Union Pacific (film)
Encyclopedia
Union Pacific is a 1939
American
dramatic
western film
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
, and starring Barbara Stanwyck
and Joel McCrea
. Based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author
Ernest Haycox
, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West
.
authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad
westward across the wilderness toward California
, but financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau. Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
's Stagecoach
, which film historians consider responsible for transforming the Hollywood Western from "a mostly low budget, B film affair." Wheeler M. Dixon, for example, notes that after the appearance of these two films (Union Pacific and Stagecoach), the western was “something worthy of adult attention and serious criticism, and therefore a yardstick against which all westerns have been subsequently measured”.
DeMille's film indeed took the genre to a new level, considering issues of national unity in an engaging and entertaining manner at a time when nationalism was an increasing public concern. Michael Coyne accordingly characterizes Union Pacific as a "technological nation-linking endeavor" in his book The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity In the Hollywood Western. The spirit of unification in the film parallels the industrial boom that brought the United States out of the Great Depression at the onset of World War II, and, although the U.S. would not become involved in the war until 1941, the film’s emphasis on national unity typifies the nationalistic sentiment that would become much stronger once the country was at war.
The West is quickly characterized in the movie as wild and dangerous in opposition to the tame, civilized East. The opposition is drawn most explicitly in the opening scenes of United States Senate
debate. A senator expressing concern over the transcontinental railroad
asks: "What do we want with this vast, worthless area, region of savages and wild beasts, deserts and endless mountain ranges? What can we ever hope to do with 3,000 miles of endless, rock-bound coast, and not a harbor on it?!" This “we” refers to those in the East who, according to this senator, have no need for the untamed, and possibly untamable, land so opposed to the comfort “we” enjoy in the cities.
Thus established, the initial dichotomy between East and West is solidified in an early scene (the audience’s first glimpse of the West) in which Mollie and Fiesta walk through the train car, taking care of sleeping passengers along the way. When Fiesta tries to shut the window, he gets into an argument with a female passenger who re-opens it. Mollie steps in and convinces the passenger to close the window by reminding her of the potential for Indian attacks. The film here makes it clear that it is dangerous outside of the train car, for the outside is the West. The inside of the train car is safe, however, still carrying air and passengers from the tame, familiar East.
Nevertheless the West in Union Pacific is not only a place of wilderness and danger but also of adventure. The West is a page on which the history of progress is to be written. The audience is told this directly in the foreword: "The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West. For the West is America's Empire, and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West." The West, the film implies, is the nation’s future: once conquered and sufficiently controlled it will become a place of modernity. This idea is expanded upon when the pro-railroad senators ask potential investors to consider the project as one worthy of financing. “This railroad is the future of the United States, along its rails new cities will rise.” “Gentlemen,” begins another senator, “I move you the adoption of this railroad bill that shall bind us together, East and West, forever as one people,” implying that the East and West are not yet unified, but need to be for the sake of the nation’s future prosperity.
Class, race and gender dichotomies
In addition to the distinction made between East and West, class, race, and gender are all major themes addressed in the film. Differences in class, for example, are especially apparent amongst the people in the saloon that follows the end of the line. Allen and Campeau, wealthy and modern saloon owners, contrast with the patrons, poor Irish railroad workers. Even, Allen and Campeau’s clothes are suggestive of life back East while the railroad workers don attire suitable for their rugged Western lifestyle. When someone asks who was shot in the saloon, a man casually responds, “Oh, just some Irish track-layer.” These track-layers seem to be expendable whereas both Allen and Campeau are valuable because they are making money for Burrows by delaying the completion of the Union Pacific railroad.
