Rails Into Laramie

A rebel soldier, John Payne, is assigned by his commander in chief to find who is behind the flop in the building of a railway in Laramie. The army official finds alcoholic people and drink plentiful in the railway workers. He also meets a beautiful ally, Mari Blanchard, an exdancer and owner of a bustly saloon along with Dan Duryea, an ex-colleague of Payne who is behind it all. As Duryea is really a booze peddler who along with his hoodlum, Lee Van Cleef, deliver alcohol to the labourers who are building the railroad. Both of them tangle into a twisted confrontation and at the end a thrilling fight takes place aboard a train. This is the saga of the man who blazed the trail for the iron horse across the wide frontier.

Run-of-the-mill Universal International Pictures with usual elements, such as noisy action, thrills, crossfire, drama, romance and some spectacular action scenes on a train. There is even some historical remark, as the jury who judges Dan Duryea is formed by women, and resulted to be actually the first served by women in the state of Wyoming 1870 . Stars John Payne, one of the popular actors of the forties and fifties, today a little forgotten. He starred the classy Miracle in 34th street and performed all kinds of genres as Noir: Slighly scarlet, Kansas City confidential, The vanquished, Adventure: Raiders of seven seas, Crosswinds, Tripoli, Iceland and Western : Santa Fe passage, Silver lode, Tennessee's partner, The Road to Denver. He also starred various Tv series and episodes as The restless gun and Zane Grey. Payne is well accompanied by a good support cast as the prestigious Dan Duryea here co-starring , the habitual baddie Lee Van Cleef pre-Sergio Leone, James Griffith, Harry Shannon, George Chandler, Stephen Chase, Douglas Kennedy and Joyce Mackenzie.

The motion picture titled Rails into Laramie was professionally directed by Jesse Hibbs though with no much enthusiasm. He directed a lot of films and several episodes of notorious TV episodes. His fetish actor was Audie Murphy, whom directed in known and big boxoffice films as To hell and back, World in my corner, Medal of honor, Ride a crooked trail. Rating 5/10. Passable and acceptable but average.

A very common and rather clichéd plots for old westerns is the notion of someone trying to stop the railroad. While there really wasn't a historical basis, too many films were about a supposed overt or covert effort to stop progress. In most all of them, however, the reason why the baddies are doing this is pretty obvious...but in this one I really couldn't see why Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is doing this...and it's a major weakness of the film.

The man sent to help get the railroad built is an Army Sergeant, Jeff Harder (John Payne) and through most of the film, he makes very little progress thanks to Shanessy and a rather stupid town that tolerates Shanessy's antics. It all leads up to a murder conviction, a jail escape and train chase. None of it's bad...none of it's outstanding in any way. A standard and rather clichéd film.

By the way, late in the film a lady is shot from about 8-10 feet away with what is probably a .45 Colt cartridge. Amazingly, she survived...a miracle and a half!

Progress on the railroad has pretty much ground to a halt as the workers spend most of their time drinking rotgut in Dan Duryea's boozer.

The leading citizens of the town request military help and tough soldier, Payne, is appointed as a sort of temporary marshal. Trouble is, he's an old mate of Duryea so it looks as though there's going to be a conflict of interests.

This is an above average Universal western: the two main protagonists play off each other well and there is excellent support from a very large cast of familiar westerners (many uncredited). Special mentions must go to Lee Van Cleef as a menacing, trigger happy bad guy (was he ever anything else?), Mari Blanchard as a saloon girl with a heart of gold (was she ever anything else?) and James Griffith, cast against type in a humorous role, as a bumbling ineffectual lawman.

Action scenes are well staged - particularly those on the trains - the photography is first class and the Technicolor beautiful as always.

Oh, and as an added bonus for B western fans, there's a title song over the opening credits rumbled out by the ever popular Rex Allen....

Seems to be a re-hash of Kansas Pacific with a lot of the same actors!

Troubleshooter Jefferson Harder (John Payne) is sent to Laramie by the Army to investigate the sabotage that is preventing the railroad from finishing it's line connecting the East and West. Upon arrival Payne quickly finds out the worst kept secret in town, that old buddy and current town saloon owner Jim Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is behind the chicanery, though nobody is ever able to prove Shanessy and his henchmen (Myron Healey and Lee Van Cleef) are involved. The town leaders, while happy about support from the Army, are disappointed from the start that they have only sent one man to do the job and grow increasingly critical of the heavy-handed tactics employed by Payne to clean up the town.

Rails Into Laramie packs a lot of action into it's 80 minute run time. Between busting bad guys heads Payne barely has time to strike up a romantic relationship with Dance Hall owner and partner of Jim Shanessy, Lou Carter (Mari Blanchard). Very little melodrama to be found in this one as Payne spends most of his time eradicating the town's scofflaws.

This movie follows the Universal International Pictures formula of using off the A-list leading actors with familiar casts, packaged in a medium budget production. A formula that worked very well for them and it works here too. John Payne may be the best leading actor of the post World War II era that few people remember today. A versatile actor Payne looked equally a home whether in the saddle, a crime drama or a comedy. Here he carries the day in this action saddle flick.

Good drive-in grade Western flick.