The Girl on the Bridge

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Hugo Haas
USA 1951

Saved from suicide by a kindly old watchmaker, an unwed mother takes a job at his store and eventually accepts his proposal of marriage. Their happiness is shattered when two unsavory men from her past show up and blackmail the couple.

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 1951 (USA)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: 20th Century Fox (Fox Cinema Archives) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	20th Century Fox Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:15:24
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.50 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: 20th Century Fox Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: August 12th, 2014 Keepcase Chapters 8

Comments

My recent request for more Hugo Haas on DVD in the review of Sony's Bait was answered and not from the director's usual studio, Columbia, but from 20th Century Fox that released his second US feature The Girl on the Bridge on made-on-demand disc in August. The film re-teams Haas with his Pickup star Beverly Michaels. She later would appear in her husband Russell Rouse's Wicked Woman as the title character and have a small role in prison break noir Crashout. I'm not sure who that lady-vamp is on many posters for this film, but Beverly Michaels for a change has a sympathetic role of a young girl who had a few missteps in her past, but now tries very hard to live a good live with her baby and a new husband, a watchmaker much older than her played by Hugo Haas. Without her knowledge, her past catches up and the husband commits murder to save their happiness.

The single-layered made-on-demand disc from Fox is surprisingly good. Thankfully, the film is from 1951, so it's presented in correct full screen aspect ratio and in black-and-white, so two of the biggest sins of Fox's Cinema Archive past releases are out of the way. The progressive image is surprisingly good, with very little damage and no interlacing or chroma evident as on some of their past releases that utilized transfers from VHS days. The mono audio is very good with no damage. The musical score by Harold Byrns, who also scored Pickup, and the unusual use of sound throughout the film with all the ticking sounds in the shop, comes out loud and clear. Per usual standard for these MOD releases, there are no subtitles and no extras. A very welcome and recommended release and I can't wait for more films by Hugo Haas making their authorized home video debut.

- Gregory Meshman

DVD Menu