User reviews

1939's "Union Pacific" was the final black and white feature for the legendary director Cecil B. De Mille, coming on the heels of John Ford's "Stagecoach," spearheading the revival of Hollywood Westerns from hour long quickies to major productions. Owing a debt to Ford's own 1924 silent "The Iron Horse," De Mille proved again a master showman, a fine cast and epic scenes of destruction and Indian battles, though top billed Barbara Stanwyck's oirish accent calls attention to one of her least rewarding performances. Fortunately, Joel McCrea is everything the script calls for, a towering troubleshooter for the Union Pacific railroad, quick to put an end to problems arising in their goal to combine east and west coasts. Banker Henry Kolker is buttressed by reliable villain Brian Donlevy (already well versed in railroad chicanery in Fox's "Jesse James"), confederates played by Fuzzy Knight, Anthony Quinn, Robert Barrat, and Lon Chaney Jr. Robert Preston is the literal wild card in this stacked deck, Donlevy's partner in crime but soft for pretty Stanwyck. For Chaney fans, coming off a small role as 'One of James Gang' in the aforementioned "Jesse James," his role is nothing more than a bearded extra with no dialogue, less than a minute on screen in just two short scenes, in at 26 minutes (aboard the train when a henchman takes a potshot at a defenseless Indian), out at 36 (seated in the saloon when Donlevy offers up free drinks). Lon would fare better in De Mille's "North West Mounted Police" (in the wake of his triumphant "Of Mice and Men"), but would never work for the illustrious director after that. Another trivia note finds unbilled Richard Denning playing a reporter, only three years before wedding Chaney co-star Evelyn Ankers in a lasting union.

Ernest Haycox story "Trouble Shooters" becomes excellent spectacle from director and co-producer Cecil B. DeMille, here working with all his action-packed attributes yet saved in the end by a wonderful and personable trio of stars. In the days following the Civil War's climax, General Grant is asked to help financially back the railroad, which hopes to expand its tracks East from California and across America; Joel McCrea is the superintendent in charge of production, Robert Preston is his former war buddy and railroad traitor, and Barbara Stanwyck is the woman happily caught between them both. After a sluggish opening of about twenty minutes, this adventure gets cooking for a rip-roaring good time. There's political treason and treachery, Sioux Indian attacks, and majestic locomotives galore! We never quite learn the motives behind Stanwyck's romantic-minded actions (and her Irish accent is a little wobbly), but we have no trouble believing her adoration for clever, two-fisted McCrea, who emerges as the picture's hero. Supporting cast is full of colorful personalities, and the upbeat spirit of the movie is broad but unquestionably rousing. **1/2 from ****

Amidst the glamour of "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz", this b&w Cecil B. DeMille Historical Fiction Classic received its share of eager 1939 movie theatre audiences. Starring a wholesome Irish immigrant Barbara Stanwyck, a noble law man Joel McCrae and a dashing dare devil Robert Preston, "Union Pacific" delivers a love-triangle centered around the historic 1869 joining of rail road tracks to connect the Western and Eastern borders of the United States. The love story is "formula", but delivers several "moments" where many viewers will fumble for their Kleenex. The climactic final scene showing the pay-off for all of the material and human sacrifices is priceless!

The very last of DeMille's b&w ventures, Union Pacific is one of those gems that endured the test of time, endearing the "glorious black and white" to generations of viewers. I first saw this classic as a child; I loved it then, as I still do today. Of all of the Hollywood movies ever produced, no single year of film-making has ever stood out from the rest like 1939. "Union Pacific" helped solidify this status. A true Hollywood Classic!

Union Pacific is directed by Cecil B. DeMille (aided by others due to illness) and based upon the novel Trouble Shooter, written by Ernest Haycox. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman. Story is a fictionalised account of the building of the railroad across the American West, encompassing the trials, tribulations and rivalries that formed as history was being made.

"The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West. For the West is America's Empire, and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West".

A big production that went down a storm at the box office upon release, Union Pacific, in spite of its overt patriotic bluster, is an entertaining and important part of the Western movie story. Alongside John Ford's Stagecoach, which was released a couple of months previously, DeMille's movie helped take the Western to a new and more adult level. It wouldn't be until the 50's that the Western truly found its mojo, but the influence of both Stagecoach and Union Pacific was firmly felt through each passing decade.

