Western Union

Plot synopsis:
While surveying a telegraph line in 1861, Western Union engineer Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger) is severely injured in an accident. He is discovered by Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott), an outlaw on the run from a posse. Forced to travel on foot after his horse was hurt, Shaw at first considers stealing Creighton's horse, but changes his mind and takes the man with him, saving his life.
Sometime later, following his recovery, Creighton returns to Omaha, Nebraska and plans the construction of a telegraph line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Utah. Facing considerable opposition to the line from Confederate soldiers, Indians, and outlaws, Creighton elicits the help of his sister Sue (Virginia Gilmore), foreman Pat Grogan (Minor Watson), and assistant Homer Kettle (Chill Wills).
Looking to put his outlaw past behind him, Shaw arrives at Creighton's Western Union office looking for honest work and is hired as a scout by Grogan who is unaware of his past. Creighton recognizes him among the men and allows him to stay despite his suspicions. Creighton also hires tenderfoot Richard Blake (Robert Young), a Harvard-educated engineer as a favor to Blake's father. Shaw and Blake are both attracted to Sue and vie for her attention, but their romantic rivalry is cut short when construction of the telegraph line starts on July 4, 1861.
After work commences on the line, one of the men is killed apparently by a mysterious band of cattle-rustling Indians. Unconvinced that Indians are to blame, Shaw rides out to investigate and follows the rustlers' trail to the camp of Jack Slade, a former friend and cohort, whose gang committed the killing disguised as Indians—the gang Shaw left following his last bank robbery. Slade reveals that they are working for the Confederacy to disrupt Western Union because they believe the telegraph service will help the Union. Shaw rides away and returns to the line. Not wanting to turn in his former friends, Shaw tells Creighton that a large band of Dakota Indians stole the cattle, and recommends that they simply replace the herd and not risk a fight with the Indians.
Sometime later, a confrontation takes place between men working on the forward line and a band of drunken Indians. When one of the Indians tries to steal some equipment, a nervous Blake shoots him, ignoring Shaw's order to remain calm. After word arrives that the main camp is under attack by other Indians, the Western Union men rush back to help with the defense. At the main camp, Slade's men, who are again disguised as Indians, steal the Western Union horses. The company discover the ruse when one of the wounded Indians turns out to be a white man. Forced to buy back their stolen horses from Slade, Creighton becomes suspicious of Shaw's involvement, especially when he admits to knowing the gang.
Soon the U.S. Army arrives and announces the Indians have now refused to allow the telegraph lines to go through their territory in response to Blake's shooting of the drunken Indian. Creighton, Shaw, and Blake ride out to convince Chief Spotted Horse to allow them to build the line through Indian territory, even though the man Blake wounded was Spotted Horse's son. Creighton is finally able to persuade the Indians to allow them passage, and work continues until the company approaches Salt Lake City.
Sometime later, Shaw receives word that Jack Slade wants to meet with him. On the way to see Slade, Shaw is captured and bound by Slade's men. Slade says his group is going to burn down the Western Union camp and they don't want Shaw to interfere. After Slade and his men ride off, Shaw escapes from his ropes (using the smoldering embers of Slade's campfire),but returns too late to prevent the fire. He helps rescue some of the Western Union men from the flames and burns his hands in the process (or so he lets everyone believe as he burnt them in the campfire).
After the fire, Creighton confronts Shaw for an explanation, but Shaw does not reveal what he knows and is fired by Creighton. As Shaw leaves the camp, he tells Blake that Slade is actually Shaw's brother and that he, Shaw, will find Slade's gang and stop them from interfering with the telegraph project. Shaw rides off and finds Slade and his men in a nearby town. At the barber shop, Shaw confronts his brother, whose gun is concealed under the barber's sheet. Slade shoots Shaw through the sheet. Shaw fights back in spite of his wound, killing some of the gang members, and then dies. Blake arrives and continues the fight with Slade who dies from his wounds. Soon after, the Western Union line is completed and the workers celebrate. When Sue laments the absence of Shaw, Creighton tells her that Shaw can hear them.

