Across the Bridge

Ken Annakin’s Across the Bridge, based on a story by Graham Greene, is under-visible and under-appreciated by noir enthusiasts, and that needs to change. Rod Steiger plays German-British financier Carl Schaffner who flees to Mexico to dodge Scotland Yard and the FBI when his embezzlement scheme is exposed. On the train south from New York, he drugs a man to steal his identity and Mexican passport only to learn later, in a characteristically noir plot twist, that this man too is a criminal on the run. Schaffner is not at all likable. He’s a rude egotist who snaps at strangers and discards dogs on the side of the road; it’s no wonder his wife recently killed herself. The film’s first half comprises his action-packed flight to Mexico while the second, slower-paced half covers his cat and mouse game with law enforcement at the border: Schaffner on the Mexico side, law enforcement on the American side, with only a bridge in between. The score by James Bernard adds excitement and tension throughout, especially in the opening sequences, and the train scenes are choreographed to maximize suspense. In the end, Schaffner finds himself with only one friend in the world: that same little mutt he tried so hard to abandon. What did we ever do to deserve dogs?