Western Union

Western Union

By

  • Genre: Western
  • Release Date: 1941-02-21
  • Runtime: 95 minutes
  • : 6
  • Production Company: 20th Century Fox
  • Production Country: United States of America
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6/10
6
From 75 Ratings

Description

When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000.

Trailer

Reviews

  • CinemaSerf

    6
    By CinemaSerf
    I wonder if Fritz Lang had these three imposed on him by the studio system or whether he chose them? Anyway, sadly the folks we have leading this interesting, pioneering, adventure don't really manage to raise the film from a rather procedural mediocrity - despite this being quite a fascinating story of determination and diplomacy. We start with "Shaw" (Randolph Scott) discovering the injured "Creighton" (Dean Jagger) whilst someone is being pursued by a posse. He helps the man to a nearby house where he abandons him to the well meaning folks who help him recover. It turns out that "Creighton" is a Western Union surveyor sent by the company to plan for the coming of the telegraph. Skip on a while and the two are reunited on the construction project, alongside the ostensibly more sophisticated "Blake" (Robert Young) with the two men soon vying for the affections of "Sue Creighton" (Virginia Gilmore) to bring a little (completely unnecessary) love triangle to this story. As the work proceeds, the men encounter hostiles, betrayal and even some subterfuge from aggrieved confederate soldiers - all whilst suspecting that "Slade" (Barton MacLane) is pulling the strings. The photography is impressive and the Zane Grey novel, like most of his work, is an exciting boys-own type of tale that adapts well to the screen with horse-chases, shoot-outs and a well shot conflagration at the end. It's just the actors. Scott is passable but the other two just don't cut it, I'm afraid. Pity, it could have been much better. As it is, it's still easy enough to watch, though.

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