Tags: revenge, romantic

Review:
This - being a blessing in some ways - is not only incongruous but totally ironic when one considers that a movie depicting the founding and establishment of such a uniquely American organization as The Western Union Telegraph Company is without a Region 1 release.
It simply doesn't make sense!Produced by Fox in 1941 "Western Union" was directed by Fritz Lang.
Beautifully photographed in early three strip Technicolor by Edward Cronjager it boasted a good cast headed by Robert Young, Randolph Scott and Dean Jagger.
He died in 1998 at the age of 91."Western Union" recounts the connection by telegraph wire of Omaha and Salt Lake City.
Scott plays a reformed outlaw hired by Western Union boss Dean Jagger to protect the line from marauding Sioux and to also take on McLane and his gang who are trying to destroy the line for their own devious ends.
Some comic relief is provided by - and irritatingly so some would say - by Slim Summerville and John Carradine turns up in a meager role as the company doctor.Altogether though a spanking good western, albeit on Region 2, but in sparkling good quality that fans will be delighted with.
Western Union tells the story of the people who were bringing the telegraph to the west.
Robert Young is the tenderfoot and Randolph Scott the tough man of the west.
The same plot showed up in another Scott movie, Santa Fe. Fritz Lang did two unconventional westerns "The Return of Frank James" and "Rancho Notorious" but this western which can be considered conventional is the best of the three.
This movie concerns Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott) gives up outlawing , he meets Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger) who leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West ; the latter hires Vance and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor as well as engineer from Harvard , Richard Blake (Robert Young) .
Meanwhile , some outlaws (Barton MacLane) attempting to prevent the company connecting the line and robbing the Western Union cattle masked of Indians Ogalaya .This traditional Western of the founding of telegraph routes westward contains thrills , rousing action , frontier adventure , shootouts , Indian attacks and exuberant outdoors .
Big budget Western by Darryl F Zanuck's 20th Century Fox , and even studio publicity noted that Fox contract star Henry Fonda -though uncredited- had served as technical adviser on the film, due to his experience as a young man working as a lineman .
The main protagonists result to known players , such as Randolph Scott as a Western reformed outlaw , Robert Young as an obstinate surveyor and Dean Jagger as manager .
Support cast is frankly magnificent , such as : John Carradine , Chill Wills , Barton MacLane , Slim Summerville , Charles Middleton and the ordinary Indians : Chief John Big Tree , Chief Thundercloud , Iron Eyes Cody , Jay Silverheels .
The motion picture produced by Harry Joe Brown and Darryl F Zanuck was compellingly directed by Fritz Lang and with great enthusiasm .
Fritz Lang's "Western Union" is a entertaining movie with good heroes in Randolph Scott,the strong and silent man trying to escape his outlaw past,Robert Young as the easterner trying to conform to the code of the wild west,and Dean Jagger as the determined boss of the Western Union gang.I think the acting honors go to Dean Jagger who is very good in his part.
Randolph Scott found his prototype of western hero in this movie and would play variations of that type in westerns to come for the next two decades.The movie looks very good in early Technicolor.
When Fritz Lang arrived and saw the local Indians who were hired for the movie they were short stocky built people like many of the tribes in the southwestern area of the United States.
This did not meet Langs idyllic picture of the tall thin and muscular Indian he had cultivated while he was still in Europe where he was already fascinated with the American west and its's western films.
While escaping from a heist of a bank, the outlaw Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott) helps Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger), the chief-engineer of the Western Union that is surveying the Wild West and had had an accident with a horse.
In 1861, Vance regenerates and is hired to work for the Western Union with the team that is installing the poles and cable from Omaha to Salt Lake City.
