Menschen ohne Seele

This film is really very good and full of suspense. A woman on a train notices strange behaviour from two men who have just boarded her train and the fact that one has a gun under his coat makes her decide to report to the train conductor. There follows a cliff-hanger of a movie involving a young, blind girl who has been kidnapped and will surely be killed by the psychotic kidnapper (Lyle Bettger) if she is not gotten to on time. There is only one jarring note - I don't think I am alone in wanting to strangle the blind girl every time she appears in the film. The director decided that she should shriek, scream and do a nails-scrapping-down-the-blackboard routine at every possible moment. This film merits more than the 7 I gave it for those who can overlook this irritating performance. Worth watching - you may want to keep the remote handy so that you can easily access the mute button.

Obviously modeled on Jules Dassin's superior THE NAKED CITY (1948) – co-starring Barry Fitzgerald, meticulous police procedural, filmed on actual locations – this film can certainly stand on its own two feet, being a tight and neatly-handled little thriller with plenty of action and suspense. Especially effective is a game of cat-and-mouse on a train between criminal and cop, which must have influenced THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)!

While it doesn't quite have the scope of the earlier classic, the film nonetheless makes the most of its situations (revolving around a race-against-the-clock to save a kidnapped blind girl) and settings (the majority of the action taking place, naturally, inside the titular location – with the tunnels underneath the station itself providing the backdrop for the climax, and which may well have been inspired by ending of THE THIRD MAN [1949]).

Fitzgerald is once again excellent though, here, he rather plays second-fiddle to the nominal stars – this being a Paramount film, it couldn't but be contract players (William Holden and Nancy Olson in the second of their four teamings). Lyle Bettger is appropriately menacing as the sly chief kidnapper, while Jan Sterling appears as his soft-hearted girlfriend (who suffers the consequences for demonstrating compassion towards her charge).

This film reminded me of others from the late '40's up to 1950, of "D.O.A.", in some ways, with its tense realism. The cold, merciless criminal mastermind played by Lyle Bettger was a (considerably) more balanced version of the sinister characters portrayed by James Cagney in "White Heat" or Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death".

This is an early police procedural, with the railway cops working closely with the New York City police. According to Leslie Halliwell, "Naked City" -- which I've somehow managed never to see -- is the prototype for all the films of this type. The style eventually became overfamiliar, and very diluted, on television with shows like "Dragnet". "Naked City" cast Barry Fitzgerald unexpectedly as the lead detective, and he repeats that role here.

The two principal stars of "Union Station" are William Holden and Nancy Olson, who also co-starred in "Sunset Boulevard" this same year, 1950. Nancy plays Bill's conscience, constantly concerned that the interests of the kidnap victim don't get overlooked in the hunt for the criminals.

Holden is quite good -- he really started to come into his own at this time -- indicating more depth than was strictly required for the stalwart hero in a crime story. Bettger shows calculated menace. The two make worthy opponents.

"Union Station" is a realistic 1950 film starring William Holden, Nancy Olson, Jan Sterling and Barry Fitzgerald. It was released after "Sunset Boulevard" so by the time it came out, Holden had actually moved up another level of stardom. Rudolph Mate directed the film in a quasi-documentary way, showing all levels of an attempt to rescue a kidnapped blind girl (Allene Roberts), the daughter of Olson's wealthy boss. Holden plays the detective in charge of Union Station, and he doesn't like the idea of anybody messing with his turf.

There are some very exciting scenes, particularly the one on the train, which as someone mentioned, very likely inspired "The French Connection." Holden gives a strong, macho performance, which makes the scene where he visits Olson in her home extra delightful, as he becomes embarrassed when her mother fusses over him. It's amazing that after Golden Boy, he toiled in so many films beneath his ability. Jan Sterling is the gangster's girlfriend with a heart - it's a small but showy and sympathetic role. Lyle Bettger is the villain, and he's slime all the way through. The only problem with the film is the kidnap victim herself, Lorna, who screams non-stop. I'm surprised her father wanted her back, but you know how it is with parents.

Really holds your interest. What a hunk Holden is. Highly recommended.

Union Station (1950)

I saw "Sunset Blvd" right after seeing this one, and it really is pretty cool that the two leads here were in such different films. And with such ease. William Holden is the key actor in both cases--in the sense of screen time, of course, but also screen presence. But Nancy Olson as a kind of sweet stereotype is right on. Good stuff to build a movie around.

Or the other way around. Certainly in both cases there is a core concept that the actors fit into. "Union Station" has, by way of its title right off the bat, a clean focus. Holden plays William Calhoun, head of security for a fairly large train station in an unnamed town. The crime almost doesn't matter--it's a kidnapping with ransom--because we never quite feel for the victims (hostage and hostage's family) so much as feel the investigation happen. And key there is an odd and believable clash (romantic clash) between Calhoun, who has to do his job, and Olson's character, who is a typical person who wants to do good but doesn't understand the cool machinations of police work.

The first half of the movie is more interesting for its turns of plot. It leads us through the various stages of the discovering the crime and the nature of its extent without pushing. It's quite a nice insider look at the logic of it. Then the second half turns to more action--chasing and drama pure and simple, with some of the best low light shooting you can ask for.

This is the era when studios are moving away from shooting on lots to finding locations to work in, and some of the scenes are fabulous. The stock yard chase toward the beginning is fabulous, and all the ventilation tunnel scenes at the end equally so. The station itself, which takes up the bulk of the movie, is interesting and nicely contained. This is a movie you can simply "watch" for its visual flow, and the sites. In fact, I did this twice, almost by accident, because I was tired in the first round and wanted to see what I missed. In terms of plot, nothing much shows up the second time around, but the editing and photography are really so fine you can watch it all twice no problem.

Back to "Sunset Blvd." then--there is on some level no comparison between the two, as movies, even if there are lots of overlaps in time and cast. It's not just that Billy Wilder is a far more inventive and interesting director than Rudolph Mate, but the intentions were far bigger. "Union Station" is a formula picture. It's not even a film noir, but an action drama with low key light and vigorous photography. It's worth noticing that Mate is a photographer, and was director of photography for some seriously wonderful movies. And he has a handful of great films to his resume, too. So he attacked what must have been an obvious boilerplate movie and made it really really good. Check it out.