Customer Reviews

Union Station

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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."

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.

This is a little-known-but very good film noir. I sure wish it would come out on DVD with a good transfer.

William Holden and Nancy Olson both worked on Sunset Boulevard this same year this was released and here are together again. Actually, I like the two a lot better in this film. Yes, some of the scenes are a bit dumb but the story moves well and keeps your interest which is what a good crime story-drama should do.

I really enjoyed the train station, too. It looked awesome.

Just ordered the DVD of this movie. I had it on VHS, then was able to record it to DVD-R but want a professional copy also. This movie is among my favorite noir. I like William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald in Naked City was excellent and he does a good job here also. The late 40's and early 50's were, in my opinion, the golden age of noir. Many fine movies were made in that genre and this is one of them. You had the tough but really sensitive cop or private eye, the girl in distress, the criminal who was out to get everyone, and some really classic settings on locale. Combine that together and you have some really good entertainment. It's a window to a bygone era. I could care less about some of the aspects some reviewers put into their synopsis. It's entertainment, what more do you want?

Very good Film Noir film. Fast action and good suspense.

William Holden and Barry Fritzgerald did a great job of acting in this film. Has to do with a kidnapping of a wealthy man's daughter.

The picture quality is very good.

Recommended.

No question I am a film noir aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various film noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that "speak" to me and those that, perhaps, should have been left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy; films like Out Of the Past, Gilda, The Lady From Shang-hai, and The Big Sleep need no additional comment from me as they stand on their own merits. Others, because they have a fetching (or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass, or as in Gilda a double nod for the plot and for the femme fatale. Be still my heart, at the name Rita Hayworth. I have even tried to salvage some efforts by touting their plot lines, and others by their use of shadowy black and white cinematography to overcome plot problems. Like The Third Man (and, in that case, the bizarre zither-drenched musical score as well). And that brings us to those films, like the film under review, 1951s Union Station, starring William Holden and Nancy Olson that have no redeeming film noir qualities.

Now I mentioned the stars and the year of this film for a purpose. 1951 also saw this pair in one of the great film noir, no, flat-out great films of all time, Sunset Boulevard, so it is not the acting capabilities, although Brother Holden may have been a little tired from playing Norma Desmond's pet or maybe just a little bloated from being in that swimming pool too long. What is missing here is though is any spark in order to get interested in actors or plot.

The plot line, in any case, is rather conventional. A con, or rather ex-con, who had plenty of time on his hands up in stir, decides that from here on in he is going to live on easy street and so whiled away those lonely prison cell hours devising a plot to get, what else, some serious dough. Easy street, after all, is no place for chump change. So naturally the idea is to kidnap a wealthy guy's daughter (who is also blind, so a conveniently easy target), hold her for ransom, and easy street here we come (of course, said con has a moll, a moll who in the end he does wrong as such bad guys will do out of habit, a blonde moll, although such molls are not always blonde).

So you see, a pretty conventional plot, played out very conventionally. See said con used to work at, where else, Union Station (Chicago version), and so the swap (dough for daughter) is to take place there. What brother con did not figure on was that head railroad detective Willy Calhoun (the part played by William Holden, but don't call him Willy to his face, okay) is like some avenging angel-god when criminal hijinks take place in his precinct. A fatal mistake, a very fatal mistake, for brother con. But it takes time, too much time, for him to learn that sad lesson. Oh, and along the way, Willy (remember don't' call him that to his face) "falls" for Joyce (played by Nancy Olson), who is the one who tipped him to the possible criminal enterprise that was looming at his place of work. I will take any five minutes, no, any two minutes of Sunset Boulevard over this whole one and one half hour stew. I guess Willy (oops, William)and Nancy needed dough that year themselves.