Film manages to be literate whilst puncturing the plot with doses of action, the story underpinned by a love triangle between McCrea, Stanwyck and Preston. The former as the stoic troubleshooter brought in to keep order, the latter as the charming villain with a heart. Cast all work well with the material to hand, and if one is not bothered by the historical tampering involved in the story? Then it's an easy film to recommend to Western movie seekers. 7/10

UNION PACIFIC is one Cecil B. DeMille film that could have used 1939's Technicolor to tell the sprawling story of the pioneers who built the railroads that united east and west. Nevertheless, DeMille does get across the enormous amount of work involved in building the rails while a lot of skullduggery was going on behind the scenes to prevent a team of workers to reach the midpoint first.

JOEL McCREA is the perfect western hero for DeMille's story and gives his usual easy performance as the enforcer who has to keep the villains from halting progress on the rails. BRIAN DONLEVY makes a perfect heel and ROBERT PRESTON shows genuine charm and gives a double-layered performance as McCrea's longtime pal caught under the influence of the bad guys who want to cause havoc. REGIS TOOMEY is underused in a very brief role as an ill-fated Irish rail worker.

BARBARA STANWYCK gives her Irish accent a good try and, while not always successful, delivers a very likable performance as the post office gal along for the ride. ANTHONY QUINN has a brief supporting role as a badman, but the most colorful support comes from AKIM TAMIROFF as Fiesta, the man with the whip, and LYNNE OVERMAN, both playing McCrea's scruffy bodyguards. And boy, does he need them! EVELYN KEYES has one line and disappears. But DeMille keeps track of all his extras, using them effectively in all the big mob scenes both indoor and out.

Again, Technicolor was still new in 1939 but GONE WITH THE WIND was using seven Technicolor cameras and DeMille probably had no choice but to film in B&W. Let's just say, this is the kind of story that cried for Technicolor which may have made some of the process shots less noticeable for backgrounds shot in a studio.

DeMille's tendency to let his films run over two hours is present here. At least twenty minutes or more could easily have been cut to keep the story in a tighter mode.

For DeMille fans, definitely worth seeing.

After four years of the Civil War, President Lincoln approves the construction of a transcontinental railroad. It becomes a competition between Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. Chicago money man Asa M. Barrows schemes to undermine Union Pacific and short sell their stock. He hires Sid Campeau and Dick Allen (Robert Preston) to set up gambling houses and saloons to get the Union workers drunk and delay their work. Dick is taken with train engineer's daughter Mollie Monahan (Barbara Stanwyck). War veteran and Union Pacific trouble shooter Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea) is tasked with cleaning up the disruption from Dick's gambling houses. The railroad rivals become rivals for Mollie.

It's director Cecil B. DeMille. It's a big old western. It's weird to hear Stanwyck doing a semi-Irish accent. It's a grand production. It may be big and sprawling but I'm not sure that it's a terribly good movie. Despite the boy scout mentality and pretty boy face, I don't find the Jeff Butler character that appealing. The story is a bit messy. The rivalry holds a lot of promise but it needs more head to head confrontations. This may have elevated the western back in its day but it is mostly forgotten now.

Moving across the American wilderness, east to west, the mighty UNION PACIFIC Railroad stretches to meet its rival - the Central Pacific - taming a continent with steel rails. Overcoming Nature's disasters, hostile natives & corrupt politicians, the engines bring with them the people whose hopes are inextricably tied into the railroad's success or failure.

In 1939, Hollywood's Golden Year, kingpin director Cecil B. DeMille presented his biggest, flashiest film yet. It was to be nothing less than the story of how the American West was conquered by the great railroads & her indomitable builders. To realize DeMille's vision on the screen, Paramount allocated hundreds of extras & large coffers of money to the project. Authentic rolling stock was acquired. The president of the contemporary Union Pacific enthusiastically sent his finest track layers to work in the film. The movie would boost train wrecks (two of ‘em), Indian attacks, assorted villainies & a compelling love triangle.

DeMille demanded scrupulous attention to detail and his crowd scenes are very well conceived & produced. His early reels tend to be a bit preachy in touting the virtues of the railroad, but action scenes quickly follow which amply compensate for this. DeMille's subject matter & obvious patriotism help him to avoid the lapses of taste & vulgarities in which he tended to stray in many of his other film forays.

Even with a fake Irish brogue, Barbara Stanwyck charms in her role as a railroad postmistress & engineer's daughter. Feisty & volatile, always great fun to watch, it's easy to see why she's loved by both Joel McCrea (the hero) & Robert Preston (the antihero). Both gentlemen give good rousing performances in roles that might have strayed into the stereotypical, but never do.

