Train stations make for great locations in noir pictures, and I love to see real locations used in such films. In a way, these films serve as a time capsule of an era not long before rail stopped being the primary mode of long-distance travel in the US.
1950’s Union Station takes place largely in the titular building. It is here police, criminals and victims find themselves repeatedly as a kidnapping plot unfolds.
Actually, I am a bit confused as to why Lyle Bettger, the leader of the kidnappers, makes each step of the scheme take place there. At one point, it is explained Bettger knows the station well because he used to work there. That may explain how he knows the operations and layout of the facility so well, but it doesn’t justify him repeatedly going there for money drops, etc., when the place will be swarming with police after the initial kidnapping.
Allene Roberts plays the abducted girl, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. She’s blind, and that supposedly is the only reason Bettger keeps her alive. It is a thankless role, all crying and hysterics. The villain at one point remarks to his floozy (Jan Sterling) that the 100 grand ransom might not be enough of a reason to keep from killing Roberts, giving how much trouble she causes. I have to admit I can see his point of view.
The movie partly has a heroine in the form of Nancy Olson, a secretary for the family. Even before it is known there is a kidnapping, she happened to be on the train where it was boarded by two of the gang members. She saw one of the men had a gun concealed in his jacket, and alerted a conductor who didn’t believe her. Still, he passes along this information to the head of security at Union Station, played by William Holden.
I found it refreshing Olson is so determined. In one scene, the police in the station lose the trail of a suspect, and she tails him down the street. By doing this, she gets a license plate number that is so essential to the investigation that the police would have been helpless without it.
Unfortunately, the movie eventually sidelines her to the extent I forgot she was in it. Instead, it mostly follows Holden and his men. For some reason, he is the head of the investigation, even over Barry Fitzgerald, who plays the head of police.
There is a fair amount of action in the first half of this picture, and impressive camera work serves it well. There are quite a few good tracking and moving crane shots through the station itself. One such moment is an impressive move nearly 360 degrees around an advertising sign and behind it.
A particularly engaging scene has Holden and his men covertly following one of the kidnappers through a series of train cars and finally through stockyards. I was greatly surprised when the pursued man gets trampled underfoot. Unfortunately, the moment is slightly undercut by a cut to sped-up shots of cows running by.
Even less fortunate is the pacing of the film, which slows considerably in the second half. That said, the shots get longer in that half, so we see more of the industrial areas behind-the-scenes at the station. There’s also a fair amount shown of what are supposed to be service tunnels under the city, though I wondered if this was actually a set. Whichever it was, it makes for a great setting for the climax, where lights being extinguished level the playing field as a blind girl tries to flee her pursuer.
Union Station is not a fully satisfying story, but its location shooting, and the performances by its leads, make it slightly better than the average noir.
Dir: Rudolph Mate
Starring William Holden, Nancy Olson, Barry Fitzgerald
Watched on Olive Films blu-ray