Customer Reviews

Union Pacific [VHS]

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Cecil B. DeMille's contribution for that sterling movie year of 1939 was, of all things, a Western; but it's a brawling, two-fisted, action-packed Western. It is the story of the Union Pacific Railway, which was destined to link two oceans and open up the West. It's like a rough-and-tumble heavyweight slugfest-exciting, thrilling, gory and cumbersome. Stanwyck is excellent as the Irish Molly Monahan and as Jeff, Joel McCrea is first-rate - as Dick Allen, Robert Preston is terrific. DeMille's first choice for Molly was Jean Arthur; when she was unavailable, her turned his favourite, Barbara Stanwyck - they had worked together many times on the LUX RADIO THEATRE. The exterior shots were filmed in Iron Springs, Utah and Canoga Park, California (to double for Promontory Point). Interestingly enough, the golden spike used in the movie was the actual one used at Promontory Point. DeMille had it exhumed from the vault of Wells Fargo in San Francisco! Joel McCrea commented that Stanwyck was "Absolutely fearless and has more guts than most men". Also: "I have never worked with an actress who was more cooperative, less temperamental and a better workman, to use my term of highest compliment, than Barbara Stanwyck". - Cecil B. DeMille.

If it's directed by Cecil B. de Mille, you know there's going to be plenty of spectacle, and this film is no exception. Joel McCrea stars as a man hired by the Union Pacific railroad to be a troubleshooter as the build the railroad across the country. Not everyone wants to see it built, so sabotage causes lots of delays. Things get even more complicated for McCrea because his old pal Robert Preston is partnered with Brian Donlevy, one of the men trying to delay the construction. To add to it, Preston and McCrea are both in love with the same woman, an Irish lass named Molly played by Barbara Stanwyck. Train wrecks, Indian attacks, brawls, and other De Mille touches enliven the story. The actors aren't given much to work with, as in most De Mille spectacles, but they do well enough, although Stanwyck's accent is a little hard to swallow. Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman, as men hired to protect McCrea, add a lot of humour to the film with their knowing performances. The story moves along at a good pace, and although I like to make fun of Cecil B. De Mille movies, I must admit that I enjoyed this one more than some of the others I have seen. I like the time period and the trains, and in De Mille's hands, it's certainly not boring.

This film epitomizes the building of America, by heros and heroines. If you love steam engines, train wrecks, romance, dirty politics, and Indian fights, go for this classic. A complicated love triangle interweaves with the race to Ogden, Utah by the first intercontinental railroads. Barbara Stanwyck plays Molly, a "take-charge" Irish woman of highest integrity, forced to balance her romantic life with her dedication to the Union Pacific railroad. Implausable, but fun, including some good comedic bits. It's a "John Wayne" type of story, only without Mr. Wayne.

I hate the way people look at a black and white classic film and automatically think that the movie has to be bad. People only see the poor special effects and the absense of color but never judge a book by it's cover. " Union Pacific " is has a great western backed by a terrific director, great actors, and a large scale plot. Definently a great movie and a true classic.

Well what we've got here is a large-scale "epic" (though black-and-white in a year famous for it's early color spectacles) Cecil B. DeMille western, competing in the "great" year of 1939 with the now-acknowledged masterpiece Stagecoach, and the pretty well-remembered and regarded DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, ALLEGHENY UPRISING, THE OKLAHOMA KID, and the first three color examples of the genre - DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, DODGE CITY and JESSE JAMES. How does Mr. DeMille, the King of Hollywood, compare with all of that (not to mention about 125 more westerns that haven't fared quite so well in popular memory over the past 70 years)?

Only moderately well, I'd have to say. Though it boasts an unquestionably fine cast led by Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy and Anthony Quinn, and some spectacular action sequences (two train wrecks, a train robbery, a couple of gunfights and a big Indian raid), much of the time the film comes off as little more than a mass of clichés, bad dialogue, and stereotypes that would make Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu and Stepin Fetchit blush. The plot's interesting enough - the building of the transcontinental railroad as seen through a railroad engineer/"problem solver" (McCrea), the villains (Preston and Donlevy) he has to stop from sabotaging the title railroad from reaching the halfway point first (all for the financial gain of an unscrupulous banker), and the railroad post-woman (Stanwyck) torn between the man (Preston) she's promised herself to, and the more obviously heroic McCrea character; but everything is pretty much telegraphed here, the characters with the exception of Preston all wholly good or wholly bad and the action all rather absurdly overblown.