Brian Donlevy, as the villain, gives another vivid portrait in what is rather a small role, but very much like the one he would play that same year in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN.

Akim Tamiroff & Lynne Overman are especially enjoyable as McCrea's scruffy, rather repulsive security enforcers; with whip & guns, these are two hombres you wouldn't want to tangle with. Robert Barrat as a murdering bully & Regis Toomey as a sweet-natured Irish worker, give impressive cameos. Anthony Quinn appears for a couple of scenes as a gambler who unwisely pulls a gun on McCrea, and lovely Evelyn Keyes has a scant few screen moments as a telegrapher's wife.

Sharp-eyed movie mavens may (or may not) be able to spot among the uncredited players Monte Blue, Ward Bond, Iron Eyes Cody, Will Geer, Noble Johnson, Elmo Lincoln & Mala playing various Indians, gamblers or railwaymen.

It would be most intriguing to run UNION PACIFIC in a double bill with John Ford's 1924 epic THE IRON HORSE, which tells the same historical story, but with a different artistic tack & fictional characters.

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Everything you could want in a film: romance, wit, drama, action. Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea make an incredible on-screen duo. The train wreck scene at the end is especially impressive. Kudos to Cecil B. Demille for this work of art. I wish I could give this movie more than 10 stars! :)

This is far and away my favorite Cecil B DeMille creation. It fully embraces his full-on Hollywood aesthetics - hokey drama, comic-book characters, huge action sequences and, of course, a long runtime. Those traits tend to make his films seem dated and absurd - but in the Western genre they work remarkably well.

Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck are at their most charismatic here - even though Stanwyck is needlessly burdened with a ludicrous Irish accent. Brian Donlevy is a perfect villain (as usual), and Robert Preston is the epitome of the best friend who can't make up his mind which side to be on.

The story clearly has some historical credibility. Of course, in this movie everything is simplified to comply with the dictates of Hollywood melodrama, but the real-world backbone holds up well enough to hold our interest. It also provides a perfect justification for some of DeMille's trademark action sequences. There are multiple train crashes, an 'Indian' (indigenous American!) attack, confrontations in a saloon, a train robbery and a shoot-out or three. Never a dull moment.

What makes this film more enjoyable than other DeMille epics is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Union Pacific lacks the pretensions of Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments (either version) or Cleopatra. It's also not as blandly melodramatic as films like North West Mounted Police or The Greatest Show on Earth. Oddly enough, I'd say DeMille's next-most-enjoyable film is his other big western, The Plainsman. Maybe the western genre was a particularly good fit for his style. Or maybe this was just a good period for him - he made these two films just three years apart in the late 1930s.

There's no mistaking Union Pacific for a great work of art. But it is fine 'popcorn' entertainment in the classic Hollywood tradition. If you get tired of the neverending reruns of DeMille's later color spectaculars, don't overlook this 'smaller' film.

In addition to his talents as a director, as a producer Cecil B. DeMille had a knack for simultaneously jumping on board the latest fad, and finding a niche that only he could fill. Union Pacific takes advantage of the 1939 Western revival, but while pictures like Stagecoach, Jesse James and Dodge City were still moderately-budgeted affairs, DeMille fulfils his obligation to make an epic Western, with thousands of extras, pyrotechnics and a two hour-plus runtime.

DeMille may have been a savvy trend follower, but this didn't make him versatile as a director. What is particularly striking about Union Pacific, and indeed all of DeMille's Westerns, is that it does not show off the landscape. Most of the action takes place inside railway carriages or crowded gambling dens, and whenever the wilderness is glimpsed it seems merely coincidental, and is never breathtaking or evocative. Even in the handful of outdoor scenes, it appears DeMille only feels comfortable if he can build a wall of extras. But then again, choreography of crowds is part and parcel of DeMille's style, serving not only as a backdrop but as a part of storytelling method. Take for example the opening scene at the senate. While the anti-railroad speaker is talking, people mill about distractingly, as if discrediting his words. Then when Dodge speaks everyone in the background sits still, encouraging us to focus purely on him.

While most of DeMille's silent pictures were penned by the brilliantly demented Jeanie Macpherson, for his sound features he had a revolving committee of untalented hacks. Union Pacific had no less than four credited screenwriters and three uncredited contributors, none of whom was especially prestigious, and the result is as dull as, if not duller than the average DeMille screenplay of this period. Unusually though it makes a few attempts at poignancy, most notably the scene in which Regis Toomey ("Paddy") gets shot. But what scuppers this scene as a genuine tearjerker is not the way DeMille shoots it, which is fairly sensitive, but its handling in the script. For one thing, there has not been enough establishment of this character and thus no emotional backdrop, and secondly Barbara Stanwyck's cod-poetic dialogue is corny even by 1930s standards.

