Across the Bridge

Starring:Rod Steiger, David Knight, Marla Landi, Noel Willman, Bernard Lee, Eric Pohlmann, Alan Gifford, Ingeborg von Kusserow, Bill Nagy, Faith Brook, Marianne Deeming, Dan Jackson, Philip Rose, Jon Farrell, Lionel Ngakane, Stanley Maxted, Don Gilliland, Jack Lester, Mark Baker, Richard Dunn
Director: Ken Annakin
Studio: SHANACHIE
Product Type: DVD

Description

From a novel by Graham Greene, Rod Steiger plays an unscrupulous financier who has absconded to Mexico with company funds. A genius at improvisation, he evades the authorities and concocts a scheme whereby he will murder a man, dispose of the body and assume the dead man's identitie. He soon learns the dead man whose identity he assumed was an even more notorious fugitive from justice.

Customer Reviews:

Lost Classic - One of Steiger's Best.......2007-06-14

With so many new movies being released every month, it is easy to overlook some of older movies, they are often better than the formula driven hollywood machine movies that are far too common. Even though this was produced by a major studio, it has the same appeal as many of today's good Indie films. The story holds it's originality and has aged well. The plot which involves a embezziling CEO is very releavant today (this is not a spoiler). Sit back and enjoy. The quality of the DVD is great and the included 'making of' on the DVD is not he usual glib hollywood 'advert' but a true insight into the movies making and the actors motivation. I only give it 4 out of 5 because the plot is not as complex as we have come to expect, but the superb acting more than compensates.

An unjustly negected classic.......2006-11-06

Across the Bridge has one of those titles that makes it sound like an Arthur Miller play but is actually based on one of Graham Greene's guilt-wracked stories. And it's a corker, with a great premise that reminds you that before he moved on to guilt, infidelity and Catholicism, Greene wrote cracking pulp thrillers like A Gun for Sale. Rod Steiger is powerful and shady financier Carl Schaffner, on the run from the British police in America and trying to cross the border into Mexico before he can be extradited. So he does what any one of us would do - kills another person who looks vaguely similar to steal his Mexican passport and travel unhindered on that. Naturally, things go wrong. He finds himself saddled with the dead man's dog. The dead man turns out to be a killer wanted by the Mexican police. And the dead man turns out not to be dead. And that's not the least of it, as the unexpected plot twists mount while Schaffner starts to look like the least corrupt person in the film compared to the strokes Noel Willman's patiently greedy Mexican police chief and Bernard Lee's determined but less than ethical Scotland Yard man are willing to pull to either get his money or lure him across the bridge...

Ken Annakin's film may be shot on location in Spain, but it has a resolutely British studio look to both its photography and its interior work (as well as its rather over-emphatic James Bernard score) - you can take the British out of Britain but not the Britishness out of their films, it seems. Not that that's a complaint: indeed, it gives the film a strange texture that you don't naturally associate with this kind of material that adds to its anonymously professional uniqueness. Steiger's performance is at once theatrical (while contained enough not to descend into the ham of later roles) yet convincing - and the existence of similar fraudsters like Robert Maxwell only adds to the credibility. But more than that, as he is stripped of everything, he attains a genuine heroic quality. That it manifests itself in an almost pathetic act to repay the only soul in the world that does not betray him only makes this shambling, ungainly figure all the more tragic. And who can blame him - one look into Dolores' eyes and you'd do the same.

"Where there's business, I have connections.".......2004-09-23

International financier Carl Schaffner (Rod Steiger) is in New York when he receives the news that Scotland Yard is investigating him for the disappearance of huge sums of money. He decides to flee to Mexico (where he has a million dollars conveniently stashed), and then travel from there to yet another destination. To ensure anonymous travel, he takes the train across America to Mexico. On the last leg of the journey, he meets a middle-aged man, Paul Scarff (Bill Nagy) who says he's traveling to Mexico to be reunited with his wife and baby. Schaffner concocts a scheme to kill the stranger and assume his identity. After carrying out his plan, Schaffner realizes that he has assumed the identity of a wanted man. From this point, Schaffner's plans rapidly unravel, and soon he finds himself stuck in Mexico.

Rod Steiger as Schaffner is perfect in the role. When the film begins, Schaffner is arrogant--obviously a powerful man who is used to ordering his minions around. He's polished and ready with a smooth plan for escape, and the plan represents in Schaffner's mind "an opportunity" and little hardship. Once outside of his powerful world, Schaffner finds himself in a situation that levels him to the position of an ordinary person. He is literally stripped of his power and position, and he finds himself in a situation where no one really cares who he is or what he wants. He just doesn't matter any more. He attempts to hold onto his autocratic ways in a pathetic denial of the facts. Steiger carries off this transition from wealthy, privileged businessman to a struggle for survival with aplomb, and he delivers an incredible, riveting performance.

