Across the Bridge Reviews

Powerful Graham Greene story of an international financier who has absconded with a fortune. Played masterfully by Steiger, the financier learns that authorities are after him in Europe while he is on a New York visit. Using startling and crafty moves, Steiger evades the authorities in his flight southwest to Mexico, managing always to keep one step ahead of his pursuers. The great character actor embraces his role with sinister relish, particularly during a train trip where he chances upon Nagy, who gets drunk and brags about his success, showing the wanted man his Mexican passport. In desperation Steiger murders the man, throws his body from the moving train, and assumes his identity, that of Paul Scarff. But when he arrives in Mexico, Steiger learns that the dead man was traveling with a dog, which he reluctantly removes from the baggage car. In Greene's grim twist of irony, Scarff is a wanted man. Finally trapped in a seedy little Mexican town ruled by a corrupt police captain (Willman in a riveting performance), Steiger is undone by his own masquerade; Willman believes him to be Scarff, also a thief who stole a fortune, and holds him incommunicado in order to obtain a large slice of the loot. None of Steiger's remarkable persuasiveness will convince the greedy cop that he is an impostor. A true Mexican standoff ensues, both men pitting their superior attitudes against each other; Steiger, who affects a High German accent, finally crumbles and is released to live like a ragged vagrant. His only friend is the dog of the man he murdered, an animal he grows to love, so much so that in his final break for freedom, he chooses the dog over his own safety. This excellent psychological study with surprises most of the way was filmed in Spain.