Product Details

• Actors: William Holden, Barry Fitzgerald, Nancy Olson, Jan Sterling
• Directors: Rudolph Mate
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Olive Films
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 2010
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003J216LS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,903 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Union Station" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Olive Films Release Date: 07/27/2010 Run time: 81 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fairly standard crime drama, February 17, 2006

By 

Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Union Station (VHS Tape)

William Holden stars as Lt. William Calhoun who's in charge of the police force commissioned to patrol the busy Union Station. Calhoun is alerted by a conductor that a female passenger Joyce Willecombe played by Nancy Olson has spotted two male passengers carrying guns. The men had hurriedly embarked on the train and appeared suspicious to Olson.

Holden alerted his underlings to tail the two men, one of whom was Joe Beacom played by frequent cinema heavy Lyle Bettger. They eventually stumble into a kidnapping plot. Olson's boss a rich socialite named Henry Murchison played by distinguished looking silver haired Herbert Heyes had a young blind daughter Lorna played by Allene Roberts. Young Lorna was the kidnap victim.

Holden and Police Inspector Donnelly played by the impish Irish born Barry Fitzgerald colloborate to attempt to thwart the well conceived scheme to bilk Mr. Murchison of $100,000.

The highlight of this rather standard film noir drama was the glorious black and white cinematography within the cavernous Union Station located in L.A.. The acting talents of Holden and Fitzgerald are hard to ignore but both shined more brightly in other more notable efforts. Bettger also did well portraying the devious and calculating criminal mastermind.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The star of this movie is Union Station itself, December 25, 2010

By 

Steven J. Hoffman (Takoma Park, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Union Station (DVD)

I found this movie riveting although I would agree that it is flawed in some of the ways other reviewers here have pointed out.

To me, the star of this movie is the main setting itself -- Union Station. (It's supposed to be Union Station-Chicago tho it was actually filmed in Union Station-L.A.) So much of the action takes place amidst the corridors and passageways and train tracks and tunnels underneath Union Station. (And at one point the action shifts to the Chicago "El" train.) And since every cop in the movie (with one brief exception) is in plain clothes (which in 1950 apparently meant a dark grey suit and tie), there is a constant sense of tension and suspense as they try to follow and trap the criminals amongst the hustle and bustle of the ordinary folks commuting or working in the vast train station. The station cops have hidden offices on a sort of mezzanine level overlooking the station and constantly spy on the throngs below, trying to spot the kidnappers and ransom bag guys. An ordinary train station is converted into a eerie locale of spying and cat-and-mouse between cop and criminal.

In fact, the setting is more noir-ish than the characters. To me, the main characters in the film are not "true" film noir characters, it's more an ordinary "good guy" vs "bad guy" sort of crime movie. But the film transforms an ordinary busy big-city train station into "Dark City Central."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Night Train, August 16, 2010

By 

Tom Without Pity (A Major Midwestern Metropolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Union Station (VHS Tape)

This is a review for the VHS tape of UNION STATION, a film which was

originally released by Paramaount Pictures in 1950. UNION STATION was

directed by veteran Rudolph Mate from a story by Thomas Walsh, a very

popular pulpster at the time.

Secretary Joyce Willecombe , played by Nancy Olsen, notices a gun stuck in the waistband of one of two men who board her commuter train one afternoon and reports it to the conductor. He tells her to wait until they arrive at Union Station, the large train hub for the unnamed urban area. She does report it to the head of security for the station, Lt. William Calhoun, played by William Holden.

This is just the start of a path that eventually leads to a kidnapping, attempted murder, a $100,000 ransom, an eye-opening treatise on just exactly how big city police really operate, the desperation of ex-cons for one big score and their willingness to die for it.

UNION STATION also portrays what it takes to succesfully run a big operation like the huge railroad station security system and the dedication as well as possesiveness of "My station" to keep it going.

UNION STATION progresses from an afternoon commute scenario to a urban noir nightdream, with plenty of rain slickened streets and unidentifiable tenement- like addresses, some of which may or may not house the kidnappers and a kidnapped blind girl. It is a taut, tense ride through the unnamed urban landscape with a well earned satisfying conclusion.

UNION STATION also shows, with really fine cinematography,the many different forms of railroads and train transport circa 1950 throughout the movie. It could almost serve as a documentary on the subject of the rail transport system of sixty years ago.

Altogther I give UNION STATION four stars for a suprisingly exciting, if little known,

film noir suspenser.