Union Pacific (1939)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Cecil B. DeMille

Writers:

Ernest Haycox (story)
Jack Cunningham (adaptation)

Release Date:

5 May 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

"Union Pacific" is coming!

Plot:

One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California...

Plot Keywords:

Railroad | Troubleshooter | Union Pacific Railroad | Romantic Rivalry | Train Crash

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Mollie Monahan
Joel McCrea	...	Capt. Jeff Butler
Akim Tamiroff	...	Fiesta
Robert Preston	...	Dick Allen
Lynne Overman	...	Leach Overmile
Brian Donlevy	...	Sid Campeau
Robert Barrat	...	Duke Ring (Campeau henchman)
Anthony Quinn	...	Jack Cordray (Campeau henchman)
Stanley Ridges	...	Gen. Casement
Henry Kolker	...	Asa M. Barrows (banker)
Francis McDonald	...	Gen. Grenville M. Dodge
Willard Robertson	...	Oakes Ames
Harold Goodwin	...	E.E. Calvin (telegrapher)
Evelyn Keyes	...	Mrs. Calvin
Richard Lane	...	Sam Reed

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #4831)

Filming Locations:

Cache, Oklahoma, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The company had rented many local pinto horses for the filming of the Indian attack on the train. During filming, however, local cowboys had to be hired to round up the horses, as they would scatter and sometimes stampede because of the noise and confusion of these scenes - all the shooting, yelling, and yards of unfamiliar cloth on the horses, along with kettles and other implements tied to their manes and tails, made them extremely nervous and uncomfortable, and it didn't require much to make them bolt.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: After the train wreck, and during all the scenes that immediately follow, Barbara Stanwyck suddenly appears with a very stylish 1939 bobbed hairstyle which we had not seen before, and which, of course, is completely inappropriate to the time period during which the story is taking place.

Quotes:

Mollie Monahan: Did you never know that flirting gets into a woman's blood like fighting gets into a man's? Now, a girl begins coquetting to discover if she has the power. Then she goes looking, like a fighter after a bully, for the hardest man to conquer. But 'tis never the man she wants, 'tis the pleasure of bringing him to her feet.
Jeff Butler: Till the right man comes along and gives her the spanking she deserves.
Mollie Monahan: Ah, that's the man she dreams of.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Living Steam: Virginia and Truckee Then and Now at the Nevada State Railroad Museum (2008) (V)

Soundtrack:

Londonderry Air

McCrea, Stanwyck, and Preston--a robust and engaging trio!

Ernest Haycox story "Trouble Shooters" becomes excellent spectacle from director and co-producer Cecil B. DeMille, here working with all his action-packed attributes yet saved in the end by a wonderful and personable trio of stars. In the days following the Civil War's climax, General Grant is asked to help financially back the railroad, which hopes to expand its tracks East from California and across America; Joel McCrea is the superintendent in charge of production, Robert Preston is his former war buddy and railroad traitor, and Barbara Stanwyck is the woman happily caught between them both. After a sluggish opening of about twenty minutes, this adventure gets cooking for a rip-roaring good time. There's political treason and treachery, Sioux Indian attacks, and majestic locomotives galore! We never quite learn the motives behind Stanwyck's romantic-minded actions (and her Irish accent is a little wobbly), but we have no trouble believing her adoration for clever, two-fisted McCrea, who emerges as the picture's hero. Supporting cast is full of colorful personalities, and the upbeat spirit of the movie is broad but unquestionably rousing. **1/2 from ****