UNION PACIFIC

To call this a Western would be to give scant justice to its epic scale, but then what else would you expect from a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille?  It has a running time of 135 minutes, extras fill the screen at every opportunity (such as the saloon scenes) and there are two spectacular trainwrecks along with all the other drama.  Considering it is ostensibly a celebration of the completion of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans it is a surprisingly entertaining film.  

It is established early on in the story that a tycoon who pretends to be backing the Union Pacific Railroad secretly wants to sabotage the building of the track in order to make a huge financial killing (the details of which can safely be ignored).  To this end he employs shady gambler and saloon owner, Sid Campeau (Brian Donleavy), to use gambling, booze and women to cause trouble among the labourers.

Given the success of Campeau's efforts, the railroad company recruits Captain Jeff Butler, fresh from the recent Civil War (played in his usual Boy Scout fashion by Joel McCrea), as a trouble-shooter to keep the workforce in order.

Campeau has a partner-in-crime, Dick Allen, played engagingly by Robert Preston, who just happens to be an old army pal of Jeff.  Not only are Jeff and Dick now on opposite sides but a rivalry emerges between them because both are smitten by Molly Monahan, daughter of a railroad engineer, who acts as a postmistress as the train works it way westwards.

And well might they be smitten given that Molly is played by the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, in her first Western as she sought to widen her range.  She is the only reason I gave this film a whirl, and despite her dodgy Irish accent she is as watchable as always.  

The love triangle becomes the main dramatic focus and although it is clear throughout (except to Dick) that Molly only has eyes for Jeff, the film manages to pull a surprise in a terrific scene in which Molly is obliged to marry Dick in order to save Jeff's life.  Of course we know that in becoming Molly's husband Dick is going to have to die before the story is over, but I was glad at least that it's not Jeff who kills Dick, given their friendship.

Whilst that is going on, the attempts to sabotage the railroad, and Jeff's resourcefulness in combatting them, are a constant source of entertainment.  Humour is provided by a couple of sleepy-looking old-timers who assist Jeff.  When he first looks them over he is unimpressed but they assure him that they did a great job as bodyguards for his two predecessors "right up to the moment they died".

DeMille directs the whole thing with gusto so despite its length the film never drags, and he displays a lot of visual flair especially in the location shots of the train.  For example, there's a stunning but brief shot when Jeff first boards the train from horseback.  

Unfortunately, the depiction of Native Americans is par for the course for when this film was made (1939) in that they are portrayed as hostile savages whose only role is to provide danger to the white protagonists.

That aside, this is a winning combination of spectacle, action, romance, intrigue and comedy.  It's easy to see why it was so successful that Paramount gave DeMille carte blanche in his future productions.