Western Union (film)
Encyclopedia
Western Union is a 1941 western
feature film directed by Fritz Lang
. Filmed in Technicolor
on location in Arizona and Utah, Western Union tells the story of a reformed outlaw
named Vance Shaw who tries to make good by joining the team wiring the Great Plains
for telegraph service in 1861. Edward Creighton
is the man in charge of the operation, and Richard Blake is an easterner who is also part of the team. Sue Creighton, Edward's sister, becomes the object of both Blake's and Shaw's affections. In addition to the love-triangle, conflicts arise between Shaw and his former gang, as well as between the team stringing the wires and the Native Americans through whose land the new lines must run. In this regard, the film is not historically accurate; the installation of telegraph wires was met with protest from no one.1
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Zane Grey
, although there are significant differences between the two plots.2
Western Union was only the second western made by Lang: The Return of Frank James
being the first in 1940. Both movies explore the conflicts and obstacles of former criminals trying to return to law-abiding society. And both films were complicated by the Hays Code which stipulated strict moral conduct in films at the time.
Later, Creighton is hiring a team to do the line work and Shaw applies. While Creighton has his suspicions about Shaw, he hires him anyway.
After the line work starts, one of the men on the team is killed by Indians
. Shaw rides away to find the killers and discovers that not only are they white men disguised as Indians, but also former friends of Shaw’s. The group’s leader, Jack Slade, tells Shaw they are working for the Confederates
to disrupt Western Union because they believe the telegraph service will help the Union
. Shaw rides away.
The Western Union men are again attacked by Indians. Shaw tries to quell the conflict but fights with one Indian who tries to steal equipment. The Indian is shot and wounded by Richard Blake. The Western Union men get word that their main camp is under attack. While they rush back to help with the defense, the Indians steal their horses and leave.
The Army arrives and announces that, because of the shooting by Blake, the Indians have refused to allow the telegraph lines to go through their territory. Creighton, with Shaw and Blake, go out to meet with the Indians and persuade them to change their minds.
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 but arrives back 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.
After the fire, Creighton confronts Shaw for an explanation. Shaw won’t say 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 to town to locate Slade and finds him, with his gang, 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, kills some of the gang members, then dies himself. Richard Blake arrives to continue the fight against Slade. Blake runs out of bullets, but Slade dies from his wounds.
The Western Union men celebrate the completion of the telegraph line installation and Sue Creighton, Edward’s sister, laments the absence of Vance Shaw.
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...
feature film directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
. Filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
on location in Arizona and Utah, Western Union tells the story of a reformed outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
named Vance Shaw who tries to make good by joining the team wiring the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
for telegraph service in 1861. Edward Creighton
Edward Creighton
Edward Creighton was a prominent pioneer businessman in early Omaha, Nebraska. The brother of John A. Creighton, the Creightons were responsible for founding many institutions that were central to the growth and development of Omaha...
is the man in charge of the operation, and Richard Blake is an easterner who is also part of the team. Sue Creighton, Edward's sister, becomes the object of both Blake's and Shaw's affections. In addition to the love-triangle, conflicts arise between Shaw and his former gang, as well as between the team stringing the wires and the Native Americans through whose land the new lines must run. In this regard, the film is not historically accurate; the installation of telegraph wires was met with protest from no one.1
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
, although there are significant differences between the two plots.2
Western Union was only the second western made by Lang: The Return of Frank James
The Return of Frank James
The Return of Frank James is a 1940 western film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney. It is a sequel to Henry King's 1939 film Jesse James. Written by Sam Hellman, the film loosely follows the life of Frank James following the death of his outlaw brother, Jesse James at...
being the first in 1940. Both movies explore the conflicts and obstacles of former criminals trying to return to law-abiding society. And both films were complicated by the Hays Code which stipulated strict moral conduct in films at the time.
