How sad is this?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

I think I'm going to scream if one more film is classed by some of our reviewers as a comedy. Is there humor here? Yes, but it is not a comedy. In fact, it's rather a drama.I had always avoided watching this film, although I'm not sure exactly why, although I'm not a tremendous fan of Robert Taylor. I don't dislike him; he's just not one of my favorites. But, he's excellent here. And, the film required the lead character to be athletic...and Taylor certainly is that here; quite impressive, really.Lionel Barrymore is supposedly the second lead, although his role here -- while important -- is not big. But, he's as good as always as Taylor's father.Maureen O'Sullivan is here as the female lead, although again, her screen time is not extensive.The bigger surprise here is Vivien Leigh -- in her film just before making "Gone With The Wind". However, here she just a tad bit plump in the face (at first I didn't recognize her), and I wasn't impressed with her acting at all.Edmund Gwenn is here in a somewhat small role as the university dean.The plot here is simple. An American goes to Oxford University, specializing in sports performances, particularly in regard to running. While a good natured fellow, he is also so brash as to be a bit of the ugly American. But, despite some ongoing clash of cultures, he wins the Brits over and doesn't disappoint his father, either.It's a good natured and entertaining film, if decidedly old-fashioned (but here, that's a good thing.

In the glory days of Hollywood, young stars in amid the studio system were given several chances to display their talent. Here is one for the budding young star later known as Robert Taylor. In this movie of which there are several versions is entitled " A Yank at Oxford " it is Taylor who plays Lee Sheridan, an U.S. athlete who wins a athletic scholarship to prestigious Oxford University in England. Lionel Barrymore plays Dan Sheridan his proud father, while beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan is Molly Beaumont his college sweetheart. Vivien Leigh, Edmund Gwenn, Griffith Jones as Paul Beaumont all gather to recreate life at the Oxford during the depression. Wedged between light humor and serious attention, the movie sails easily along and Taylor is able to deliver one of his many renditions of an up and coming actor. A good B/W film and notable offering. **

A young Robert Taylor plays an obnoxious but highly talented athlete who wins a scholarship to one of the colleges at Oxford. Unforutunately for him, his brash ways immediately alienate him from his classmates and the going is very rough. But, of course, there are people pulling for him--including some wonderful MGM stock actors.Despite a very good score of 7, I actually enjoyed the film more than the score might indicate. However, I really couldn't give the film a higher score since it was a tad formulaic and a tad hokey. You see, for me, I don't mind if a film from Hollywood's Golden Age has these qualities, as the studios knew this when they made some of these films. Sure, there was some predictability and a few clichés, but the films were highly entertaining and fun--so the secret is counter-balancing these aspects with a quality production. So, when braggart Robert Taylor (in one of his best early roles) appears, you KNOW that eventually he will learn humility and to become a team player. But, the journey along the way is so well done (thanks to excellent acting, writing, direction and music) that you just suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.

A black-and-white trip back to the glory days of the studio system, "A Yank at Oxford" was MGM's first feature movie filmed in England. Released in 1938 as the Depression was slowly losing its grip on America and the shadow of an inevitable global conflict was sensed by too few, this rollicking comedy about a clash of cultures - small town America and elitist Oxford - is a glimpse of a world that never existed except in movie theaters.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.