Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

2/10/2014

The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

♥♥♥

In lieu of a picture from the short film, which is rare, here is one of its Hungarian director Charles Vidor

QUICK REVIEW:

The Bridge is a short film based on American writer and critic Ambrose Bierce's famous short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge from 1890. It is about a presumed train-saboteur or spy, who is to be hanged from a bridge, but who flees and sees his family before him, but then feels something tighten around his neck...
SPOILER The whole survival-plot is a subjective fantasy: The man gets executed.
This short experiments with time and is visually stunning if uneven otherwise.
Its director is Hungarian Charles Vidor, who did small writing jobs after it, until he began getting feature directorial gigs, starting with uncredited work on the Boris Karloff-starring The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). He later directed big movies such as Gilda (1946), Hans Christian Andersen (1952) and Love Me or Leave Me (1955).

Related review:

Charles Vidor: A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite!

See 2 minutes of this fine short here, with a new soundtrack

What do you think of The Bridge?
Any comments on Charles Vidor and his films are very welcome

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

2/10/2014

The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

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