The Bridge of Retribution
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Bridge of Retribution |
| Original title | Across the bridge |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1957 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ken Annakin |
| script |
Guy Elmes , Denis Freeman |
| production | John Stafford |
| music | Benjamin Frankel |
| camera | James Bernard |
| cut | Alfred Roome |
| occupation | |
| |
The Bridge of Retribution (Original title: Across the Bridge ) is a British feature film from 1957 . It is based on the short story Across the Bridge by Graham Greene .
action
The fraudulent British financial tycoon Carl Schaffner learns during a business meeting in New York that Scotland Yard has searched his office in London and discovered secret papers that can prove his machinations. Since he has already been able to transfer $ 1 million to an account in Mexico City, he decides to go into hiding and flee to Mexico. Fearing that his name might appear on a pass list, he refrains from flying and takes the train instead. He is still in the southwest of the USA when he learns from the daily newspapers that Scotland Yard has acted faster than expected and has made sure that he is advertised at the border stations of the USA.
On the train, Schaffner gets to know fellow passenger Paul Scarff. Scarff is also on his way to the Mexican border to meet his wife there. Since Scarff has a Mexican passport and he looks like Schaffner, the latter decides to swap identities with Scarff. To do this, he stuns Scarff, exchanges passports and pushes him out of the moving train. At the next station, Schaffner gets off the train because Scarff was planning to do the same. On this occasion, he was also given Scarff's dog Dolores, who had been in the baggage car until then, and was now forced to accompany him on the further journey.
Schaffner is now driving his car to the nearby Mexican border, but discovers by chance that Scarff is wanted by the police for the murder of a governor in Mexico. In his role as Scarff, he would have to expect arrest on his entry, especially since a high reward is offered. So he decides to turn back to look for Scarff. When he finds him, he is seriously injured in a motel. This motel is run by Johnny and Mary. Schaffner takes away his own passport from Scarff. Schaffner uses a trick to give Johnny the impression that he could collect the reward if he handed him over to the police in Mexico, the alleged Scarff. Johnny falls for this trick and takes Schaffner, supposedly against his will, to the police in the Mexican border town of Catrina.
The police chief there is not sure whether he has Scarff or Schaffner in front of him, especially since Scarff's wife Schaffner identifies as her husband. Schaffner tells him about Scarff's actual whereabouts in the motel. While trying to arrest him there, Scarff is shot. The police chief then releases the conductor, but withholds his passport for the time being.
In the meantime, Scotland Yard has also arrived in Catrina in the form of Chief Inspector Hadden. He tries to have Schaffner sent back across the border because the USA would then extradite him to England. The police chief refuses to do so, referring to the legal situation, but nevertheless assures support. In particular, he promises to see to it that Schaffner, although de jure a free man, will not leave Catrina.
With a mixture of tricks, threats, blackmail and promises, the chief of police succeeds in preventing Schaffner from getting in touch with his lawyers or his company, nor being able to leave the place. After Schaffner's two failed attempts to escape and an equally unsuccessful attempt by Hadden to forcibly kidnap Schaffner across the border with the help of Johnny, the situation for Schaffner worsened dramatically. Even under pressure from Hadden, the police chief decreed that the residents of Catrina conductors would neither provide board nor lodging, nor would they support him in any other way. This also works because Scarff is considered a popular hero because of the governor's murder, and Schaffner is held responsible for his death.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Schaffner and Scarff's dog Dolores has changed fundamentally. Initially marked by dislike, later by ignorance, Schaffner slowly developed a relationship with Dolores, especially since Dolores warned him about the bite of a scorpion on one occasion. Schaffner has recently fallen into complete disrepair and is rejected by the population, so Dolores is the last to keep in touch with him.
By chance, Chief Inspector Hadden got Dolores under his control. He tied them up on the border bridge, but did so on the American side to lure conductors over. While trying to untie the barking and howling Dolores in the night, Schaffner is followed and hit by a police car with Hadden in it. He dies in the middle of the bridge, right on the border line.
criticism
“A fraudulent financial tycoon falls from the height of his power into the most miserable abandonment. His death while on the run, on a border bridge between the USA and Mexico, is caused by the first human emotion: an end and a beginning at the same time. "
various
The novel Across the Bridge by Graham Greene was filmed again in 2001 under the title Double Take , (German title: The double number ).
The bitch Dolores came from an animal shelter in Liverpool. Her trainer, Alan Percival, became so famous through the film that he named an animal shelter he founded after her.