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Union Station is the locale of a kidnapping and in its labyrinth of tunnels that bare no accidental resemblance to the catacombs of Rome, the victim, Allene Roberts, is snatched and held captive by Lyle Bettger.

Allene is the blind daughter of wealthy industrialist Herbert Hayes and since the crime happened on railroad property William Holden as the chief railroad detective has the case. Of course the LAPD is brought in in the person of Barry Fitzgerald.

Holden is alerted to the kidnap by Nancy Olson who is traveling with Roberts. She's Hayes's secretary, but Bettger eludes them. It's a race against time to apprehend him before a payoff is made.

This was Lyle Bettger's third film and the one where he first got notice. During his career, Mr. Bettger played some of the loveliest psychotics ever put on film. This one is one of his best and in his little hideaway where he keeps the terrified Ms. Roberts, Bettger bares no small resemblance to the Phantom of the Opera. Bettger really steals the film from the good guy stars.

Union Station is one tightly constructed film with not a second of wasted footage in it. I wish it were out on VHS or DVD. Don't miss it if TCM ever broadcasts it.

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.

I remember this film shown once on TV. Yes, the story plotline is good and the characters are entertaining, but the REAL star of the movie is the incredible historical Union Station itself. The movie moves throughout portions of the building never before seen by the general public and reveals the enormous scope of Union Station. As a little girl I and family traveled often by train. I remember the beauty of the place, the hustle and bustle of a station which was the base for the only comfortable way to travel by land at that time.Union Station itself compares in size and beauty to any other in the country.This movie was shot during the last hey-days of the railroad passenger trains and I earnestly wish it could be brought back to video.

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.