Principal cast
- Robert YoungRobert Young (actor)Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
- Richard Blake - Randolph ScottRandolph ScottRandolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
- Vance Shaw - Dean JaggerDean JaggerDean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
- Edward CreightonEdward CreightonEdward Creighton was a prominent pioneer businessman in early Omaha, Nebraska. The brother of John A. Creighton, the Creightons were responsible for founding many institutions that were central to the growth and development of Omaha... - Virginia GilmoreVirginia GilmoreVirginia Gilmore was an American film, stage, and television actress.-Biography:Virginia Gilmore was born as Sherman Virginia Poole in El Monte, California. Her father was a retired officer of the British Army. Gilmore began her stage career in San Francisco at the age of 15, but moved to Los...
- Sue Creighton - John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
- Doc Murdoch - Barton MacLaneBarton MacLaneBarton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he has appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he was known for his role as Gen...
- Jack Slade - Russell Hicks - Provisional Governor of the Territory of Nebraska
- Slim SummervilleSlim SummervilleSlim Summerville was an American film actor, best known as a comedy performer.-Life and career:Born George Joseph Summerville in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Summerville began his career as a "Keystone Kop" in 1912...
- Cookie - Chill WillsChill WillsChill Theodore Wills was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.-Biography:Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas in 1902. He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s...
- Homer Kettle - Victor KilianVictor KilianVictor Arthur Kilian was an American actor who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s....
- Charlie - Minor WatsonMinor WatsonMinor Watson was a prominent character actor. He appeared in 111 movies made between 1913 and 1956. His credits included, Boys Town , Yankee Doodle Dandy , Kings Row , Guadalcanal Diary , Bewitched , The Virginian , and The Jackie Robinson Story .He is buried in Alton Cemetery...
- Pat Grogan - George ChandlerGeorge ChandlerGeorge Chandler was an American actor best known for playing the character of "Uncle Petrie" on the television series Lassie...
- Herb - Chief John Big TreeChief John Big TreeChief John Big Tree , born Isaac Johnny John, was a member of the Seneca Nation and an actor who appeared in 59 films between 1915 and 1950....
- Chief Spotted Horse (as Chief Big Tree) - Chief ThundercloudChief ThundercloudChief Thundercloud, was an American character actor in westerns.Information about Thundercloud is vague...
- Indian leader - Dick Rich - Porky
Plot summary
The year is 1861. The movie opens with Vance Shaw on horseback riding away from men who are chasing him. Shaw’s horse becomes injured in the process and Shaw is forced to continue on foot. He meets up with another man and decides to steal his horse, but changes his mind when he sees the man is hurt. He takes the man for help and leaves. It is then revealed that the injured man is Edward Creighton, there to lead the installation of telegraph lines. Another man in the Western Union company is an easterner named Richard Blake.Later, Creighton is hiring a team to do the line work and Shaw applies. While Creighton has his suspicions about Shaw, he hires him anyway.
After the line work starts, one of the men on the team is killed by Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Shaw rides away to find the killers and discovers that not only are they white men disguised as Indians, but also former friends of Shaw’s. The group’s leader, Jack Slade, tells Shaw they are working for the Confederates
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
to disrupt Western Union because they believe the telegraph service will help the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
. Shaw rides away.
The Western Union men are again attacked by Indians. Shaw tries to quell the conflict but fights with one Indian who tries to steal equipment. The Indian is shot and wounded by Richard Blake. The Western Union men get word that their main camp is under attack. While they rush back to help with the defense, the Indians steal their horses and leave.
The Army arrives and announces that, because of the shooting by Blake, the Indians have refused to allow the telegraph lines to go through their territory. Creighton, with Shaw and Blake, go out to meet with the Indians and persuade them to change their minds.
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 but arrives back 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.
After the fire, Creighton confronts Shaw for an explanation. Shaw won’t say 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 to town to locate Slade and finds him, with his gang, 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, kills some of the gang members, then dies himself. Richard Blake arrives to continue the fight against Slade. Blake runs out of bullets, but Slade dies from his wounds.
The Western Union men celebrate the completion of the telegraph line installation and Sue Creighton, Edward’s sister, laments the absence of Vance Shaw.
Critical response
- ”Any way you take it, “Western Union” is spectacular screen entertainment...” 3
- "So, too, are the actors' performances of superior quality."4
- ”...it rolls excitingly along with hard-riding, hard-shooting outdoor action, a blistering fire sequence and finally a beautiful pistol duel which is prefaced by some breathless suspense.” 5