A YANK AT OXFORD (1938)

Robert Taylor is an American college athlete who gets a scholarship at Oxford. Of course, he's a bombastic, bragging ugly American and he gets an early comeuppance at the hands of some Oxford boys on a train before he even makes to the university. Once there, he is subjected to a public de-pantsing (led by Griffin Jones, the ringleader of the train lads). Slowly, Taylor learns how to fit in though he still stays on the bad side of the Dean (Edmund Gwenn). He dates Jones's sister (Maureen O'Sullivan), and later takes the blame when Jones gets in trouble for seeing Vivien Leigh, the wife of a local bookstore owner. He risks getting "sent down" but Taylor's father (Lionel Barrymore) visits to watch a rowing match and helps set things right. After a rocky start in Taylor's hometown, the movie picks up with the Oxford setting definitely a plus. Taylor is not one of my favorites but he's adequate here; in his late 20s, he looks a little too mature for the part, but that's not a fatal error. Jones comes off best—though as always, Gwenn is a treat—and the cast also includes C. V. France as a dean who always calls Taylor by the wrong name, Peter Croft as a fellow student, and Edward Rigby as Scatters, Taylor's attendant. Some amusing rituals (which may or may not be based on fact) include the burning of the victory canoe, and a "funeral march" as a way to lay blame for a loss of face. There is also a reference to the novel Gone With the Wind—the movie version of which would prove to be Leigh's big breakthrough just a year later. Pictured from left are Taylor, Jones and Leigh. [TCM]