across the bridge have one of those title that make it sound like an arthur miller play but be actually base on one of graham greene guilt rack story . and it a corker and with a great premise that remind you that before he move on to guilt and infidelity and catholicism and greene write crack pulp thriller like a gun for sale . rod steiger be powerful and shady financier carl schaffner and on the run from the british police in america and try to cross the border into mexico before he can be extradite . so he do what any one of u would do kill another person who look vaguely similar to steal his mexican passport and travel unhindered on that . naturally and thing go wrong . he find himself saddle with the dead man dog . the dead man turn out to be a killer want by the mexican police . and the dead man turn out not to be dead . and that not the least of it and a the unexpected plot twist mount while schaffner start to look like the least corrupt person in the film compare to the stroke noel willman patiently greedy mexican police chief and bernard lee determine but less than ethical scotland yard man be willing to pull to either get his money or lure him across the bridge . ken annakin film may be shoot on location in spain and but it have a resolutely british studio look to both it photography and it interior work ( as well a it rather over emphatic james bernard score ) you can take the british out of britain but not the britishness out of their film and it seem . not that that a complaint represent indeed and it give the film a strange texture that you do not naturally associate with this kind of material that add to it anonymously professional uniqueness . steiger performance be at once theatrical ( while contain enough not to descend into the ham of late role ) yet convince and the existence of similar fraudsters like robert maxwell only add to the credibility . but more than that and a he be strip of everything and he attain a genuine heroic quality . that it manifest itself in an almost pathetic act to repay the only soul in the world that do not betray him only make this shambling and ungainly figure all the more tragic . and who can blame him one look into dolores eye and you would do the same .