In a similar sense Native Americans are juxtaposed against the white Americans who, along with Fiesta, are working to help push the railroad west. To these white Americans, the Native Americans are a relic. An early scene in which the train is moving forward while in the background Native Americans on their horses watch exemplifies the difference between the modern technology of the railroad and the antiquated ways of the indigenous people. The white Americans’ perception of the Native American as foreign and anachronistic is further emphasized by Fiesta’s exclamation: “Look! The Injun boy, he race the iron horse!” (26:11)
Gender also plays a crucial role in Union Pacific. Women are associated with marriage and the home, and men are paired with fighting and the pursuit of women. Mollie explicitly refers to distinct gender roles when she claims, “Flirtin’ gets into a woman’s blood just as fightin’ gets into a mans.” The idea that men are supposed to fight, that they are bred for it, is brought out again when she exclaims, “Glory what a man” after Butler fights a hostile worker into submission. Butler, the film’s ideal man, is so appealing to Mollie because he stands for bravery and dominance.
This complex set of dichotomies sets the characters against each other initially. However, towards the end of the film, Captain Jeff Butler, Dick Allen and Mollie Monahan find themselves trapped in an overturned railroad car, surrounded by an attacking band of Native Americans. The situation forces them to forget their differences and band together in order to survive. Every encounter with Native Americans in the film achieves a like effect of unifying persons across the lines of class, ethnicity, and gender against a common enemy. As mentioned, in the scene introducing Molly Monahan, bickering train passengers are forced to agree on one thing: open train-car windows can lead to "Indian attacks." The old woman who refuses to keep her window closed instantly changes her mind when Monahan points out that visible passengers make good targets.
Mollie Monahan is the central female character in the film. Played by the vivacious Barbara Stanwyck
, Mollie is the epitome of the new Western woman—she bridges the gap between her femininity and her role as an engineer’s daughter living in a world of blue-collar men. Mollie is fearless: the film introduces her bouncing from train car to train car, hair blowing in the wind, a wide grin on her face. It is clear that Molly feels at home on the railroad. Indeed, Mollie’s strongly opinionated, and often defiant, persona seems especially suited to the rough-and-tumble landscape of the frontier. Although the film isn’t completely male dominated (there are female passengers shown in the background of scenes), Mollie is the girl who catches everyone’s eyes; however, it seems that men in her life either are her protectors, or her potential lovers, and so Mollie is eventually forced into choosing a mate.
Mollie’s life in transit is suggestive of the new domestic challenges facing women migrating west. Women’s domestic role not longer strictly applied to indoor tasks, rather, women were expected to fulfill traditional domestic duties from their eastern upbringings, as well as tackle the difficulty of living in a new, and often inhospitable, landscape. Mollie’s role as both railroad worker and unmarried woman causes her to fluctuate between demure and protective. The film provides many examples of Mollie’s changeability; for example, in two separate scenes, Mollie is absolutely tickled when presented with diamonds and furs, a testament to her feminized fashion preferences; later on, per the command of her husband Dick, Mollie is filmed as the picturesque housewife when she sets the table for tea. In contrast to these examples, when Dick, Jeff and Mollie are trapped in the train car while Native Americans are ransacking the train cars, Mollie is given a gun with the expectation that she knows how to use it. She is trusted in this pivotal moment to help defend the American passengers against the enemy. She is placed upon equal footing with Dick and Jeff, both of whom have military training. While it seems that Mollie has no trouble making the switch between these two, seemingly opposing personalities, Mollie's character is not without conflict. Unfortunately for Mollie, as was the case for many young Hollywood heroines, she is burdened with the tough decision of which dashing young man to choose to spend her life with. The choices: Captain Jess Butler, the just and righteous “good cop,” and Dick Allen, the wealthy and flirtatious entrepreneur.
Jeff Butler and Dick Allen
Butler and Allen represent Mollie’s two love interests in the film; additionally, they symbolize two types of masculinity and two opposing moral codes present in the West. Jeff Butler, played by Joel McCrea
, is characterized as the unflinching, and heroic, executor of justice. His moral code operates on an instinctual level, described in one scene as “horse sense”; plainly, he sees the world in black and white. His simplicity is swoon-worthy, and the film clearly pushes its viewers to be on Team Jeff. Likewise, Mollie’s attraction to Jeff is instantaneous, although their love story isn’t realized until the end of the film after a sequence of coincidences enables the couple’s reunion. Jeff’s character is suggestive of a progressive, “western” masculinity, because he is shown to be comfortable with Mollie’s complex femininity and is inspired by her courage and brashness. He ultimately agrees to live his married life the way Mollie wishes—on the railroad.