Vance and the engineer from Harvard Richard Blake (Robert Young) flirt with the gorgeous Edward's sister Sue Creighton (Virginia Gilmore) and she chooses Vance.
However, his past haunts him when the outlaw Jack Slade (Barton MacLane) steals the Western Union cattle disguised of Indians."Western Union" is a good but predictable western directed by Fritz Lang.
This movie has a cast that includes Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger and John Carradine.
Jagger works for Western Union, a telegraph company that plans to have telegraphs out west.
Nowhere is this poetry more evident as in Western Union [1941], directed by one of film noir's most gifted geniuses Fritz Lang, here working equally adeptly in colour.
The shot of unfinished telegraph lines snaking away into twilight oblivion leaves lasting impressions.This western prophecies the long professional relationship between producer Nat Holt and Randolf Scott which ran from 1946 and turned out cliché-westerns which weren't cliches at the time, and which, with practice improved till there was a kind of visual poetry about them.
Fritz Lang directed two great westerns:  "Western Union" and "The Return of Frank James".
"Western Union" is one of Randolph Scott's great westerns.
I have never seen Robert Young in a western before; he is terrific as the telegraph employee.
This is one of those films and I agree with another reviewer who said Fritz Lang should have directed more westerns.
To add to it I have always liked Randolph Scott and Robert Young.
Western Union likewise led me to reading Zane Grey's novel which, in this case turned out to be one of those rare cases where I like the movie better than the novel.
If Western Union isn't exactly the real story of the construction of the Transcontinental Telegraph, it certainly does capture the spirit and dedication of the people involved with the project.Dean Jagger is the man in charge and one fine day he's thrown from a horse and sustains some fractured ribs.
Later on he's hired by Western Union and works for Jagger.Jagger also hires a young easterner played by Robert Young who's an engineer.
Young is doing one of his few loan out films away from MGM for 20th Century Fox. Both Young and Scott become friends, but rivals for Jagger's sister Virginia Gilmore.Western Union has plenty of action, enough to satisfy any western fans.
Fritz Lang got good performances from his cast and kept the film moving briskly along.
Here's another of the 1940's westerns that I watch whenever it comes on TCM or FMC, because although it may be flawed historically, it is extremely entertaining and well acted, plus it's got Randolph Scott, my favorite actor second only to Gary Cooper-Well, OK, fourth behind COOP, Charlton Heston, and Gregory Peck.
He abandons his old gang and finds a job working for the Western Union company under the lead of Dean Jagger (Creighton).
The only real interest in the first half of the film comes from the comedy sections between Scott and Young as they compete for the affections of Miss Gilmore.
Talking of comedy, there is far too much with a special mention going to the very unfunny cook that is Slim Summerville (Herman).In the second half of the film, we finally get some action sequences – including a very badly acted drunken Indian – but it's nothing that hasn't been seen before.
So, it's up to either Randolph Scott or Robert Young to save the day.This is certainly one of the better 1940s Westerns I have seen and it nearly garnered an 8--it was that good.
However, for the life of me, I have no idea why Fritz Lang was assigned to direct this film--after all, he knew nothing about Westerns.
Strange, yes, but it seemed to work out okay, though I wonder how this great German director felt about being given this job.As for the rest of the film, it's exceptional--with vivid color, great location shooting and very good acting.
As for the script, it seemed pretty ordinary for the most part, but the final showdown between Scott and Barton MacLane was a lot better than I'd hoped--making this movie ending on a very high note..
Director Fritz Lang uses scenic venues of the west as the backdrop for this interesting film.
A bad guy (Randolph Scott)changes his ways by becoming a scout for Western Union.
Robert Young plays a New York tender foot that has signed on to work and is in competition with Scott for the affections of Gilmore.
Western Union (1941) *** (out of 4) Fritz Lang's film about the Western Union telegraph company trying to get its wires through Indian territory.
