Western Union (1941)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Zane Grey (novel)
Robert Carson (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 February 1941 (USA)

Genre:

History | Western

Plot:

Vance Shaw gives up outlawing and goes to work for the telegraph company; his brother Jack Slade leads...

Plot Keywords:

Western Union | Outlaw | Engineer | Telegraph | Shootout

Cast

Robert Young	...	Richard Blake
Randolph Scott	...	Vance Shaw
Dean Jagger	...	Edward Creighton
Virginia Gilmore	...	Sue Creighton
John Carradine	...	Doc Murdoch
Slim Summerville	...	Cookie
Chill Wills	...	Homer Kettle
Barton MacLane	...	Jack Slade
Russell Hicks	...	Provisional Governor, Territory of Nebraska
Victor Kilian	...	Charlie
Minor Watson	...	Pat Grogan
George Chandler	...	Herb
Chief John Big Tree	...	Chief Spotted Horse (as Chief Big Tree)
Chief Thundercloud	...	Indian leader
Dick Rich	...	Porky

Also Known As:

Zane Grey's Western Union (Australia)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Sioux

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | New Zealand:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #6715)

Filming Locations:

House Rock Canyon, Arizona, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Studio publicity noted that Fox contract star Henry Fonda had served as technical adviser on the film, due to his experience as a young man working as a lineman. Fonda's "technical advisory" capacity was most certainly a publicity fiction, and in any event Fonda was not credited on the film itself.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: During the speeches before they start stringing the telegraph wires, all the flags are 48-star flags. There were only 35 states in the Union in 1861.

Quotes:

Doc Murdoch: Can you cook lamb?
Cookie: There are nine different ways to cook mutton. And I know them all!
Homer Kettle: Never mind that! Do you cook it with the hair on?
Cookie: I should say not!
Crowd: Hurray!
Homer Kettle: Then you're hired!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Buffalo Bill (1944)

Soundtrack:

The Little Brown Jug

pretty good western

Hard to believe this was directed by Fritz Lang since he mostly directed crime dramas and mysteries. This movie has a cast that includes Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger and John Carradine. Scott plays an outlaw who tries to go straight and leave his old gang and winds up saving Jagger's life. Jagger works for Western Union, a telegraph company that plans to have telegraphs out west. Jagger hires a lot of men to make sure it is done because they have to worry about Indian attacks and bandits. Scott is in charge of the men and Young is a telegraph expert who can't shoot a gun but can ride. Scott meets up with his old gang who want to stop them but Scott can't tell anyone. It's a pretty good western and Lang should of directed some more westerns.