Pacific Express

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 ****

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."

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.

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

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.