Robert Young plays the man in charge of the mission and he hires an outlaw (Randolph Scott) to keep enemies off.
You'd think someone like Lang wouldn't be too good at making a film about the Old West but with this, Jesse James and its sequel, he makes for some rather entertaining films, which certainly stand out in his career.
The entire film pretty much works due to the performances with Young and Scott doing great work together.
Scott steals the film whenever he's on the screen but Dean Jagger, John Carradine and Virginia Gilmore are also very good.
Western Union is directed by Fritz Lang and written by Robert Carson who adapts from the Zane Grey novel of the same name.
It stars Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger, Barton MacLane and Virginia Gilmore.
Plot finds Scott as outlaw Vance Shaw, who in an attempt to reform himself joins the company wiring the Great Plains for telegraph service in 1861.
However, the Western Union is meeting resistance, from both the Native Americans and Vance's old gang, while there's also a love triangle forming between Vance, Sue Creighton (Gilmore) and tenderfoot Richard Blake (Young).
It's all going to come to a head...Fritz Lang's second Western after The Return of Frank James (1940), Western Union is at times exciting, always brisk, but lacking a claustrophobic edge so befitting the director's trade marks.
Cast wise it's Scott who is the stand out, as the man trying to do good as his past closes in, and Jagger provides earthy appeal as Western Union boss man Edward Creighton.
WESTERN UNION tells in melodramatic fashion the stringing of telegraph lines between two points out west.
Siblings Dean Jagger and Virginia Gilmore work for Western Union, and Randolph Scott and Robert Young work for the Creightons.
Included in this smörgåsbord of titles is today's lucky subject, WESTERN UNION (20th Century-Fox, 1941).TYPICALLY a film about the Old West and Pioneer Days needed both quality as well as quantity of cast.
We are treated to a fine array of starring talent as well as a supporting cast which makes just about every minute and each scene a delight to our senses.HEADING up the playbill are Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger and Virginia Gilmore.
Others prominently displayed are folks like John Carradine (playing not a vampire or other scary guy, but a Physician), George "Slim" Summerville (veteran character actor, Silent Film veteran and graduate of Mack Sennett's Keystone Comedies), Chill Wills (always dependable supporting player and former singer in "The Avalon Boys") and burly bad guy Barton MacLane.
All of this being done by a German born Director who was only had been in Hollywood and America for the shortest length of time.IN its final analysis, WESTERN UNION, while it may not be the most historically accurate example of the Western Genre; we just don't care.
Blazing early technicolor is an awesome ingredient of this fast-moving Fritz Lang western featuring Robert Young and Randolph Scott in one of their best cowboy epics.
Randolph Scott is excellent as the man with a past hired to protect Western Union from Indian attacks.
Western fans will relish the strong part given to veteran heavy Barton MacLane as Scott's brother Jack Slade (even though the resemblance is hardly striking) - the sneering MacLane's face in close up, daubed in war paint, is a real sight to behold, a highlight of the film..More unusually for Lang is the use of a comic sub plot, as Herman the cook struggles against the vicissitudes of his employment.
Had he lived into the modern era, and invested in Hollywood, he probably would have agreed to that assessment too.The film deals with how the laying of the telegraph system is endangered by Indians, spurred on by one Jack Slade (Barton MacLane).
He is confronted by the man in charge of the laying of the telegraph wires, Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger), Creighton's associate Richard Blake (Robert Young), and a quasi-lawman Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott), who is Slade's brother.
Blake, an Easterner with little understanding of the West, is romancing Creighton's sister Sue (Virginia Gilmore), but finds it hard to get used to his new surroundings.
Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott) is on horseback and being pursued, we know not why -- he stumbles on wounded Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger) and decides to take his gun and horse, but discovering that Creighton is in a bad way, decides to fix him up first.