In contrast Jeff’s foil, Dick Allen, is a more conventional husband. He wishes Mollie would abide by the correct, “eastern” etiquette of a wife who makes dinner and doesn’t speak out of turn. Yet most upsetting to Mollie is Dick’s desire to settle down in a real home. The concept of remaining static is frightening to Molly, and it makes obvious the fact that the two are ill-matched and therefore will have to be broken up to resolve the plot. Likewise, Dick spends superfluously, is addicted to gambling, and will not take the hint (no matter how many gifts he buys her) that Mollie is not interested. Dick’s morality is more ambiguous than Jeff’s, and his assessment of people and ideas of justice oscillate frequently, proven by his quick decision to leave his life back east in pursuit of illicit vocational opportunities on the railroad and his willingness to sabotage Mollie’s father in the race to join the railroads, again for monetary gain. The latter episode convinces the audience that where Jeff is clearly “good,” Dick, as his opposite, is “evil.”
Nevertheless, Jeff and Dick are emotionally bound together by their service in the Civil War, suggesting that the difference between them is not so clear-cut. Jeff’s loyalty to his fellow veteran, for example, affects Jeff’s otherwise strict moral code, and he allows Dick to remain alive after he steals the trains pay on the condition that he leave the railroad for good. Nevertheless, Dick dies in the act of rectifying the situation he has created, leaving Mollie and Jeff free to rekindle their love. The ending is quintessentially “Hollywood”—not a dry eye in the house. Union Pacific’s optimistic ending signified by the union of Jeff and Mollie, as well as the completion of the railroad, portends the ultimate triumph of the western progressive spirit over the greedy and materialistic eastern mongrels. Jeff and Mollie’s embrace also serves as a beacon of hope for young couples forging out west, and the promise that future generations will prosper out on the rough frontier.
, DeMille directed much of the film from a stretcher, because of an operation he had months earlier. However, studio records indicate DeMille collapsed from the strain of directing three units simultaneously, and used a stretcher for about two weeks.
The golden spike
used at the ceremony to mark the end of the construction was the same spike actually used in the May 10, 1869 event, on loan from Stanford University
.
For the Indian attack on the train, Paramount hired 100 Navajo Indian extras.
The company had rented many local Pinto horse
s for the filming of the Indian attack on the train. During filming, however, local cowboys had to be hired to round up the horses, as they would scatter and sometimes stampede because of the noise and confusion of these scenes--all the shooting, yelling, and yards of unfamiliar cloth on the horses, along with kettles and other implements tied to their manes and tails, made them extremely nervous and uncomfortable, and it didn't require much to make them bolt.
In order to operate the number of trains required by the production, Paramount had to get a regulation railroad operating license from the Interstate Commerce Commission
.
at the Cannes Film Festival
, although this was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival was to debut in 1939, but was cancelled due to World War II. The organizers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were: Goodbye, Mr. Chips
, La piste du nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers
, The Wizard of Oz
, Union Pacific and Boefje.
The world premiere of the motion picture took place simultaneously at three different theaters (the Omaha, Orpheum, and Paramount) in Omaha, Nebraska
, on April 28, 1939, just three weeks shy of the 70th anniversary of the driving of the real Golden Spike
which joined the rails of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad
s at Promontory Summit, UT, on May 10, 1869. The premiere was the center piece of a four-day (April 26-29) combined event called the Golden Spike Days Celebration and Golden Spike Historical Exposition that drew 250,000 people to the city thereby temporarily doubling its population and requiring the National Guard
to help keep order.
