GIRL ON THE BRIDGE was Hugo Haas' follow-up to his sleeper hit PICKUP, both of them starring statuesque starlet Beverly Michaels. In PICKUP, Beverly was a busted carnival floozy who marries middle-aged railroad track manager Haas only because she has no other options but is soon ready to leave and with some money, thank you. That sex melodrama was an unexpected hit, and the studios were eager for a follow-up. Haas rushed out GIRL ON A BRIDGE, with Michaels as a suicidal unwed mother and Haas a lonely jeweler that starts out as a gentle drama before taking a film noir turn. It was not a sex melodrama, however, which posters promised, and audiences expected, and the movie sank at the box office. It's failure also likely led Haas to look for another leading lady for his next project, finding his ultimate muse in Cleo Moore. The irony is that GIRL ON THE BRIDGE is a much more impressive picture today than PICkUP with Michaels revealing an unexpected ability to play a vulnerable heroine, and Haas easily giving the best acting performance he ever did of any of his movies.
On a foggy late night, Haas is walking on the sidewalk of a bridge when he passes a clearly distressed young woman. He immediately senses she is considering jumping off the bridge and stops to tell her things will look better in the morning and he has been in her situation in the past but now his life is good, and he runs a successful if small jewelry shop at the foot of the bridge. She seems somewhat comforted by his words, and he walks on, hoping he has made a difference (this part seems odd, surely he would have stayed to make sure she would go home.) The next day he is surprised when she shows up at his shop to thank him for his sympathy. She arrives with her baby daughter, explaining she's an unwed mother and she was distressed that she no longer had someone to look after the baby while she works as a waitress. This part is odd, too, she's going to kill herself because she has no babysitter and leave the baby alone in her apartment? Equally odd is her quick agreement to let Haas watch the child for her in his shop, where he lives in the back rooms. Leave your baby with a complete stranger?? These three plot bits seem wildly improbable and may have resulted in the generally bad reviews the movie received in 1951 but they are quickly out of the way as the story goes on. The duo tells each other their sad stories. She was a showgirl whose boyfriend (Robert Dane) left her to tour with his band, thanks largely to his sleazy cousin/manager (Johnny Case) who wanted her out of the picture; he was a married man in Germany who wife and children were murdered by the Nazis. Haas becomes a devoted surrogate father to Beverly's baby, Judy as well as close to her and when Beverly gets a job as a housekeeper out of town, Haas offers to hire her for the same position with more money. Things are going swimmingly until Beverly overhears a nasty neighbor gossiping about them living together and speculation that Haas is Judy's father. Beverly's upset but Hugo is charmed by the fantasy that he could be the father. He persuades Beverly to marry him if to only give Judy a name, promising theirs could be a celibate marriage if she wished. They do marry and actually fall in love and before long Beverly is pregnant with his child. Hugo is overjoyed to have another family at long last. Trouble is in the air when sleazy manager Case is in town with the band and spots Beverly at the jewelry shop, when he tells his cousin Robert Dane, Dane can't resist popping in the shop and starts asking questions like does he have any employees. He then spots baby Judy and realizes this is his child and comes clean with Haas. Haas tells him that's he's married to Beverly, he loves Judy like his own and begs Dane to leave them in peace, offering to pay him to go away. Dane realizes he had done Beverly wrong and tells Haas he won't cause any trouble and leaves, but he tells his cousin what happened later when quizzed about the visit. The sleazy cousin is outraged Dane did not take any money. Presuming the jewelry shop owner is loaded and stops by himself in an attempt to blackmail Haas. When Haas tells him he does not have the $5,000 the crook demands, the sleazeball starts digging around the shop and then tries to enter the back where Beverly and Judy are sleeping. Terrified, Haas impulsively picks up a heavy candlestick holder and clobbers the guy with it, killing him.
This film starts out as a gentle little drama, atypical for Haas when it suddenly takes that film noir turn. It's not a "bad girl" film noir though; indeed, Beverly Michaels is quite the modest, almost mousey leading lady here, far more a Joan Fontaine or Barbara Bel Geddes type than a Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth. It's a surprising transformation for Michaels and the biggest surprise is how well she pulls it off, never once with a hint of the raunchy tramp that was Beverly's stock persona. She is matched with Hugo Haas giving the best acting performance of his career. Haas often gave too many little overdone "character actor" touches to his acting whether playing a reclusive cheapskate (PICKUP) or gregarious chatterbox (HIT AND RUN, ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION). He did give good performances playing a villain (BAIT) and an erudite (THE OTHER WOMAN) but here he is at his very best, sensitively playing a lonely, troubled man who has happiness land in his lap out of the blue before it seems to be in danger of disappearing just as quickly. As the other man, obscure actor Robert Dane is also terrific, one is never sure if he's a good guy or a bad one. Most of Dane's other film work was just as an extra; Hollywood is a hard nut to crack.
The final plot twists are unexpected and while for once Haas is successful at earning audience compassion for his character (which really didn't happen in PICKUP and THE OTHER WOMAN despite being tilted toward it), I suspect 1952 moviegoers were unhappy with this film's ultimately tragic spin and kept it from being as popular as PICKUP and his later Cleo Moore vehicles. Nevertheless, THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE is one of his best movies, made with great taste. Alas, like tuna fish, most fans of 1950's B movies don't want movies with good taste, they want movies that taste good, like a juicy bad girl melodrama.
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