AL BRIDGE
February 26th, 1891 -- December 27th, 1957

Above: Al Bridge in his later years, after he had moved out of serials and become a prolific character actor in major and minor films.

Al Bridge would seem to be the most overlooked and forgotten of serial henchmen. I had never even heard of him or got a good idea of his cliffhanger career till quite recently, and it seems many people still have no idea of who Bridge is. Al's voice, which sounded like broken bottles being dragged across gravel, his face, which was shrewd and cynical-looking, and his considerable talent, got him some meaty heavy roles throughout his career, both as head villain and henchmen. In serials he was almost always a henchman (and on occasion a good guy!) but his henchmen sometimes seemed like they could hardly be classed as henchmen at all, so decisive and sarcastic were they. And, in addition to the great performances he always delivered in his serials, he also was a true pioneer of the cliffhanger henchman role, as shall be seen.

Bridge hailed from my home state, Pennsylvania, but other than that, there seems to be no information on his early years. Appropriately for a man with such a great villainous voice, he came to Hollywood a little after sound movies did, in 1931. He played the villain in his first film, the Tom Tyler B-western GOD'S COUNTRY AND THE MAN, and also wrote the screenplay, which would suggest that he had some previous writing experience before becoming an actor. At any rate, he made his serial debut the following year, at Mascot Pictures. THE HURRICANE EXPRESS (Mascot, 1932), featured Bridge as Karlson, a shifty stationmaster who was one of the prime suspects for the Wrecker, the serial’s mystery villain. Bridge performed the requisite red herring antics with style as hero John Wayne tried to discover just who the Wrecker was. The same year, Al had his first full-fledged heavy roll in Mascot’s THE DEVIL HORSE. He was Curley Bates, one of the most important agents of chief villain Noah Beery Sr. in Beery's plot to capture a splendid wild horse herd. Beery, Bridge, and their lackeys were even willing to kill a Texas Ranger as part of their greedy plot, but this proved their undoing when the Ranger's brother, Harry Carey Sr., arrived to investigate the murder. Carey joined forces with the Wild Boy (Frankie Darro), whose parents had been killed years earlier by the outlaws and who was now living with the horse herd, and the two tracked down Beery, despite Bridge's attempts to pin a murder rap on Carey. Mascot apparently liked Al's performance, and reused him again in their 1933 release FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON, starring John Mack Brown. Again the snarling Bridge played one of the chief henchmen for the jovial Beery, but this serial was not as enjoyable as THE DEVIL HORSE had been, mainly because of the ridiculous idea of having the outlaw raiders sing on their raids.

Above: Al Bridge (left) grapples with Johnny Mack Brown in FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON (Mascot, 1933).

While appearing in more B-westerns for other studios, Bridge kept on turning out serials for Mascot with amazing regularity. His next was BURN 'EM UP BARNES in 1934, in which he played Tucker, a gangster spearheading crooked businessman Edwin Maxwell’s attempts to ruin heroine Lola Lane's bus company. Jack Mulhall, as race-car driver "Burn 'em up" Barnes, prevented Maxwell’s crooked schemes from achieving success, but only after countless tussles with Bridge, Francis MacDonald, and other henchmen. BARNES lived up to its name, and practically burned up the screen with fast action that makes it remain one of Mascot's best-loved outings.

Above: Jack Mulhall, in helmet and goggles, is seized by Al Bridge (far left), Edward Hearn (behind Mulhall) and Francis McDonald in BURN 'EM UP BARNES (Mascot, 1934).

Al then was awarded his first good guy role in MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934), as Tom Henderson, construction foreman for heroine Verna Hillie and one of the suspects for being the Rattler. The Rattler was a modern-day outlaw mastermind trying to take over stagelines and other transportation systems, but hero Ken Maynard succeeded in unmasking him by the end of the serial, despite the villain's uncanny ability to disguise himself as anyone he chose. Bridge turned out to be a red herring and was killed halfway through the serial, and another suspect proved to be the Rattler in the last chapter.

Above, from left to right: Syd Saylor, Verna Hillie, Hal Taliaferro, Ken Maynard, Smiley Burnette, Al Bridge, and Jack Rockwell in MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934). It looks like Maynard may be accusing Al of being the mysterious Rattler.

Al was back to his customary sly villainy for ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (Mascot, 1935). This time he was not a henchman per se, but rather one of a pair of independent villains with plans of their own. His partner was Wheeler Oakman, and together the two stole Rex, the sacred horse of the Sujanese tribe, and brought him to the US to sell to unscrupulous tycoon Harry Woods. Kane Richmond and Rin Tin Tin Jr. befriended the horse, rescued it from Woods' mistreatment, and set out to undo the villainy of Bridge and Oakman by returning it to Sujan, incurring many perils along the way. REX was one of Mascot's last releases before merging with Monogram to form Republic, and would be Bridge's last serial for the studio that had hitherto been the scene of all his top-quality nastiness. Al was back to obeying the orders of another heavy in ADVENTURES OF FRANK MERRIWELL (Universal, 1935). As Black, one of the henchmen of a mysterious criminal named Dagget (Bentley Hewlett), Bridge bedeviled teenage sports hero Frank Merriwell (Don Briggs) as he searched for his missing father, imprisoned by Dagget. Al and fellow henchman Dick Wessell decided to doublecross Daggett in Chapter Nine, and made off in a boat with the gang’s recently-gained treasure. Al then tried to doublecross Wessell as well, and suceeded in knocking him out of the boat but was wounded in the process. The drifting boat was picked up by Frank Merriwell’s party, and Bridge was given medical attention in exchange for some important information on the whereabouts of Frank’s missing father. Al did a good job in MERRIWELL, the first of his many cliffhangers at Universal. The studio that would give him some of his best serial roles in the years to come.