A special train transported DeMille, Stanwyck, and McCrea from Hollywood to Omaha. The trip took three days and made stops along the way, drawing large crowds. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inaugurated the overall celebration by pressing a telegraph key at the White House in Washington, DC, which opened the civic auditorium. An ad stated that the premiere, which involved parades, radio broadcasts and a banquet, was the biggest in motion picture history. An antique train continued on a 15-day coast-to-coast promotional tour, stopping at 30 cities around the country.
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dramatic
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
western film
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, and starring Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
and Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
. Based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
Ernest Haycox
Ernest Haycox
Ernest James Haycox was a prolific American author of Western fiction.-Biography:Haycox was born in Portland, Oregon, to William James Haycox and the former Martha Burghardt on October 1, 1899...
, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
.
Plot
The 1862 Pacific Railroad Act signed by President LincolnAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
westward across the wilderness toward California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau. Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Historical context
Union Pacific was released in 1939 two months after John FordJohn Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's Stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
, which film historians consider responsible for transforming the Hollywood Western from "a mostly low budget, B film affair." Wheeler M. Dixon, for example, notes that after the appearance of these two films (Union Pacific and Stagecoach), the western was “something worthy of adult attention and serious criticism, and therefore a yardstick against which all westerns have been subsequently measured”.
DeMille's film indeed took the genre to a new level, considering issues of national unity in an engaging and entertaining manner at a time when nationalism was an increasing public concern. Michael Coyne accordingly characterizes Union Pacific as a "technological nation-linking endeavor" in his book The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity In the Hollywood Western. The spirit of unification in the film parallels the industrial boom that brought the United States out of the Great Depression at the onset of World War II, and, although the U.S. would not become involved in the war until 1941, the film’s emphasis on national unity typifies the nationalistic sentiment that would become much stronger once the country was at war.
Cast
- Barbara StanwyckBarbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
as Mollie Monahan - Joel McCreaJoel McCreaJoel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
as Captain Jeff Butler - Akim TamiroffAkim TamiroffAkim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
as Fiesta - Robert PrestonRobert Preston (actor)-Early life:Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community...
as Dick Allen - Lynne OvermanLynne OvermanLynne Overman was a film actor in the 1930s and early-1940s who often played a sidekick.-Selected filmography:* Dixie * The Desert Song * The Forest Rangers...
as Leach Overmile - Brian DonlevyBrian DonlevyBrian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
as Sid Campeau - Robert BarratRobert BarratRobert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
as Duke Ring (Campeau henchman) - Anthony QuinnAnthony QuinnAntonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
as Jack Cordray (Campeau henchman) - Stanley RidgesStanley RidgesStanley Ridges was a British-born actor who made his mark in films by playing a wide assortment of character parts...
as General CasementJohn S. CasementJohn Stephen "Jack" Casement was a general and brigade commander in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a noted railroad contractor. He directed the constructional phase of the Transcontinental Railroad, which linked the Western United States with the East.-Early life and career:John... - Henry KolkerHenry KolkerHenry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
as Asa M. Barrows (banker) - Francis McDonaldFrancis McDonaldFrancis McDonald was an American actor whose career spanned 52 years. Although never really a headlining actor, he made 41 film and television appearances between 1913 and 1965, appearing in films such as The Temptress in 1926 with Greta Garbo...
as General Grenville M. DodgeGrenville M. DodgeGrenville Mellen Dodge was a Union army officer on the frontier and during the Civil War, a U.S. Congressman, businessman, and railroad executive who helped construct the Transcontinental Railroad.... - Willard RobertsonWillard RobertsonWillard Robertson was an American actor. He appeared in 146 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:*Graft *Shanghaied Love...
as Oakes Ames - Harold GoodwinHarold GoodwinHarold Goodwin was an American film actor who performed in over 225 films.Born in Peoria, Illinois, Goodwin began his film career while still in his teens in the 1915 film short Mike's Elopement. One of his most popular roles of the silent era was that of Jeff Brown in the 1927 Buster Keaton...
