Tue 30 Sep 2014
A Western Movie Review: WESTERN UNION (1941).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[11] Comments
WESTERN UNION. 20th Century Fox, 1941. Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger, Virginia Gilmore, John Carradine, Slim Summerville, Chill Wills, Barton MacLane. Based on the novel by Zane Grey. Director: Fritz Lang.
I don’t know if you spotted it right off, without my pointing it out to you, but if you did and it took you aback, just a little, I don’t blame you. But yes, indeed, Robert Young got top billing in this colorful tale of a crew of Western Union workers constructing a telegraph line from East to West across the United States, mile by mile.
The movie is based on the novel by Zane Grey from 1939. The story is told in first person by Wayne Cameron, a tenderfoot fellow from Boston who has made his way west to make his way in the world. In the movie his name is Richard Blake, and naturally enough, he’s the fellow that Robert Young plays.
But neither the top billing (in the movie) or the primary protagonist (in the book) make a bit of difference. This is Randolph Scott’s film all the way, from beginning to a somewhat quizzical end. Scott plays a cowpoke named Vance Shaw in both book and movie, but in the film he’s an outlaw, making his first appearance sitting in the saddle against a clear blue sky before making his escape from a posse on his trail by riding through and scattering a large buffalo head, filmed in beautiful closeup Technicolor.
From here the book and film diverge considerably, although the head construction engineer for the crew working for Western Union and the new telegraph line is named Creighton in both (Dean Jagger in the movie) and both Scott and Young sign up. In the movie a rivalry between the two is fanned by their mutual interest in Creighton’s sister (Virginia Gilmore), complicated by the fact that Shaw’s brother (Barton MacLane) is still on the outlaw trail and determined to prevent the telegraph line from going through.
Personally I think the movie would have been a lot better without the comedy antics of Chill Wills and (especially) Slim Summerville, but otherwise there’s action aplenty, and some very good acting on the part of Randolph Scott, torn between his loyalty to his brother and getting the telegraph line through. This wasn’t his first western role, but the many closeups he has this film show him well on his way to becoming the hard-bitten icon of the West he was soon to be.
I’d also have preferred a different ending. Not that there’s anything wrong with the one we have, but this one jarred me a little, and it may you as well.
September 30th, 2014 at 5:46 pm
Western Union was the 2nd of Fritz Lang’s three Westerns. It’s not a genre that he’s particularly known for. I could be wrong, but I think the general consensus would be that of his three, RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1952) is the one that stands the test of time the best
September 30th, 2014 at 6:08 pm
Western Union is a marvelous picture. The ending, I thought, just perfection and the billing: I will quote Frank Sinatra when asked about second billing in Pal Joey. “Everyone seeing the picture will know who the star is”
September 30th, 2014 at 9:37 pm
Steve
The ending is what makes this a great film. The story is about Young’s character growing into the man he can be and Scott redeeming himself, and that scene when Scott meets MacLane at the end in the barber shop is one of the most shocking and defining scenes in any western.
I agree this is Scott’s picture, but I doubt he sweated the billing, he had to know he had the best part in the film. This is one of my favorite Lang films.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:38 pm
I’ve been reading reviews online by others who champion this movie besides you and Barry, David, but while I see what Lang was trying to do, especially with the ending, I don’t think he succeeded. I found the final shootout in he barber shop awkwardly setup and not at all smoothly done.
To me, seeing Barton MacLane earlier on in that horrible Indian warpaint diminished his role in the movie tremendously from that point on, making it difficult to take him and whatever threat he posed to Scott seriously. Seeing him later on with lather all over his face compounded the ineptness of his character. Someone less of a buffoon in the role (as well as someone who looked more like Scott) may have helped.
It has just occurred to me that the overall problem with the film is that is was too much of it was played for laughs. In 1941 adult westerns without funny sidekicks or comic interludes were far in the future, but as Jon mentioned to me as we were talking about WESTERN UNION after watching it together is that Slim Summerville’s character, to take a prime example, had no other role in he movie but to be funny. The humor wasn’t integrated into the story line, as it was in DODGE CITY, for example, with Alan Hale and Big Boy Williams enjoying themselves immensely as Errol Flynn’s good buddies.
Randolph Scott is really top notch in WESTERN UNION, and the technicolor photography is superb, but the story line is no more than standard, and while the twist at the end is shocking, it’s still jarring, or it was to me, as put it originally.
But you’ve given me plenty to think about, and when I get a chance, I don’t think I’ll mind at all seeing the movie again.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:34 pm
David Vineyard Says:
I accepted this on a gut level — which is almost always the way I look at film or theatre. The growth and regeneration are there to be felt as in a great meal without understanding of the ingredients. You’ve successfully put into words all we feel. Claude loved Randolph Scott’s work, and in this film, Virginia City as well, when his character passed, her lovely French eyes widened, waiting for him to come back. We are all waiting. In Western union, the three surviving lead characters share that hope and experience it with us. Just one of many reasons that this film works on all levels. Fun, adventure and the hope of resurrection.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:48 pm
PS. I wrote the comment above before I saw yours, Barry. I wish I loved the movie as much as you, and perhaps it’s me, but alas I didn’t, and I’ve done my best to explain why.
You and David have convinced to see it again, though, not right away, but I will, if only to see Randolph Scott in a role that I thought he was better in than some of those in the 50s that he’s far better known for.
October 1st, 2014 at 10:06 am
Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska is part of Ed Creighton’s (Dean Jagger) legacy. Western Union had a fairly uneventful time stringing wire, so the story we see is Zane Grey, and several screenwriters, notably Robert Carson. One of many, with and without Randolph Scott, produced by Harry Joe Brown.
October 1st, 2014 at 6:23 pm
Brian Garfield called Scott’s death the single most devastating event in a western. I agree it is a standard story, but I think that is the intent, to do something mythic rather than clever or new. If I recall George Macdonald Fraser also praised this in his history of history in movies.
The comedy relief didn’t bother me half as much as it did you, and I would point out the Indian war paint wasn’t meant to be authentic, but a group of white men trying to lay crimes off on the Indians (love to know the first time that was used). But when he shoots Scott in that final scene somewhere the twelve year old boy in me still screams “No, not Randolph Scott!”
The comedy relief in these westerns exists at least in part as a lingering reflection of Twain, Bret Harte, and THE VIRGINIAN where the west is often shown with a broad brush for buffoonery, rough humor, and dry wit. It’s historically more accurate than those adult westerns that would follow, and the costumes and the ways they used and wore their weapons were more accurate too.
It’s only today that every one mopes around like they were doing Hamlet in cowboy boots. Humor was very much a part of the real west and the early western tales.
October 2nd, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Barry
Looking at your comment above, were you married to a French woman too?
October 2nd, 2014 at 5:15 pm
David,
Yes, I was, and in a manner of thinking, still am. If you put up Claude Marie Lane you will read about her and find some thirty photographs and comments. And, by too, are you or were you also the husband of a French lady?
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:29 pm
Barry
I was, I worked for State and was assigned to the Embassy in Paris where I met my first wife Angelique, who was a dancer at Le Crazy Horse and art history student at the Sorbonne. She’s the mother of my son, and currently owns an art gallery in Paris.
I would tell you how to find her videos and pictures, but her father and my son both are with the French Foreign Ministry and share the same name. We eventually separated because of my work and some issues with her family, but even then it took us forever to disengage. Couldn’t let go, couldn’t work out the problems.
I know what you mean about those French eyes though. She was a sexy smart and fun lady, our life a memorable cyclone. I’m still something of a Francophile thanks to her.