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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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Ray Liotta has died

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

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

2/10/2014

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

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