An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (film)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Directed by	Robert Enrico
Written by	Robert Enrico
Based on	"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"; by Ambrose Bierce
Produced by	Paul de Roubaix; Marcel Ichac
Starring	Roger Jacquet [fr]; Anne Cornaly;
Cinematography	Pathé Distribution
Release date	1962;
Running time	28 minutes
Country	France
Languages	English; French

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (

fifth season of The Twilight Zone

on 28 February 1964.

Plot

A handbill posted on a burnt tree, dated 1862, announces that anyone interfering with bridges, railroads or tunnels will be summarily executed. Union troops prepare a civilian prisoner, Peyton Farquhar, for death by hanging from a rural railroad bridge. The soundtrack contains only bird noises and brief military orders. As the rope is adjusted about Farquhar's neck, a vision of his home, wife and children flashes before him.

When Farquhar is dropped from the bridge, the rope breaks and he falls into the river. He frees himself from his bonds, removes his boots, and begins swimming downstream as the troops fire at him. Farquhar is swept through rapids and crawls ashore exhausted but laughing with relief. Glimpses of tree branches, sky and crawling insects are interrupted by a distant cannon shot which sends him running through a forest, then along a linear and orderly lane. Finally arriving at the gates of his home, he pushes his way through foliage. Farquhar reaches open lawn and runs toward his wife as she walks toward him, smiling and weeping.

Just as the couple are about to fall into each other's arms, Farquhar stiffens and gasps, and his head snaps back. The scene cuts back to his body hanging from the bridge, his entire escape and reunion with his wife revealed to be an illusion experienced in the moment of the drop.

Cast

Roger Jacquet as Peyton Farquhar
Anne Cornaly as Abby Farquhar
Anker-Spang Larsen as Union Officer (as Anker Larsen)
Stéphane Fey as Union Captain
Jean-François Zeller as Union Sergeant
Pierre Danny as Union Soldier
Louis Adelin as Union Soldier

Twilight Zone airing

On February 28, 1964, three years after its production, the film was shown on American television as an episode of the fifth season of the fantasy/science fiction show The Twilight Zone.

The episode's introduction is notable for Rod Serling breaking the fourth wall even more than usual, as he explains how the film was shot overseas and later picked up to air as part of The Twilight Zone. Serling's introduction is as follows, delivered while sitting on a soundstage next to a movie camera:

Tonight, a presentation so special and unique that for the first time in the five years we've been presenting The Twilight Zone, we're offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."

Serling's closing narration states:

An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, in two forms: as it was dreamed ... and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination ... the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.

Awards

1962 Cannes Film Festival: Best Short Subject
1963
Academy Award, Best Live Action Short Film^[2]

Preservation

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.^[3]

References

^ "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Unifrance. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
^ "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

Sources

Zicree, Marc Scott (1982). The Twilight Zone Companion. New York: Bantam.
ISBN 0-553-01416-1
.

Barrett, Gerald R. (1973). From Fiction to Film: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-822100-83-6
.

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media.
ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0

Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (short film) at
IMDb

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (The Twilight Zone episode) at
IMDb

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge at AllMovie

[1] "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Unifrance. Retrieved 27 August 2022.

[NY_Times-2] "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2008-05-22.

[3] "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Season 1		"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
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Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"