By and large though, DeMille's aim is as usual to dazzle and excite us, not to make us laugh or cry. Throughout his career he seldom dealt with emotional material, and here he shoots the dramatic scenes with functionality to give clarity to the story. With the increasingly sprawling narratives of the pictures he was now making, it was necessary to introduce little devices to help us keep track of the secondary characters, an example here being Brian Donlevy dipping his cigars in whiskey.

As to the cast, DeMille always appears to have chosen actors for having the right look rather than bags of talent. Joel McCrea fits in with the pattern of handsome-yet-rugged types that made the lead men in DeMille's 1936-1947 output. Usually it would be Gary Cooper, and like Coop McCrea is by no means a bad actor, it's just that he requires a director who was a good acting coach to set him off. Barbara Stanwyck is a notch better, and she emotes well, but her attempt at an Irish accent and demeanour is grating. While there are some great names among the supporting cast, all of them are sadly below par here.

Perhaps more than anything, Union Pacific fails because it does not really capture the spirit of the Western. Aside from DeMille's not making the most of the scenery, you just don't get a feel of the pioneer life. It doesn't make us believe that its characters ever had to camp out under the stars or came home covered in the dust of the plains. While some historical arenas were natural DeMille territory – Judea, ancient Rome, the Caribbean in the golden age of piracy – the old west is one he should have left alone.

You know how TCM for years has trotted out some aggrieved minority-studies professor to talk about how Hollywood has treated this group or another? I want to see them tackle how the Irish are portrayed in films. They're either romantic dreamers or half-goofy leprechauns. Rarely are they the fully formed adults in the room. In this movie, which is actually reasonably chock full of action, we have Barbara Stanwyck playing ''a young, impressionable Oirish lassie." Barf. Stanwyk is one of the strongest and s3xiest women in Hollywood history. What she wasn't was some sort of starry-eyed potato farmer. Joel McCrea plays the good guy, as usual. Robert Donlevy the bad guy, as usual. And Robert Preston, by gawd, that man had charm. I could see where this would have been a rollicking good time in 1939. Enough fist-fighin', shootin' and chasin' beautiful Barbara Stanwyck to fit the bill on a Saturday afternoon.

Joel McCrea is hired as troubleshooter for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The road needs him; financier Henry Kolker has been going long the Central Pacific and shorting the Union; if the UP can't get as far as Provo Utah first, their terminus will be in the middle of nowhere and the shares will be worthless, while the CP shares will share. Kolker hires Brian Donleavy to make sure that happens, and he in turn hires Robert Preston. Preston was McCrea's partner in the past, but now they're in amiable war, not only over the railroad, but Barbara Stanwyck, sure and who's sporting an Irish voice?

Demille's last black-and-white epic starts out with his usual historical tableaux before it settles down into the sort of cinematic twaddle of which he was so fond. Filling out the ranks of players with the likes of Akim Tamiroff as a balding Mexican roughneck, Lynn Overman in a scraggly beard, and other manly men doing manly things, while muscular versions of "Clementine" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" appear in the score. It's all vastly entertaining, so long as you don't take it seriously, which is pretty much true of all of Demille's sound movies.

It doesn't suffer from any of his usual flaws. The pacing is perfect, the acting is not at all stilted, and the technical aspects don't dominate the story or the characters. The story centers around the building of the titular railroad. A banker hires a motley group of gamblers and whoremongers (led by Brian Donlevy) to slow down production and then invests in the Central Pacific. Joel McCrea plays a railroad cop, basically, who sees that Donlevy is trouble. He can't outright kick him out, because his army buddy and best friend (Robert Preston) is Donlevy's partner. To further complicate the relationship between McCrea and Preston, there is a girl caught between them (Barbara Stanwyck). It's a great story supported by fine performances all around. While the film runs for 2 hours and 19 minutes, it never seemed boring at all. There are several exciting setpieces, most notably an Indian attack. There are also a couple of great suspense sequences. I loved the scene where McCrea corners Preston and Stanwyck after the payroll has been stolen. It goes on for a long time but the suspense never breaks. Generally I don't think DeMille has skill enough to pull something like that off. My only real problem is that sometimes the good guys are as bad as the villains. McCrea has two sidekicks, played by Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman, who can't help but be referred to as henchmen. I mean, even the characters' names are sinister, Fiesta and Leach. Donlevy has a couple of henchmen as well (Anthony Quinn in an early role and Robert Barrat), and they aren't any scarier.

