Both a pleasant study of upper-class American life 50 years ago and a scrutiny of repressed womanhood, this is an opportunity for Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward to shine, with performances that, though not always naturalistic, are carefully presented for our inspection, reflection and pleasure. The story spans roughly the years 1930 to 1945. Mrs Bridge, though secure in her family, remains a totally subjugated housewife whose consequently disturbed nature gives rise to occasional tearful outbursts. Husband Walter is a stuffy lawyer with rigid principles who is desirous of his wife, as he puts it, but not always as affectionate as he might be. Although rather heavily preoccupied with sexual relations, this is nonetheless rather a gentle and old-fashioned film by today's standards, with one or two particularly fine sequences, such as the scene in which the Bridges sit firm at their dinner table while a tornado howls outside and the rest of the restaurant customers cower in the cellar. Inevitably, the film is also a little dull at times and the ending, with its explanatory captions, is strange: almost as if the producers had run out of money.


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