Monday, August 8, 2011

Movie Monday: Union Station

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Danger rides along on your way to Union Station!

Union Station is a relatively little-known thriller that came between Born Yesterday and Sunset Boulevard in William Holden's career, released the same year and also starring Nancy Olsen, who also appeared in the latter. But despite its modest reputation and ambitions (it runs barely 80 minutes), Union Station definitely has its charms!
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The movie opens aboard a train, where secretary Joyce Willecombe (Olsen) sees something a little unusual: a car racing its way through traffic, speeding alongside the train.

In a neat little scene combining well-timed live and back-projected footage, Joyce sees two men get out of the car at the next station and get aboard the train:
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This isn't necessarily all that odd, except when the two men get on, they sit apart and pretend they don't know one another. Also, one of them is carrying a gun!

Joyce tells the conductor of her suspicions, but he ignores her. Finally she badgers him enough to place a call to the cops. The one who gets the call is our hero, William "Tough Willy" Calhoun (great name!), played by the one-and-only William Holden, who gets a great intro shot:
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Calhoun, too, thinks Joyce's suspicions are unfounded, but when the train stops at Union Station, she sees one of the men hide a suitcase in a locker, which contains the belongings of Lorna Murchison, the blind daughter of Joyce's businessman boss!

Turns out Joyce's boss knows about kidnapping, but doesn't want to get the cops involved for fear of his daughter's life. Calhoun and another cop, Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald) get involved to try and stop the kidnappers.

Most of the movie's scenes take place in or around Union Station, like a good chase scene between Holden and one of the crooks. With his pitch-black coat and hat, Holden cuts a dashing figure against the bright Los Angeles (subbing for Chicago) sky:
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There are a lot of characters in Union Station, so many that unless you're really paying attention its easy to get a little confused. There are a couple of good set-pieces; there's one scene where some of the cops and the kidnapped girl's father watch some silent home movies of her; leaving the film completely quiet for a minute or two.

There's another scene that's almost startling in its noir-ish cynicism: Calhoun and some of the other cops, demanding information from a suspect, drag him down to a train platform and threaten to throw him in front of a moving train to get what they want, pulling him back at the last second. This scene also cleverly splices live action and projected footage:
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The case is resolved, of course; though I won't say how in case you check out Union Station for yourself. The movie ends on a jaunty note, with Inspector Donnelly nodding in approval of Calhoun and Joyce's realization they kinda like each other--of course they do, this is a Hollywood movie, after all!
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Union Station was directed by Rudolph Maté, who also made the classic D.O.A. (released the same year), and the sci-fi extravaganza When Worlds Collide. He keeps the story moving a brisk clip, and while there aren't that many scenes that really stand out, the movie holds up a good little thriller, with some nice performances, a good early star turn by Holden, and some compelling visuals.


1 comment:

Robert M. Lindsey said...

I thought Union Station was in Kansas City. I've got this one in my queue as I've heard good things about it before.
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