Shaw's old pals come back to haunt him as the the wagon train and its wires move westward; attacks mount on the crew, and Shaw has to wrestle with what, if anything, he is to tell Creighton about his tortured relationship with Jack Slade (Barton MacLane), leader of the outlaws.Beautifully shot in early Technicolor and moving fairly seamlessly from sound stages to western locations, this is for my money easily Lang's best western and one of his very best films, conveying as potently as any of his films the tragic inability of men to escape their pasts and build a new future.
It takes place in 1861 at the out break of the American Civil War. In fact a note from Abraham Lincoln is read wishing the company good luck and expressing the need for coast to coast communication as soon as possible.Outlaw on the run Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott) saves the life of surveyor Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger).
Later, Vance goes to work for Western Union unaware that Creighton is now the boss.
Creighton promises Shaw that their previous meeting will be kept confidential.Tenderfoot surveyor from the east Richard Blake (Robert Young) arrives on the scene.
Both he and Shaw pursue Creighton's comely young sister Sue (Virginia Gilmore.A group of renegades professing allegiance to the south and led by outlaw Jack Slade (Barton MacLane) begin raids on the Western Union camps stealing their horses and cattle.
Eventually this leads to a confrontation between Vance and Slade."Western Union" is directed by Fritz Lang who had a soft spot for American Westerns.
Randolph Scott (Vance Shaw), Robert Young (Richard Blake), Dean Jagger (Edward Creighton), Virginia Gilmore (Sue Creighton), John Carradine (Doc Murdoch), Slim Summerville (Herman), Chill Wills (Homer), Barton MacLane (Jack Slade), Russell Hicks (governor), Victor Kilian (Charlie), Minor Watson (Pat Grogan), George Chandler (Herb), Chief Big Tree (Chief Spotted Horse), Chief Thundercloud (Indian leader), Dick Rich (Porky), Harry Strang (henchman), Charles Middleton (stagecoach rider), Addison Richards (Captain Harlow), Irving Bacon (barber), Francis Ford, Eddy Waller (stagecoach drivers), James Flavin, Frank Mills, Ralph Dunn (men), Paul E.
95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Despite Indians and outlaws, Western Union constructs a telegraph line from Omaha, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, Utah.NOTES: Although Irving Bacon is credited as Joe, the barber, in the credits of the print under review, the part — in this version at least — was played not by Bacon but by Olin Howland.
Good to see Robert Young doing a fair bit of his own riding, but most impressive of all is Dean Jagger, caught making his own leap from an overturning wagon.
A bearded (and unrecognizable were it not for his distinctively rich voice) Victor Kilian makes a surprisingly effective stooge.Led by John Carradine (made up to look like the Henry Hull character in "Return of Frank James"), many of our favorite character actors can be spotted along the way, including the here ill-fated Chill Wills (in a straighter part than usual); Francis Ford as the stage driver with whom Summerville tries to escape; James Flavin as a member of the bank hold-up posse; Russell Hicks as a governor reduced to horse holder; George Chandler as the victim of an "Indian" attack.
A rare, for the times, Technicolor western, it concerns the trials of the telegraph line construction crew in dealing with 2 sets of antagonists: 1)an outlaw gang working for the Confederacy, as well as for itself, often dressed as Indians 2) real Indians(Lakota Sioux), who sometimes object to the building of the line through what they consider their hunting grounds.
One such film being Western Union, a western full of character and dynamic situations.The main plot line focuses on the beginnings of the Western Union, a company setting up telegraph poles across the west in order for faster communication to the east.
But Shaw soon amerces himself into the role of the good guy by working alongside Creighton for Western Union.
One of the great directors of cinema, Fritz Lang, has created a real gem in this excellent western.
A fine cast led by Randolph Scott (in probably one of his greatest performances), the always sturdy Dean Jagger, Robert Young as a surprisingly accomplished dude plus many veteran character actors: Chill Wills, Slim Summerville, John Carradine, Barton MacLane and others in an exciting Zane Grey story of the laying of the Western Union cable across country.