded him to keep her, stating that she was already living in Britain and it would cost much more to fly someone else out to England. (Courtesy TCM)