Union Pacific **** (1939, Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, Brian Donlevy, Henry Kolker, Robert Barrat, Anthony Quinn, Regis Toomey, Evelyn Keyes) – Classic Movie Review 5,204

Cecil B DeMille’s huge 1939 epic black and white Western film Union Pacific stars Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff and Robert Preston. It is set in 1862, when rival railroads are competing to get to California.

Producer-director Cecil B DeMille’s huge 1939 epic black and white Western film Union Pacific stars Barbara Stanwyck, who, though best known for melodramas and comedies, also excelled in Westerns, and this was one of her first. It is set in 1862, when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads are competing to get to California.

It also casts Henry Kolker as greedy senator Asa Barrows, who tries to get rich by throwing spanners into the works of the building of the new Union Pacific railway westward across the United States wilderness into California.

Stanwyck and Joel McCrea play colleen Mollie Monahan and  railroad man Captain Jeff Butler, who are the film’s good guys fighting off Indians and the bad guys.

Brian Donlevy and Robert Preston play the bad guys, gambler Sid Campeau and Dick Allen, Jeff Butler’s buddy but rival for the love of Mollie Monahan.

It also stars Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman, Robert Barrat, Anthony Quinn, Regis Toomey and Evelyn Keyes.

With plenty of big production values, splashy action (including a then famous train crash) and rousing acting, this is over the top a lot of the time, as would be expected of the showman producer DeMille, and very easy to enjoy.

Also in the cast are Stanley Ridges, Francis McDonald, Willard Robertson, Harold Goodwin, Richard Lane, William Haade, J M Kerrigan, Fuzzy Knight, Harry Woods, Lon Chaney Jr, Joseph Crehan, Joe Sawyer, Byron Foulger, Jack Pennnick, Charles Stevens, Syd Saylor, Dick Rush, Hal Price, Guy Usher, Chief Thundercloud, Sam McDaniel, Jim Kelso, Si Jenks, Will Geer, Russell Hicks, Davison Clark, Ward Bond, Dick Botelier, Stanley Andrews, and Sam Ash.

The screenplay by Walter DeLeon, Jack Cunningham and C Gardner Sullivan is based on the 1936 novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author Ernest Haycox.

The book is based on the experiences of civil engineer Charles H Sharman, who worked on the railroad from 1866 in Omaha, Nebraska, to the golden spike ceremony on 10 May 1869 that marked the joining of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

The film recreates the ceremony using the 1869 golden spike on loan from Stanford University.

The world premiere took place at three cinemas (the Omaha, Orpheum and Paramount) in Omaha, Nebraska on 28 April 1939. A special train took DeMille, Stanwyck and McCrea there from Hollywood to Omaha,  taking three days and making stops that drew large crowds. President Franklin Roosevelt inaugurated the celebration by pressing a telegraph key at the White House.

The cast are Barbara Stanwyck as Mollie Monahan, Joel McCrea as Captain Jeff Butler, Akim Tamiroff as Fiesta, Robert Preston as Dick Allen, Lynne Overman as Leach Overmile, Brian Donlevy as Sid Campeau, Robert Barrat as Duke Ring, Anthony Quinn as Jack Cordray, Stanley Ridges as General Casement, Henry Kolker as Asa MBarrows, Francis McDonald as General Grenville M Dodge, Willard Robertson as Oakes Ames, Harold Goodwin as E E Calvin, Evelyn Keyes as Mrs Calvin, Richard Lane as Sam Reed, Emory Parnell as Foreman, John Marston as Durant, Nestor Paiva as conductor, Guy Usher as Leland Stanford, Adrian Morris as Railwayman, Elmo Lincoln as Card Player, ,William Haade, J M Kerrigan, Fuzzy Knight, Harry Woods, Lon Chaney Jr, Joseph Crehan, Joe Sawyer, Byron Foulger, Jack Pennnick, Charles Stevens, Syd Saylor, Dick Rush, Hal Price, Chief Thundercloud, Sam McDaniel, Jim Kelso, Si Jenks, Will Geer, Russell Hicks, Davison Clark, Ward Bond, Dick Botelier, Stanley Andrews, and Sam Ash.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,204

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