"Across the Bridge" is a black and white film based on a Graham Greene story. As with many of Greene's complex stories, the characters must deal with a range of moral dilemmas. In the film, Schaffner is basically an amoral person whose god is money. Schaffner obviously isn't a very nice person. He's an embezzler, treats his employees brusquely and he's ready to murder to steal someone else's identity. But Schaffner's character is also revealed in his relationship with Dolores, the dog owned by Paul Scarff. At first, Schaffner has no interest whatsoever in the dog, and he's ready to abandon her quite cold-heartedly. Schaffner's misfortunes, however, result in his recognizing the inherent faithfulness of Dolores, and it is in the relationship between Schaffner and Dolores that he finally finds his humanity.

The DVD also includes a 30-minute interview with director, Ken Annakin. Annakin recalls meeting Steiger in later years, and Steiger expressed that he considered "Across the Bridge" to be his second best work after "The Pawnbroker." "Across the Bridge" is a phenomenal entry in the genre of British Noir, and I recommend this gem of a film wholeheartedly--displacedhuman

A Film Noir Classic.......2004-02-29

Ken Annakin is one of the most widely traveled international directors in cinema annals, journeying to every continent to accept the kinds of creative challenges daring filmmakers, in the ranks of which he definitely resides, thrive upon. Among his celebrated triumphs are "The Longest Day," in which he directed the most difficult battle scenes of Darryl F. Zanuck's classic, "Swiss Family Robinson," one of the industry's all-time grossers,and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines," a brilliant spoof containing some of the most inventive scenes in aviation filmmaking, for which he and co-scenarist Jack Davies received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

"Across the Bridge," a great British film shot in Spain, on its 1957 release was heralded as a suspense classic along the lines of Carol Reed's "The Third Man" eight years earlier. Reed led the early chorus of praise for a film unique in its presentation that traces the degradation of a haughty, corrupt, and thoroughly arrogant international financier who sees his world of opulence destroyed piece by piece when, after being alerted that Scotland Yard is pursuing him on fraud charges, travels from New York to Texas and, ultimately, Mexico to elude authorities. Adapted from a Graham Greene story, the same celebrated British author who wrote the screenplay for "The Third Man," Annakin aided scenarists John Stafford and Guy Elmes in their effort to convert a short story into a full-fledged drama concentrating on the psychology of greed interspersed with the theme of alienation.

When Rod Steiger, who catapulted to international stardom portraying the hunted international financier, arrives in Mexico, he learns that Bernard Lee of Scotland Yard is nipping at his heels. International law temporarily prevents Lee from crossing the American border in Texas to apprehend the fugitive businessman, so Steiger plots to put more distance between himself and Lee. Standing in the way is local police chief Noel Willman, who frustrates Steiger repeatedly by spurning his offers to bribe his way out of town. Willman, who achieves sadistic delight by watching the once powerful, now helpless Steiger squirm, plays his trump card ruthlessly, compelling his victim to remain where he is, unable to secure passage out of town and frustrated by Lee from crossing into Texas.

The film scales a psychological crescendo when the once potent and arrogant international financier is reduced to sleeping in dusty culverts under the stars, with one friend left to him in the world. For once his money is of no benefit. Steiger's lone friend is a dog named Dolores, acquired as he was leaving the train in Texas after knocking its owner unconscious and stealing his identity. The identity switch ultimately backfires when Steiger learns that his victim, played by Bill Nagy, is wanted for the murder of the provincial governor of the border region to which Steiger has retreated in putting distance between himself and Scotland Yard.

Product Description

Fighter pilot Ben Rubin seeks help from the psychiatrist Dr. Sokol to overcome his frea of crossing the bridges. And all has started when he met his wife Ania from Belgrade and soon when bomning her country...

Average customer rating:

Lost Classic - One of Steiger's Best
An unjustly negected classic
"Where there's business, I have connections."
A Film Noir Classic

Across the Bridge [Region 2]
Starring: Rod Steiger , David Knight , Marla Landi , Noel Willman , and Bernard Lee
Director: Ken Annakin
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0001WAGKQ

Customer Reviews:

Lost Classic - One of Steiger's Best.......2007-06-14

An unjustly negected classic.......2006-11-06

"Where there's business, I have connections.".......2004-09-23

A Film Noir Classic.......2004-02-29

Product Description

Recorded Live on April 12 and 13, 1996 at Registry Hall on Ellis Island in New York. PROGRAM: 1) Opener: America; 2) A Heart in New York; 3) A Poem on the Underground Wall; 4) Searborough Fair; 5) Homeward Bound; 6) Cecilia; 7) Crying in the Rain; 8) El Condor Pasa (If I Could); 9) All I Know; 10) Bright Eyes; 11) Bridge Over Troubled Water; 12) Mrs. Robinson; 13) The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy); 14) April Come She Will; 15) The Sounds of Silence; 16) Grateful; 17) Closing Credits Goodnight My Love. ++++ DVD Features: This officially licensed release from South Korea provides 4:3 Full Screen picture with Dolby 2.0 Surround Sound in ENGLISH with optional (removable) English subtitles . NTSC Code 0 ALL-Region DVD is playable worldwide.

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