Midi, gare centrale

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.

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.

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.

For a mid range movie of 1950 this fast moving Railway Police/chase story packs a reasonable wallop. The cast is above average for what looks like a 'double feature' production and the script never wanders from its target for a moment. The police are shown realistically and situations are not compromised in their general graphic details. All characters are written and directed as you might expect them to be in a life challenging situation. Perhaps the somewhat tacked on ending could do with a little (very minor) editing to give it a harder edge but some may be happy with finishing it on a slightly lighter note.

Maybe Lyle Bettger could also have been reined in a tad with his full-on performance of the nasty kidnapper but he looks the part. Sydney Boehm's tight screenplay was based on Thomas Walsh's Edgar winning novel 'Nightmare in Manhattan' - William Holden and Nancy Olson were teamed again for Award winner, 'Sunset Boulevard' the same year and the image and sound on the DVD I viewed, was quite clean. Was good to discover another classic from the past.

UNION STATION is a briskly paced thriller laced with enough suspense to keep the viewer intrigued until the final shootout in a tunnel below the station where badman (LYLE BETTGER) must be tracked down by hard-boiled detective (WILLIAM HOLDEN) so that a blind girl (ALLENE ROBERTS) can be returned safely to her father. Bettger has arranged a ransom for the girl to the tune of $100,000 and is determined to keep a grip on the suitcase containing the ransom money.

NANCY OLSON is the woman on the train who first notices that one of the men has come aboard with a gun and she immediately becomes suspicious enough to report this to the authorities. Lead detective Holden takes charge and he and Olson gradually develop a relationship of trust that leads to the finale where she's tending to his wounded shoulder, while LAPD man (BARRY FITZGERALD) looks on approvingly, sensing love in bloom.

It's directed in almost documentary style with a "Naked City" sort of realism. Holden and the police handle their suspects with realistically rough tactics which further heightens the tense realism of the story. JAN STERLING has a small role as a gun moll (what else?), who lets the police know that Bettger intends to kill the girl once he gets the ransom.

LYLE BETTGER is superb as the snarling villain, easily stealing many of the scenes with his brutally menacing tough guy role. No wonder he played this sort of man in so many films afterwards.

Well worth watching, nice work by Holden and Olson, with faint criticism for Barry Fitzgerald for mumbling much of his heavily accented dialog with that Irish brogue. The only other criticism is that the director allows ALLENE ROBERTS to scream too much, which becomes tiresome and makes Bettger come up with the crack, after slapping her: "For this, he's willing to put up $100,000."