Made in 1938, A Yank at Oxford was filmed in England at the MGM studio Elstree.
Robert Taylor, in a change of pace after the romantic lead in Cukor’s Camille (opposite Garbo), plays Lee Sheridan, an arrogant young American athlete who intends to teach the “Brits” a lesson while attending Oxford University.
Sheridan’s abrasive attitude irritate the Oxonian students, who retaliate by subjecting Sheridan to a humiliating hazing.
Romance with Molly Beaumont (Maureen O’Sullivan), the sister of Sheridan’s chief academic rival Paul Beaumont (Griffith Jones) only complicates matters.
When Paul faces disgrace over a breach of student ethics, Sheridan takes the blame, thus endangering his future at Oxford and proving that he’s really a strong man.
All is forgiven during the annual rowing competition against Cambridge.
Cast as the campus vamp Elsa Craddock is the stunningly beautiful Vivien Leigh, just before her breakthrough role in Gone With the Wind.
Showing strong chemistry, Leigh and Taylor would reteam in the romantic melodrama Waterloo Bridge, in 1940.
The supporting cast includes past and future Oscar-winners, Lionel Barrymore and Edmund Gwenn, respectively.
A Yank at Oxford was remade in 1984 as Oxford Blues.
It was satirized by Laurel and Hardy in A Chump at Oxford.
Credits:
MGM
Running time: 100 minutes.
Directed by Jack Conway
Released: February 18, 1938.
