One of my favorite underrated directors of the past is Charles Vidor. Among the top films in his filmography are ‘Cover Girl’ (1944) starring Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth, which is certainly one of the best musicals of its era and the delightfully sensuous and darkly peculiar ‘Gilda’ (1946)–really the ultimate Rita vehicle and still a great watch despite a script that feels like it was being written ten minutes ahead of each camera set-up. (Lots of great lines, though). Much like another neglected director of that era Robert Florey who I posted about last week, Vidor made an experimental short in the late 1920s seemingly as a way to advertise his already considerable visual talents. ‘The Bridge’ is a ten minute adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s ‘An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge’ and, amazingly, survives. It’s well worth your time and, as always with older films, there’s something of a meta experience in watching it as well. Vidor was twenty-nine years old when this was made and had already been in Los Angeles for at least a year (probably more) so it’s reasonable to assume that’s where this was shot. But where? Given that the story requires a bridge, water and dusty paths and roads, my vote is somewhere out in Malibu, perhaps in Las Virginies Canyon. I like the idea of Vidor and a few buddies going out there, perhaps on weekends with equipment stolen from the studio where one of them worked, and finding ways to make this work. (Where did the civil war costumes come from? Perhaps one of them was friends with one of the ladies in the costume department). There’s a very effective shot following the main character running which is clearly shot from a moving car and the imagery of his memories of his youth with his mother really is quite heartbreaking. Everyone who’s made a movie has, of course, made a first movie–and its an experience that more often than not tends to be the best of all filmmaking memories. Things only get more difficult the longer you make movies and this was true for Vidor. By the 1940s he was constantly involved with lawsuits with Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn and his life ended on a movie set–he died of a heart attack while shooting ‘Song Without End’ in 1959. Live by the sword etc. But in ‘The Bridge’ we see a young filmmaker with obviously a hunger to express himself through cinema and with the will to put it together and create something unusual, accomplished and emotionally still highly effective..