A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
- Minor Role
- (uncredited)
- Racetrack Timekeeper
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe OUAC on the shirts of the track team stands for Oxford University Athletic Club.
- Quotes
Elsa Craddock: [In the Dean's office, confessing] Oh Marmaduke, how can you? We were foolish, but it was only a flirtation.
Wavertree: [confused] I'm awfully sorry sir, but I'm afraid this is all rather beyond me...
Dean of Cardinal: [impatiently] Now don't lie to me sir, Mrs. Craddock has freely confessed everything!
Wavertree: Everything?
Dean of Cardinal: Everything!
Elsa Craddock: Everything!
Wavertree: [catching on] Oh... oh, she has! Oh... heh heh... oh, whoo! What a relief, sir! Now I need lie no more!
Dean of Cardinal: Ah, then you admit it!
Wavertree: Yes, rah-ther sir! Every time! I'd have told you in the first place sir, but we Wavertrees always protect the lady in the case!
Elsa Craddock: [somewhat sarcastic] He has a natural power over women. Try to use it for good, Marmaduke.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond (1990)
- SoundtracksAcademic Festival Overture Op. 80
(1880) (uncredited)
Written by Johannes Brahms
Played as background for the first scene showing the college sign
Robert Taylor is super-athlete Lee Sheridan from somewhere in quintessential, rah-rah, white America. His newspaper publisher dad, Lionel Barrymore, holds the presses so that his son's latest track and field victory can be bannered on the front page. Lee is the All-American collegiate sports hero.
Along comes an opportunity for Lee to go to Oxford and he's sent off with a parade, the first of several big processions in this film.
Lee is a boastful American but he's received with good humor and sharp pranks by the English students at the fictional Cardinal College. Conflict develops when Lee is attracted to Molly Beaumont, played by Maureen O'Sullivan. Molly is the sister of Paul, Griffith Jones, a fellow student whose rivalry with Lee is fueled by the latter's arrogant and, from an English viewpoint, unsportsmanlike behavior. The contretemps between the two handsome men is the center of the fable about competition and honor.
Complicating everything is Paul's relationship with pretty, flirtatious Mrs. Elsa Craddock, wife of a curmudgeonly and older bookshop proprietor. Elsa, clearly to our eyes an adulteress, may have been for original audiences little more than a simple charmer who professes love for serial college males but is never shown doing anything less chaste than planting quick kisses. Elsa is acted by Vivien Leigh who two years later had a starring role in some Hollywood spectacle about the Civil War.
"A Yank at Oxford" is a funny, light period piece most interesting for its reflection of a Hollywood that would soon shift gears as the world burned. It did allow Taylor to recast his image as a more manly character, his athleticism a change from the more effete roles for which he was better known. MGM had a plan here and it worked.
7/10 - worth renting.
- How long is A Yank at Oxford?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1