as E.E. Calvin (telegrapher) - Evelyn KeyesEvelyn KeyesEvelyn Louise Keyes was an American film actress. She is best-known for her role as Suellen O'Hara in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.-Early life:...
as Mrs. Calvin - Richard Lane as Sam Reed
Central themes
East vs. WestThe West is quickly characterized in the movie as wild and dangerous in opposition to the tame, civilized East. The opposition is drawn most explicitly in the opening scenes of United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
debate. A senator expressing concern over the transcontinental railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
asks: "What do we want with this vast, worthless area, region of savages and wild beasts, deserts and endless mountain ranges? What can we ever hope to do with 3,000 miles of endless, rock-bound coast, and not a harbor on it?!" This “we” refers to those in the East who, according to this senator, have no need for the untamed, and possibly untamable, land so opposed to the comfort “we” enjoy in the cities.
Thus established, the initial dichotomy between East and West is solidified in an early scene (the audience’s first glimpse of the West) in which Mollie and Fiesta walk through the train car, taking care of sleeping passengers along the way. When Fiesta tries to shut the window, he gets into an argument with a female passenger who re-opens it. Mollie steps in and convinces the passenger to close the window by reminding her of the potential for Indian attacks. The film here makes it clear that it is dangerous outside of the train car, for the outside is the West. The inside of the train car is safe, however, still carrying air and passengers from the tame, familiar East.
Nevertheless the West in Union Pacific is not only a place of wilderness and danger but also of adventure. The West is a page on which the history of progress is to be written. The audience is told this directly in the foreword: "The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West. For the West is America's Empire, and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West." The West, the film implies, is the nation’s future: once conquered and sufficiently controlled it will become a place of modernity. This idea is expanded upon when the pro-railroad senators ask potential investors to consider the project as one worthy of financing. “This railroad is the future of the United States, along its rails new cities will rise.” “Gentlemen,” begins another senator, “I move you the adoption of this railroad bill that shall bind us together, East and West, forever as one people,” implying that the East and West are not yet unified, but need to be for the sake of the nation’s future prosperity.
Class, race and gender dichotomies
In addition to the distinction made between East and West, class, race, and gender are all major themes addressed in the film. Differences in class, for example, are especially apparent amongst the people in the saloon that follows the end of the line. Allen and Campeau, wealthy and modern saloon owners, contrast with the patrons, poor Irish railroad workers. Even, Allen and Campeau’s clothes are suggestive of life back East while the railroad workers don attire suitable for their rugged Western lifestyle. When someone asks who was shot in the saloon, a man casually responds, “Oh, just some Irish track-layer.” These track-layers seem to be expendable whereas both Allen and Campeau are valuable because they are making money for Burrows by delaying the completion of the Union Pacific railroad.
In a similar sense Native Americans are juxtaposed against the white Americans who, along with Fiesta, are working to help push the railroad west. To these white Americans, the Native Americans are a relic. An early scene in which the train is moving forward while in the background Native Americans on their horses watch exemplifies the difference between the modern technology of the railroad and the antiquated ways of the indigenous people. The white Americans’ perception of the Native American as foreign and anachronistic is further emphasized by Fiesta’s exclamation: “Look! The Injun boy, he race the iron horse!” (26:11)
Gender also plays a crucial role in Union Pacific. Women are associated with marriage and the home, and men are paired with fighting and the pursuit of women. Mollie explicitly refers to distinct gender roles when she claims, “Flirtin’ gets into a woman’s blood just as fightin’ gets into a mans.” The idea that men are supposed to fight, that they are bred for it, is brought out again when she exclaims, “Glory what a man” after Butler fights a hostile worker into submission. Butler, the film’s ideal man, is so appealing to Mollie because he stands for bravery and dominance.
