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This film may not be as pretty as Grand Hotel but its on-par entertainment with that film. What drew me to this film was its Pre-Code status and Joan Blondell. Those things were definitely worth watching but let me put it this way, I came for Joan but stayed for Douglas. He carries this film and carries it well and I love his pairing with Guy Kibbee. I recognized Guy from the films Gold Diggers and I believe 42nd Street-some other pre-code gems. He's playing a very different character here than in those films and plays it well. I recently took a chance and purchased this on warner archive.com and I'm glad I checked out these helpful reviews. I decided to add my own review as every little bit helps and I while I love most old films they all aren't worth the time but this one is. The ending is especially real and I can't help but wonder if it in some small way inspired the ending for Casablanca. Watch it so you'll know what I mean. 9 out of 10!

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars in "Union Depot" a pre-code effort from Alfred E. Green that follows the myriad stories found roaming within the hustle and bustle at a train station. Fairbanks is a shrewd tramp who weasels his way into interesting situations, which include getting into the suit of a rich man. Once he cleans up (quite nicely), he crosses paths with the gorgeous Joan Blondell, who plays a chorus girl desperate to get to Salt Lake City where a new gig awaits her if she can arrive in time.

"Union Depot" is a very busy, fast paced film full of fun coincidences, and those highly improbable circumstances that make classic Hollywood fare so refreshing. It never quite becomes the "Grand Hotel" in a train station it desired to be, but it's a nice place to spend a little over an hour nonetheless.

Union Depot boasts an impressive cast of Warner Brothers regulars to supplement leads Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell. I've always maintained that Warner Brothers film of the 30s and 40s were never quite complete unless either Frank McHugh or Alan Hale was in them. Union Depot has both in the cast.

Fairbanks in Union Depot is proof positive that clothes do make the man. He and Guy Kibbee are a pair of tramps who hang around the railroad station and this night is both their lucky night and nearly the finish of them. When a drunken Frank McHugh leaves his bag running for a train, Fairbanks gets it and he's got all kinds of stuff including a nice wad of cash. Although how he ever fit in one of Frank McHugh's suit I'm still scratching my head over. They're not exactly the same size and body types.

Nevertheless sporting a new look Fairbanks meets down on her heels Joan Blondell an actress stranded when her show folded. She's doing what she has to do to survive and this part of the film could not have been made when the Code came in place. Fairbanks now a bit flush is looking for a little action and that's abundantly clear. But instead the two fall for each other.

In the meantime Kibbee finds a lost claim check for one of the lockers. That leads to the meat of the story involving counterfeiter Alan Hale. I won't say more.

There are a whole lot of small subplots involving the people who inhabit Union Station. This and Grand Hotel are probably the first of these kind of films with interconnecting stories involving a large cast and both came out in 1932. Some of these vignettes like the one involving a Pullman porter bidding his wife goodbye as his train departs and her going into the arms of her boyfriend are really priceless. There are many like that.

Union Depot is one fine pre-Code drama with both Fairbanks and Blondell at the top of their game.

Union Depot is a 1932 precode film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Guy Kibbee, and Joan Blondell.

Chick (Fairbanks) and Scrap Iron Scratch (Kibbee) are two hobos during the Depression, hungry and hanging around Union Depot to beg for money and look for opportunities to get money.

The first opportunity comes in the form of a conductor's uniform hanging in the mens room, which Chick steals by sticking a pole through the mens room window. Then he gets a real windfall - a man (Frank McHugh) leaves his suitcase in the mens room. Chick chases him to return it, but the man is gone. Inside is everything Chick will need to look like the handsome man that he is: a suit, shaving cream, shaver. He emerges from the mens room looking great. He also has money that was in the suit pocket.

He goes to a diner and orders soup to nuts and racks up a huge bill of $1.75. I can't believe the prices in those days. He sees a forlorn looking young woman in the station. It's Ruth (Joan Blondell) who needs $64 to get to Salt Lake City to join a show that she was in before she broke her ankle. And she'll do anything to get it. That's fine with Chick. He takes her to a private dining room and makes a pass. She tries, but she can't go through with it. She finally tells Chick her full story, that besides needing to get to the show, she's running from a creep that lived in her rooming house. Chick believes her and says he'll buy her ticket.

Somewhere along the line, he meets up with Scratch, who has found a wallet with a pawn ticket. The pawn ticket is for a violin in a case. Chick takes it to the pawnbroker across the way. While the pawnbroker is taking care of another customer, Chick opens the violin and finds $13,000 -- the equivalent of nearly a quarter of a million dollars today. Frankly, I could use the $13,000 now, and it's over 80 years later.

Chick hides the violin case and leaves Scratch in charge of it and takes some of the money with him. And there the fun begins.

This is a fast-moving, entertaining story that leaves one with a tinge of sadness. I am a huge fan of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I think he was a very underrated actor. He's marvelous here, as effective as a hobo as he is as a dapper gentleman. Both his comedy and dramatic work are marvelous. Joan Blondell is adorable -- so pretty and sweet, but with an edge that shows that the character has been through hard times.

Precode has a more liberal view of sex. People have it, for one thing. And you don't have to be married. Fairbanks is fairly cavalier about it and angry when Blondell doesn't come across.

Very good movie - if you see that it's on TCM, don't miss it. I would have liked a less downbeat ending, but hey, it was the Depression.

Here is a film set entirely in or very near a 1930's train station. Thousands of people moving in and through, each with a story. You would have to be as old as I am to understand that train depots, especially in big cities, were nearly as big and even busier than the airports of today. The film has a dark and harsh quality, which in many ways, is typical of the period. Here is an out of work chorus girl (Joan Blondell) desperate to get $54.00 for a ticket to Salt Lake City, almost willing to prostitute herself to get it; here is a pair of hobos (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Guy Kibbee) willing to steal clothes and finding money therein. They run afoul of a counterfeiter, a sexual sadist and the law, and through a series of highly unlikely coincidences manage to keep the plot hopping. This film has some superb camera work, great editing, and some wonderfully underplayed acting, especially by Joan Blondell. It's no wonder she was such a workhorse for Warner's. She could pretty much do it all. It's well worth the hour or so spent watching.