The Girl on the Bridge

Producer, director, writer, and star Hugo Haas was no Hitchcock or Mann or Siodmak, but he was still an auteur in in his own right, investing all of himself in his series of 1950’s low-budget noirs, perhaps the most narratively satisfying being The Girl on the Bridge. Utilizing a quaint studio set featuring storefronts, streetlamps, and a footbridge where the pivotal moments take place, Haas does his best to establish a noir atmosphere for his tragic tale, a street corner in an unnamed locale which could just as easily be a small town as a gigantic city. Even his character’s job is nondescript: Haas plays David Toman, a shopkeeper who sells jewelry and gifts, his store window offering a panorama on the life stories unfolding outside, such as that of unwed mother Clara Barker (Beverly Michaels) whom he encounters one night contemplating suicide on the nearby bridge. His kindness not only potentially saves her life but sparks a friendship, then a relationship, then marriage and Clara’s second pregnancy. Soon after, Clara’s past comes back to haunt her in the form of a criminal ex-boyfriend (and father of her first baby) named Mario (Robert Dane), which leads to blackmail, murder, and suicide. Haas deserves plaudits for this story, which is brilliantly circular and less predictable than it might seem at the start. Evidence of economic efficiency abounds (shooting day for night on the beach, superimposing newspaper headlines and courtroom witness testimony to advance through the legal process, etc.), but the film never feels cheap; instead, it feels personal.