This is my first Cecil B. DeMille movie and it's enough to demonstrate his reputation for epic productions (that are more visual than substantial).

Union Pacific is about the titular railroad that runs from oh, somewhere to the West. It's based on US history at a time when the Americans were expanding from East to West (and ridding the country of those pesky Native Americans). The movie, at 135 minutes, takes quite a lot of time to explain the situation. It's kinda interesting so it's not a bad thing. What does make his production feel bloated though, is that the climax of the movie happens about a half hour before it actually ends, after which it just drags on as it attempts to tie up loose ends, much like The Return of the King.

Barbara Stanwyck is great as always, even if hearing her speak with an Irish accent the whole time is a bit distracting. Joel McCrea is forgettable again. I don't know how he does it but he alternates between captivating and forgettable on screen. I thought that maybe he stands out more in comedies but no, I remembered I first really paid attention to him in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. I guess it just takes the right vehicle or director.

This is a fairly routine oat-opera of the "manifest destiny" subgenre. It has a stellar cast that is underused, and even the supporting cast is first-rate (the excellent Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman play the wisecracking bodyguards, and Brian Donlevy has one of his crafty kingpin roles -- by way of comparison, recall Donlevy and Tamiroff in "The Great McGinty"). The special effects are surprisingly hokey and it appears that fairly little of the movie was actually shot outside. And the sensibilities of the time show through, when one of the bad guys casually and cold-bloodedly murders an Indian, and the good guy does nothing more than punch the murderer a few times. While this might be historically more accurate than modern portrayals, it's still appalling to watch.

All that said, the movie is still entertaining. The dialogue is often more sophisticated than you'd expect, and this cast makes the most of anything they've been given. And you do get to see a couple of scenes of people laying rails and some shots of cool old steam trains. However, if you don't like old movies, don't bother with this one (if you know anything about old movies you can guess the details of the plot within 10 minutes of the beginning of the movie, and you'll get almost everything right).

Entertaining from start to finish, this is one of C. B. DeMille's better flicks. Joel McCrea plays the troubleshooter for the Union Pacific Railroad, which is to meet up with the Central Pacific Railroad out west. Barbara Stanwyck, with an Irish brogue, plays the daughter of a railroad engineer. Of course, there are scoundrels involved (Brian Donlevy, for one), and Robert Preston gets in the middle of the scheming. The action sequences are exciting, and there is just enough brawling with McCrea taking out the trash. The cast is loaded with familiar faces (too many of them in beards, by the way). Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman make a crazy pair. The typical ham acting and cornball script associated with DeMille's productions are ditched for the most part, except for when Regis Toomey buys the farm early on, and we are treated to a rendition of "Danny Boy."

I'm not sure what movie the other reviewers were watching but this film can be summed up in two words: Robert Preston.

Overlook Bab's problematic accent and hairdos, question why she would have any trouble choosing between RP's curly haired angelfaced rogue and bland Joel McCrae, try not to become infuriated by the rampant racism DeMille was famous for and just worry about one thing...watching a 21 year old Pres out act everyone on the set.

The fact that his modern, natural acting and extreme good looks did not turn him into an immediate star reminds us that indeed it was men running the show!

Where has the magic gone....that invisible, secret additive 'someone' would sprinkle into the mix during the movie-making process? Was it some of Tinkerbell's pixie dust, or something from Popeye's trusty spinach can, perhaps? "Possibly drugs", sez you. "Naw, not a chance", sez I. It had to do with an era in which Directors could direct and bring their vision to life. The one Producer could do his/her job and produce; Casting Directors exercised their skills, given from a higher power, and they could find the right people for each job; Actors could act and Writers could write. As a team, they created entertainment! And, they did it without having characters frequently jumping in and out of bed, together....and the only important four-letter words, in this movie, were "GOLD" and "LOVE". With movies like this one, you can grab some munchies, sit down and be entertained. With too many of today's movies, you can grab some munchies, sit down and be faced, immediately, with sex, constant "adult" language and political and social issues. That kind of entertainment can be experienced every day on any evening news program. I'd rather watch a movie like "UNION PACIFIC"!

This film starts slowly, but builds to a satisfying climax. The Golden Triangle of Love and Soap, mixed in with lots of action and adventure, will keep the viewer guessing for the whole film (although we have an inkling which way Barbara will eventually go). Good clean fun for the whole family on how the railroad business was in the old days.