Above: Kane Richmond, far left, collars Al Bridge while Harry Woods (far right) tries to pretend he's never seen Bridge before in this lobbycard crop for THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (Mascot, 1935).

John King, who had played Don Briggs's sidekick in FRANK MERRIWELL, got his own starring vehicle the next year when Universal released ACE DRUMMOND, and Al popped in to give King as hard a time as he had Briggs. A henchman of the mysterious villain known as the “Dragon,” Bridge’s character posed as an archeologist and ultimately attempted to doublecross both the good guys and the bad guys in order to force scientist C. Montague Shaw to lead him to a lost mountain of jade. Al's chicanery didn't pay off, though, and following a fistfight with King in Chapter Eleven, he attempted to escape in a plane, only to be blown up by the Dragon, who had taken a dim view of Bridge's attempt to impersonate him earlier in the serial.

Above: John King, taking cover behind a Chinese idol, prepares to surprise Fred Vogeding (far right) and Al Bridge in ACE DRUMMOND (Universal, 1936).

Perhaps the best role of Al's cliffhanger career came in JUNGLE JIM (Universal, 1936). Grant Withers starred as Jungle Jim Bradley, who was leading a safari in search of a missing heiress, Joan Redmond (Betty Jane Rhodes). Joan had been shipwrecked on the African coast as a child, and had grown up as the Lion Goddess of a tribe of primitive natives. Her uncle, Bruce Redmond (Bryant Washburn) was determined to keep the family fortune to himself, and led another expedition in hopes of beating Jim to the girl and eliminating her. Bridge was Slade, Redmond's guide and (at first) henchman. Once Redmond started showing signs of extreme cowardice and stupidity, however, Bridge and his partner Paul Sutton began to take over the reins, and ultimately Al emerged as the true leader of the Redmond faction. The other faction of villains, led by an escaped convict known as the Cobra (Henry Brandon), gained control of the hostile natives, but, following Washburn's death in a later chapter, crafty old Al merely allied himself with the Cobra instead. Bridge nearly escaped his just desserts, but he was finally captured by Jungle Jim's sidekick Malay Mike (Raymond Hatton) and returned to civilization for trial. Bridge was at the top of his form in JUNGLE JIM, and provided one of the most formidable "third-party" villains ever seen in serials, literally snarling his contempt of Washburn ("Redmond ran out on us, the dirty rat!") and proved to be a match in cunning for Brandon and a worthy foe for Withers.

Above: Grant Withers and Betty Jane Rhodes (far left) watch as Basumba warriors surround Henry Brandon (white suit), Evelyn Brent, and Al Bridge in JUNGLE JIM (Universal, 1936).

Bridge had another large role as Clagget, chief henchman of the Secret Seven in WILD WEST DAYS (Universal, 1937). The Seven, an organization of cattle rustlers, coveted Larry Munroe's (Frank McGlynn Jr.) land as a route for their surreptitious cattle drives, and committed every crime possible (including kidnapping, murder, and inciting hostile Indians) to get it. Bridge, together with Charles Stevens as Buckskin Frank, was in the forefront of all this evildoing and clashed on many occasions with two-fisted hero Kentucky Wade, who was played by none other than Al's old nemesis from FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON--Johnny Mack Brown. Bridge had a smaller part in TIM TYLER'S LUCK (Universal, 1937), as a ship's captain named Trowbridge, and an even smaller role in FLAMING FRONTIERS (Universal, 1938), as Merkle, a henchman who was murdered by James Blaine's lackey Breed (Charles Stevens again) to keep him from talking.

Above: Walter Miller (left) gives orders to Al Bridge in WILD WEST DAYS (Universal, 1937).

Al's last notable role in a serial was as (appropriately) as a henchman, one of the field commanders of Robert Fiske's evil outlaw band in the blockbuster Western serial THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOCK (Columbia, 1938), which starred Gordon Elliott in the role which would give him his screen name of William "Wild Bill" Elliott. Bridge did turn in brief but good cameo performances as a sailor in THE PHANTOM CREEPS (Universal, 1939), a guard in BUCK ROGERS (Universal, 1939), a cavalry captain in WINNERS OF THE WEST (Universal, 1941), and another ship's captain in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (Universal, 1941).

After HORNET, Al left serials behind, and "graduated" into a career as an excellent character actor, both as the chief villain in B-westerns like William Boyd's PARTNERS OF THE PLAINS and Charles Starrett's BOTH BARRELS BLAZING and as tough-guy types in Preston Sturges films like SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS and HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO. In fact, Al had noticeable parts in almost all the Sturges comedies, and was used by some other well-known directors, including Elia Kazan (A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN), Alfred Hitchcock (STRANGERS ON A TRAIN), and Frank Capra (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, in a superb little bit as the kindly sheriff in the last scene). Al's last movie was the Republic A-western HELL'S OUTPOST in 1954; four years afterwards, this wonderful performer passed away.

Al Bridge is little-known to many serial fans, and that's a pity, as he helped, perhaps more than any other actor did, to shape and define the role of the classic cliffhanger henchman. Independent and ruthless in their own right and always able to improvise a scheme to confound the hero, Bridge's henchmen kept the action going and served as role models for later villainous characters portrayed by Kenne Duncan, Bud Geary, or Anthony Warde. Let's hear it for the snarling, sneering, and superlative Al Bridge, an "unsung villain" if ever there was one.