Hugo Haas’s The Girl on the Bridge sticks to form: an older man becomes enamored of a younger woman and pays the price. This time 'round Haas himself plays an aging shopkeeper who stops a destitute mother (Beverly Michaels) from tossing herself off a bridge. He finds her a place in his home, and then in his heart. She accepts. Unfortunately, she's got a sketchy past that catches up with her in the shape of her ex-jailbird husband and things go to hell in a hurry.
As Haas’s movies tend to, The Girl on the Bridge occasionally turns into tearful sentimentality. Haas's saving grace is the underlying sincerity and conviction that he brings to these noir-stained tear-jerkers. Endearingly self-effacing as an actor and serviceable enough as a director, he deserves greater credit for his undaunted attempts at low-rent artisanal auteurship.
Other titles worth watching are: Pickup (1951), Strange Fascination (1952), One Girl's Confession (1953), Bait (1954), The Other Woman (1954), Edge of Hell (1956), Hit and Run (1957) and Lizzie (1957).
Also, here's a link to a moving little segment from the Bob Edwards Show on NPR, broadcast April 9, 2010 in which the Czech-born Haas, a former refugee from the Soviet regime expresses heart-felt admiration for America:
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16598/
This one I've seen and I must admit, I liked it.
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