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AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE
aka
INCIDENT AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE; AN OCCURRENCE
(La Rivere du Hibou)
Rating:  ½
France. 1961.
Director/Screenplay – Robert Enrico, Based on the Short Story An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, Producers – Paul de Robaix & Marcel Ichac, Photography (b&w) – Jean Boffety, Music – Henri Lanoe. Production Company – Filmartic/Films du Centaure.
Cast:
Roger Jacquet (Man), Anne Cornaly (Wife)
Plot: A man is sentenced to death by the Confederate army and hung from the side of a bridge. But instead the rope snaps and the man falls into the river below. He manages to swim downstream and escape to safety. He runs through the woods and finally returns home. But as his wife comes out to meet him and her arms go around him, his neck snaps at the end of the rope.
This short 28 minute film is an adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s famous short story An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (1891). The short story has become justifiably famous for its twist ending wherein the hanged man’s apparently near-miraculous escape is suddenly reversed and explained as hallucinations occurring in the moments before his death. Indeed the story with its strange-events-explainable-by-the-protagonist-really-having-being-dead-all-along twist has become a model for numerous other imitators – including Carnival of Souls (1962), Seizure/Queen of Evil (1974), The Survivor (1981), Sole Survivor (1983), Siesta (1987), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), A Pure Formality (1994), The Others (2001), The Brown Bunny (2003), I Pass for Human (2004), Hidden (2005), Stay (2005) and of course The Sixth Sense (1999).
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge won the Academy Award as Best Short Film in 1964 and was subsequently picked up by CBS and re-edited to become an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959-64) for the series final season (although was not, as is frequently misreported, the last episode of the series ever aired). Although what most people do not know is that An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was originally actually a segment of an anthology film, Au Coeur de la Vie (In the Midst of Life) (1961), from director Robert Enrico, which adapted three Ambrose Bierce short stories. The rest of Au Coeur de la Vie sadly appears to have been lost today.
The video version seen here is unfortunately a print taken directly from The Twilight Zone – it even comes with Rod Serling’s introductory narration intact. The print copy is also very poor. Nevertheless the story comes across effectively. There is an excellent build-up of initial atmosphere and the subsequent scenes of Roger Jacquet getting free and running through the woods delight in a rapturous sensuality, drinking in the pure natural delights as though he were discovering the world all over again. And of course the twist ending comes with appropriate shock effect. The story is told tightly, effectively and without any superfluity.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1997
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