Denver and Rio Grande *** (1952, Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden, Dean Jagger, Laura Elliot, ZaSu Pitts, Lyle Bettger, J Carrol Naish, Tom Powers, Robert Barrat, Don Haggerty, James Burke) – Classic Movie Review 13,758

Paramount Pictures’ 1952 American Technicolor Western film Denver and Rio Grande stars Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden and Dean Jagger in a story of the building of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad in the Colorado mountains.

Director Byron Haskin’s 1952 Paramount Pictures American Technicolor Western film Denver and Rio Grande stars Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden and Dean Jagger, along with Laura Elliot, ZaSu Pitts, Lyle Bettger, J Carrol Naish, Tom Powers, Robert Barrat, Don Haggerty, and James Burke. So, a grand film with a sterling cast.

The plot tells the story of the building of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad, chartered in 1870. It is a fictional version of two factual right-of-way struggles in 1878-1879 between the Denver and Rio Grande and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (here called the Cañon City & San Juan RR).

A familiar tale of a chase to run the railroad across the Colorado mountains is emphatically acted by an exceptional stalwart Western cast (especially Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden, Dean Jagger, ZaSu Pitts), briskly and economically told by the on-form director Byron Haskin, and excitingly shot in Technicolor by Ray Rennahan.

There are a few minuses (Laura Elliot as the heroine, for instance, admittedly in a dull role), but it is full of virile action and gripping throughout, topped by its highlight, the climactic spectacular head-on train crash, actually done for real. And, plus, it is filmed on actual D&RG track (now the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad) near Durango, Colorado.

The collision between two Denver and Rio Grande Western locomotives #319 and #345 (painted as the #268), which were slated for retirement and scrapping, was filmed on 17 July 1951.

Denver and Rio Grande is directed by Byron Haskin, runs 89 minutes, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Frank Gruber, is shot by Ray Rennahan, is produced by Nat Holt and Harry Templeton, and is scored by Paul Sawtell.

It was shot in the summer of 1951 on location and released on May 16, 1952.

It was released on VHS on November 11, 1998, and on DVD and Blu-ray on May 29, 2012.

While under contract to Paramount, Kasey Rogers used the stage name of Laura Elliot.

The 1950 Western A Ticket to Tomahawk was shot on the same tracks as Denver and Rio Grande.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,758

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com