Because you see, DeMille is fully AWARE that he's making a Grand Statement film. I don't think I've ever seen a feature, including even the De Mille Biblical epics I've watched, so absolutely and absurdly full of itself and so intent on showing us the audience just how important it is. As plenty of writers before me have pointed out, this isn't even the first film based on this story that Hollywood made - John Ford's large-scale THE IRON HORSE covered some of the same ground 15 years earlier; and the whole manifest-destiny, America-must-conquer-the-west idea was pretty old hat, not just in westerns but in reality. Even by 1939 there were filmmakers not so blinded by simple maudlin pieties and facile attitudes about good and evil, hard work versus slothful drunkenness, savagery against civilization - but DeMille insists on making a film every bit as primitive in its dichotomous attitudes as Griffith in BIRTH OF A NATION, a quarter century earlier. Mind you, UNION PACIFIC's stereotypes of the God-fearing but heavy-drinking simple Irish and bloodthirsty Indians aren't quite as blunt as Griffith's racism - but his filmmaking isn't a tenth as exciting either.

As I said, some of the action scenes are nicely done, and Preston and Stanwyck (despite her ludicrously awful over-the-top Irish accent that comes and goes) especially do manage to show some real life and to keep things entertaining. I think the best scene is probably the dramatic 4-way showdown in Stanwyck's mail car with McCrea standing against Preston and Donlevy after the former has robbed the payroll while the Irish lass tries to calm them all down; it really verges on feeling human, something that's all too rare in this collection of cartoonish characters and action. The rear-projection on just about every single scene is distracting also; De Mille must have filmed all of the on location stuff without any of the principal cast and done all of the dialogue scenes in studio.

So all in all, it's a lumbering, heavy-handed and ludicrously scripted story that western audiences even 70 years ago had probably seen before, enlivened by a great cast and reasonably exciting action and storytelling at times. No wonder then that De Mille's larger than life style was not to be the primary mode in the western film after this point, though one can see traces in films like 1944's Buffalo Bill (also starring McCrea) and of course De Mille's own 1947 frontier western UNCONQUERED. It was the lower-key, more human-scale and realistic Stagecoach [VHS] that really set the example that Hollywood was to follow, and I think we're probably all the better for it.

What was it that Cecil B. DeMille gave to his movies? Well, how about sentimentality as thick as mashed potatoes, florid exposition, corny humor, American patriotism on a platter, shameless death scenes, ethnic stereotypes, casual and condescending racism, hypocritical bible thumping, leering sex, truly hairy beards and mustaches, ponderous oratory and the kind of obviously manipulative situations that can turn even the best actors into mannequins. Did I leave anything out?

But DeMille knew how to serve up spectacle and action, paced to keep the story moving faster and faster. His movies are awful, even if a few still at times stand up to current tastes. In an unfair world, they nearly all are still watchable, with their flaws often as enjoyable as their merits. That brings us to Union Pacific, DeMille's telling of the great effort to build the first rail line across the American continent.

Or as the movie tells us, "The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West. For the West is America's Empire and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West."

The Central Pacific would build east and the Union Pacific, from Omaha, would build west. The idea was to meet in Ogden, Utah. The company that gets there first will establish a major rail terminal and make lots and lots of money. If unscrupulous financial opportunist Asa Burrows has his way, it won't be the Union Pacific. If Captain Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea) does his job, it will be. Butler is the smart, brave, handsome, fast-with-a-gun, true and honest chief troubleshooter for the Union Pacific. Opposing him is Burrows' unscrupulous agent, the gambler Sid Campeau (Brian Donlevy). The plan is simple. Campeau will bring in gambling, easy women, bullyboys and liquor to put all those Irish tracklayers working for the Union Pacific out of commission. Helping him is his partner, Dick Allen (Robert Preston), a smooth gambler with loose ethics...who happens to be a close war buddy of Jeff's. What could be missing...oh, yes...Molly Monahan, an Irish colleen whose father is an engineer and who is the postmistress for end-of-track, the moving base camp that services the construction. She's pert, feisty and as Irish as a shamrock. Jeff and Dick both fall for her. She's also Barbara Stanwyck. The Union Pacific's struggle to bridge the continent with steel track, not to mention Jeff's struggle to make it happen and win Molly, will not be easy.

Or as the movie tells us: "For three valiant years Indians redden the rails with the blood of tracklayers. But the ROAD pushes on! Spawning, in its wake, roaring, lawless towns - and fighting the hidden hand that tries to fight its progress."

DeMille's Union Pacific is a sprawl of massive train wrecks (two), heroic track laying, Indian attacks, mistaken sacrifice, back shooting, brawling Irishmen smoking little clay pipes and speaking with terrible Hollywood Irish accents, and some smart gunplay by Jeff. The comic relief is corny and overplayed (no fault of Akim Tamiroff and Lynn Overman who play Jeff's sidekicks), with awful Indian stereotypes. Joel McCrea is first rate when he can be brave and clever at the same time. When he's just brave, DeMille makes him into something with a noble chin. Preston is just fine, but he's doing nothing much different from what he did in any number of his second lead movie roles.

