SOURCE: Ulrich, Ursula O. “‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’: The Short Story and its Cinema Adaptation.” In Proceedings of the 7th Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, edited by Eva Kushner and Milan V. Dimic, p. 421. Stuttgart: Erich Bieber, 1979.

In the following essay, Ulrich outlines the differences between “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and its film adaptation and asserts that the surprise ending “is even more effective in the film than in the story.”

Ambrose Bierce's short story is clearly divided into three parts: the first gives an outside observer's minute and objective description of the preparations for the hanging of a man on a railroad bridge; the second introduces the about-to-be-hanged man by name, briefly indicates his social and family situation, sketches his character, and relates the event which led to his conviction; the third and longest part of the short story is an...