The film's story line - the kidnapping of a blind girl with the kidnappers using the huge Chicago Union Railroad Station as the contact point for the distraught father and dropoff for the ransom. William Holden is the "boss cop" { Lt "Willie Calhoun} of the station who working with Barry Fitzgerald {Inspector Donnelly} are going to use their knowledge of the layout of the Station to trap the kidnappers when they try to pick up the $100,000 ransom. Nancy Olson {Joyce Willcombe} knows the victim, works for her father and by a very convienent almost improbable plot twist has put the police on-to the kidnapping even before the initial ransom note is even delivered to the father.There are some good episolds in the movie - the tracking and pursuit of one of the kidnappers on the Chicago elevated, the murder of a police officer by the boss kidnapper Lyle Bettger {Joe Beacom} who leaves his wounded mistress Jan Sterling {Marge Wrighter} pleading in the gutter as he speeds away and best of all - the casual brutality- slaps ,kicks, punches and death threats used by Calhoun and Donnelly and their squad playing "good cop, bad cop" to "extract" information from an underling in the bowells of Union Station that in 2010 would consitute a 5-10 million dollar lawsuit and cost a few police their jobs besides. Of course the underling spills his guts and probaly wet his pants in this circa 1950 routine police interrogation. How times have changed!! The best performances are by Lyle Bettger who is excellent as the boss kidnapper cold stare, steely voice and mocking the blind girl as he slaps her around when she wimpers too much and by Jan Sterling as a trashy floozy who has some sympathy for the victim but luvs Beacom while he treats her like dirt. Nancy Olson playing to type as a wide eyed innocent with "Backbone" gives her role some depth and is pretty good. HOWEVER, Barry Fitzgerald reprising his 1948 role from "The Naked City" is too cute / coy as the loveable shrewd Irish " Full of Blarney" Inspector. Allene Roberts as the kidnap victim {Lorna Murchison} is an unsympathetic and whiney victim. Rudolph Mate was a great cameraman but his direction of the movie is pedestrian and the final chase thru the station's underground service tunnels is ok but could have been much better - it's to slowly paced and does'nt have enough tension and falls kind of flat. BUT the film's most serious flaw is the miscasting of William Holden as the hardbitten cop - his performance lacks the hard edge, he's not cynical or tough enough to pull it off. A far better choice for this role would have been Paramount's other male "biggie" - Alan Ladd whose tough guy image, dry voice and laconic manner would have played nicely against Nancy Olson's exasperated innocence. I guess after the successful teaming of Holden and Olson in "Sunset Blvd" Paramount rushed them into this picture to capitilize on their prievous teaming. I wanted to like this movie much more than I did but its elements just did/nt quite jell. Still, I give it a 3 1/2 star rating and would recommend its purchase.

"Union Station" is a post-War thriller revolving around a kidnapping plot, unique for the amount of time it spends in Chicago's Union Station. Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson), observes two men enter her train car in a hurry, one of them in possession of a gun. She reports the suspicious behavior to Lt. Bill Calhoun (William Holden), the police officer assigned to the train station in Chicago. It later becomes clear that the men whom Joyce observed have kidnapped the blind daughter of Joyce's employer, Mr. Murchison (Herbert Hayes), and are holding her for ransom. Joyce assists in identifying the men, and Lt. Calhoun and his superior Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald) pursue the suspects in slim hopes of getting Lorna Murchison (Allene Roberts) back alive.

The plot doesn't make much sense. The opening sequence of Joyce on the train contributes little to the story except to maneuver Joyce into it. I suppose that Joyce is supposed to be the person the audience identifies with -down to earth, an average citizen with a strong sense of justice- but she just seems extraneous. The police assume that the kidnap victim is dead for no apparent reason. And they're not much better than thugs when they have a suspect in their hands. There is another superfluous sequence when Calhoun pursues a suspect on a street car. It seems that the writers wanted to include certain elements of suspense, romance, action, and Irish cops in the film, and pieced them together whatever way they could, sense notwithstanding.

The mastermind of the kidnapping scheme is a cruel ex-con named Joe Beacom (Lyle Bettger). My interest picked up halfway through the film, when Joe got more screen time. Beacom and his platinum blond moll seem more interesting than their pursuers, but we see too little of them. Joe remarks that he can't understand why anyone would pay to have Lorna back; I was wondering the same thing. She's a squealy, hysterical young woman who inspires no sympathy. The quasi-heroine, Joyce, is equally unappealing, partly because she doesn't do anything, but also because she is rather homely. I kept thinking that it would be great to see William Holden and Lyle Bettger face off in a better movie. The print on the Olive Films 2010 DVD is a little grainy but has no major flaws and good sound.

I love Willy Holden. If he ever comes back as a woman I'm going to stalk him/her untill he/she submits to my marriage proposal. Good movie.