On the bright side is Brian Donlevy as a snake. It's all Hollywood hokum but Donlevy was good at being bad. And there's Barbara Stanwyck. What a strong presence she was in all her movies. She survives this one with energy and lovability to spare...but her Irish accent would make any real Irishman go pale. "Me heart's still shakin' on me back teeth," she chirps at one point.

Somehow, Union Pacific manages to be a watchable movie. DeMille knew how to keep us hooked in spite of ourselves. If it's not nefarious plotting it's our hero's standard response to being asked to take brave action. When Jeff drawls, "Mebbe," we know something worth watching is about to happen. And those two train wrecks are wowzers.

DeMille knew what the movie goers wanted and exploited this with skill. He was no artist and barely a craftsman. He made up for it by being an utterly confident showman. DeMille, with all his ego, knew how to tell a story, even if it was as phony as a drugstore Indian. His pompous, dynamic, melodramatic and self-important spoken narratives and introductions give a perfect picture of the man. He died at 77 in 1959, just in time, perhaps, to realize that his movies would most likely go down as being quaint. In 1957, David Lean had come up with The Bridge on the River Kwai. In 1959 it was William Wyler with Ben Hur. DeMille's era of old fashioned, corny spectacle was on life support, and the ticket buyers knew it.

This is artful entertainment; this is Cecil B. De Mille presenting an odd blend of celebration and deconstruction in his portrayal of the burgeoning American empire. Far-sighted statesmen and greedy corporate barons; vigilante "justice," racism, ridicule and praise for the durable Irish immigrants, a bolloxed love triangle, a spunky and noble Irish lass, a dissipated lover, a grim strong and silent type, a comic Mexican thug: De Mille's scriptwriters seem inspired to throw in as many elements to the plot as their imaginations allow; and the result isn't the mess you'd suspect but fascinating fun, some gripping action sequences, and a lovely story of confused love.

Barbara Stanwyck plays a guileful innocent, a warm-hearted dame better than both her suitors in her generous and wise understanding of human nature. Joel McCrea plays a super-stolid hero whose better part is realized by his attraction for Stanwyck's character; and Robert Preston is a flim-flam man, a gambler and crook whose love for Stanwyck's "Molly Monahan" redeems his otherwise unrepentent self.

De Mille plays this beguiling troika against the "canvas of history" and so personalizes the abstraction of history. John Ford's "Stagecoach," also released the same year, 1939, is more accomplished and its story more subtle, but not so much more. De Mille obviously enjoys his broad canvases, and his "history" tends to pompous pronouncement at times, but all history is biography for him, which means that -- just as with Ford -- the individual stories are what is important.

You'll like this movie: you'll love "Missy" Stanwyck, McCrea and Preston -- you'll even forgive its somewhat more than occasional moments of silliness.

This movie takes place during the wild-west era and the Union Pacific Railroad is under construction.Joel Mcrea plays Jeff Butler who's "the Trouble-shooter" for the U.P.R.R. and Robert Preston plays Dick Allen who's being paid by Sid Campeau
(Brian Donlevy),to help sabotage the efforts of the
ever-struggling Union Pacific.He meets his old freind Jeff
Butler and falls in love with an engineer's daughter,Mollie Monahan (Barbara Stanwyck).But the freindship between Dick and Jeff is broken when campeau tells Jeff about the robbing of the payroll which was lead by Dick.Although there are other causes that are stopping the railroad.There are Indian attacks,train wrecks and the distraction of wiskey and liquor in this Cecil B. deMille classic.

What a great movie! So fun to watch. It was neat to see Barbara so nice!!! This is a VHS but we just had to have it. All old movies should be enhanced and put in DVD format. This movie arrived in great condition.

"Union Pacific" is a action-packed Western showing how the transcontinental railroad was constructed. Made in 1939, the movie is ahead of its time in special effects. It is directed by the famous Cecil B. DeMille and has an excellent cast. Joel McCrea plays the troubleshooter, Jeff Butler. His buddy, Dick Allen (Robert Preston) meet again for this project after fighting together during the Civil War. Both are handsome rugged men who fall for the sassy Mollie Monahan (Barbara Stanwyck). Molly works on the railroad as the mail lady, whose father is a train engineer.

Union Pacific is a lively action-packed story that shows the danger and adventure as the Western expansion progresses. It is an interesting chapter in the early American nation. The beginning of the film notes that the "Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible..." It caries the theme of the railroad as the future of the United States, and along its rails new cities will rise.

Overall, the film is engrossing, and am excellent Western Epic. It will satisfy all the Wild West buffs.