This complex set of dichotomies sets the characters against each other initially. However, towards the end of the film, Captain Jeff Butler, Dick Allen and Mollie Monahan find themselves trapped in an overturned railroad car, surrounded by an attacking band of Native Americans. The situation forces them to forget their differences and band together in order to survive. Every encounter with Native Americans in the film achieves a like effect of unifying persons across the lines of class, ethnicity, and gender against a common enemy. As mentioned, in the scene introducing Molly Monahan, bickering train passengers are forced to agree on one thing: open train-car windows can lead to "Indian attacks." The old woman who refuses to keep her window closed instantly changes her mind when Monahan points out that visible passengers make good targets.
Main characters
Mollie MonahanMollie Monahan is the central female character in the film. Played by the vivacious Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, Mollie is the epitome of the new Western woman—she bridges the gap between her femininity and her role as an engineer’s daughter living in a world of blue-collar men. Mollie is fearless: the film introduces her bouncing from train car to train car, hair blowing in the wind, a wide grin on her face. It is clear that Molly feels at home on the railroad. Indeed, Mollie’s strongly opinionated, and often defiant, persona seems especially suited to the rough-and-tumble landscape of the frontier. Although the film isn’t completely male dominated (there are female passengers shown in the background of scenes), Mollie is the girl who catches everyone’s eyes; however, it seems that men in her life either are her protectors, or her potential lovers, and so Mollie is eventually forced into choosing a mate.
Mollie’s life in transit is suggestive of the new domestic challenges facing women migrating west. Women’s domestic role not longer strictly applied to indoor tasks, rather, women were expected to fulfill traditional domestic duties from their eastern upbringings, as well as tackle the difficulty of living in a new, and often inhospitable, landscape. Mollie’s role as both railroad worker and unmarried woman causes her to fluctuate between demure and protective. The film provides many examples of Mollie’s changeability; for example, in two separate scenes, Mollie is absolutely tickled when presented with diamonds and furs, a testament to her feminized fashion preferences; later on, per the command of her husband Dick, Mollie is filmed as the picturesque housewife when she sets the table for tea. In contrast to these examples, when Dick, Jeff and Mollie are trapped in the train car while Native Americans are ransacking the train cars, Mollie is given a gun with the expectation that she knows how to use it. She is trusted in this pivotal moment to help defend the American passengers against the enemy. She is placed upon equal footing with Dick and Jeff, both of whom have military training. While it seems that Mollie has no trouble making the switch between these two, seemingly opposing personalities, Mollie's character is not without conflict. Unfortunately for Mollie, as was the case for many young Hollywood heroines, she is burdened with the tough decision of which dashing young man to choose to spend her life with. The choices: Captain Jess Butler, the just and righteous “good cop,” and Dick Allen, the wealthy and flirtatious entrepreneur.
Jeff Butler and Dick Allen
Butler and Allen represent Mollie’s two love interests in the film; additionally, they symbolize two types of masculinity and two opposing moral codes present in the West. Jeff Butler, played by Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
, is characterized as the unflinching, and heroic, executor of justice. His moral code operates on an instinctual level, described in one scene as “horse sense”; plainly, he sees the world in black and white. His simplicity is swoon-worthy, and the film clearly pushes its viewers to be on Team Jeff. Likewise, Mollie’s attraction to Jeff is instantaneous, although their love story isn’t realized until the end of the film after a sequence of coincidences enables the couple’s reunion. Jeff’s character is suggestive of a progressive, “western” masculinity, because he is shown to be comfortable with Mollie’s complex femininity and is inspired by her courage and brashness. He ultimately agrees to live his married life the way Mollie wishes—on the railroad.
In contrast Jeff’s foil, Dick Allen, is a more conventional husband. He wishes Mollie would abide by the correct, “eastern” etiquette of a wife who makes dinner and doesn’t speak out of turn. Yet most upsetting to Mollie is Dick’s desire to settle down in a real home. The concept of remaining static is frightening to Molly, and it makes obvious the fact that the two are ill-matched and therefore will have to be broken up to resolve the plot. Likewise, Dick spends superfluously, is addicted to gambling, and will not take the hint (no matter how many gifts he buys her) that Mollie is not interested. Dick’s morality is more ambiguous than Jeff’s, and his assessment of people and ideas of justice oscillate frequently, proven by his quick decision to leave his life back east in pursuit of illicit vocational opportunities on the railroad and his willingness to sabotage Mollie’s father in the race to join the railroads, again for monetary gain. The latter episode convinces the audience that where Jeff is clearly “good,” Dick, as his opposite, is “evil.”
Nevertheless, Jeff and Dick are emotionally bound together by their service in the Civil War, suggesting that the difference between them is not so clear-cut. Jeff’s loyalty to his fellow veteran, for example, affects Jeff’s otherwise strict moral code, and he allows Dick to remain alive after he steals the trains pay on the condition that he leave the railroad for good. Nevertheless, Dick dies in the act of rectifying the situation he has created, leaving Mollie and Jeff free to rekindle their love. The ending is quintessentially “Hollywood”—not a dry eye in the house. Union Pacific’s optimistic ending signified by the union of Jeff and Mollie, as well as the completion of the railroad, portends the ultimate triumph of the western progressive spirit over the greedy and materialistic eastern mongrels. Jeff and Mollie’s embrace also serves as a beacon of hope for young couples forging out west, and the promise that future generations will prosper out on the rough frontier.
Production
According to a news item in The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, DeMille directed much of the film from a stretcher, because of an operation he had months earlier. However, studio records indicate DeMille collapsed from the strain of directing three units simultaneously, and used a stretcher for about two weeks.
The golden spike
Golden spike
The "Golden Spike" is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory...
used at the ceremony to mark the end of the construction was the same spike actually used in the May 10, 1869 event, on loan from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
.
For the Indian attack on the train, Paramount hired 100 Navajo Indian extras.
The company had rented many local Pinto horse
Pinto horse
A pinto horse has a coat color that consists of large patches of white and any other color. The distinction between "pinto" and "solid" can be tenuous, as so-called "solid" horses frequently have areas of white hair. Various cultures throughout history appear to have selectively bred for pinto...
s for the filming of the Indian attack on the train. During filming, however, local cowboys had to be hired to round up the horses, as they would scatter and sometimes stampede because of the noise and confusion of these scenes--all the shooting, yelling, and yards of unfamiliar cloth on the horses, along with kettles and other implements tied to their manes and tails, made them extremely nervous and uncomfortable, and it didn't require much to make them bolt.
In order to operate the number of trains required by the production, Paramount had to get a regulation railroad operating license from the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
.
Awards
This film is the official winner of the first ever Palme D'OrPalme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, although this was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival was to debut in 1939, but was cancelled due to World War II. The organizers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were: Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
, La piste du nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers
The Four Feathers
The Four Feathers is a 1902 adventure novel by British writer A.E.W. Mason that has inspired many films of the same title.-Plot summary:...
, The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, Union Pacific and Boefje.
World premiere
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, on April 28, 1939, just three weeks shy of the 70th anniversary of the driving of the real Golden Spike
Golden spike
The "Golden Spike" is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory...
which joined the rails of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
s at Promontory Summit, UT, on May 10, 1869. The premiere was the center piece of a four-day (April 26-29) combined event called the Golden Spike Days Celebration and Golden Spike Historical Exposition that drew 250,000 people to the city thereby temporarily doubling its population and requiring the National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
to help keep order.
A special train transported DeMille, Stanwyck, and McCrea from Hollywood to Omaha. The trip took three days and made stops along the way, drawing large crowds. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inaugurated the overall celebration by pressing a telegraph key at the White House in Washington, DC, which opened the civic auditorium. An ad stated that the premiere, which involved parades, radio broadcasts and a banquet, was the biggest in motion picture history. An antique train continued on a 15-day coast-to-coast promotional tour, stopping at 30 cities around the country.