Night Passage (1957)

Night Passage is a great western. I think that was actually performed by Mann. It is perhaps the best example of molded form of filmmaking that was the great director Mann. James Nielsen, I doubt not only lent his name to the producers feuding with Mann and had James Stewart as the big star of westerns, so very hard to decide about the movie. The photography is gorgeous. A very good story, making the female characters of the plot have a very special moment in cinema, with two roles extremely well designed and which actresses are perfect in their performances. Brandon De Wilde here can repeat his performance in Shane, another brilliant George Stevens western. The actors are splendid, except that it takes Audie Murphy was not considered suitable actor for the role of Utica Kidd. Dan Duryea who had shone in Winchester 73, shows this film because it was one of the most requested supporting westerns. Particularly consider that Nigh Passage is really a film directed by Mann. Magnificent.

Night Passage should have been the sixth Western collaboration between James Stewart and director Anthony Mann. Mann, however, withdrew from the project because he found the script weak and because he disagreed with the casting of Audie Murphy as Stewart's co-star.Stewart plays Grant McLaine, a former troubleshooter for railroad company. Grant lost his job when he was suspected of dishonest collusion with a bandit known as the Utica Kid, and, unable to find alternative employment, has earned a living playing the accordion. (Stewart himself was a talented performer on this instrument). Grant's former boss, Ben Kimball, however, is in trouble. His payroll has been robbed several times by the Utica Kid and his gang, and his workers are threatening to leave the job if they don't get paid soon. Grant therefore accepts the job of taking $10,000 to them by train.I think that Mann's reservations about this film were justified, even though it led to the rupture of his relationship with Stewart. Following their disagreement they never worked together again (and according to some versions of the story never spoke to one another again). There was certainly a suspicion in some quarters that Audie Murphy's career as a film star owed more to his distinguished war record than it did to any acting talent. This viewpoint was not always to be proved correct; Murphy was, for example, excellent in "The Red Badge of Courage", a film in which he was able to draw upon his own wartime experiences. "Night Passage", however, is not one of his better performances.As regards the script, Mann was quite correct to describe it as weak. The earlier Stewart-Mann Westerns ("The Naked Spur" is a good example) were noted for their dark tone, similar to the pessimistic, cynical tone of contemporary film noir, with Stewart normally playing a flawed, ambiguous character rather than the sort of clean-cut heroes he had played in his earlier career. They can, in fact, be seen as prefiguring the "revisionist" Westerns of the sixties and early seventies. "Night Passage" lacks the depth and sense of moral ambiguity which characterised Mann's Westerns. Like Howard Kemp, Stewart's character in "The Naked Spur", Grant McLaine is hiding a secret, namely that the Utica Kid is really his younger brother Lee, which is why he allowed the Kid to escape on a previous occasion. (Presumably the family couldn't decide which side they were on during the Civil War, so named one son after a Northern general and the other after a Confederate one). The film does not, however, make the most of the dramatic possibilities of this plot line, and there is little ambiguity about Grant, essentially a misunderstood clean-cut hero who hopes to redeem his brother by turning him away from a life of crime.After Mann left the production, the film was directed by James Neilson. Although Neilson was to direct a few more films in the sixties, such as "The Moon-Spinners", he worked mainly in television, and "Night Passage" was in fact his first feature film. The pacing of the film is often slack and the storyline can be confusing; it struck me that it might well have been improved with a more experienced cinema director such as Mann at the helm. Like "The Naked Spur" it was filmed against some striking Colorado landscapes, but the photography never seems as effective as it did in the earlier film.There are some better things about the film; James Stewart's own performance is perfectly adequate, and he receives good support from some of the other actors, such as Dan Duryea as the Kid's fellow-gangster Whitey. "Night Passage" must, however, rank as one of the less memorable of Stewart's Westerns, not in the same class as his best work with Mann or some of his later films in the genre such as "Cheyenne Autumn" or "Firecreek". 5/10

Best known as the film that ended the great Anthony Mann/Jimmy Stewart partnership. Mann either got in an argument with Stewart, hated the script or hated co-star Audie Murphy, or all of the above. No-name director James Neilson replaced him, and the results are, well, not as good as something Mann would have directed, one would imagine. But they're not as bad as many have said. I think the script is the weakest element of the film, mostly because it takes a while to get moving, it's a little cliché and predictable, and, worst of all, it doesn't give Stewart much to work with. Between Mann's Westerns and Hitchcock's films, Stewart was really broadening his horizons in the '50s, moving from a dependable "aw shucks" kind of guy to a seasoned thespian. His role here is closer to the "aw shucks" period than it is to the darker side of Stewart. It starts to lean a little bit toward that darker side when the film hits its stride, a little too late. If Audie Murphy was Mann's biggest problem, I have to say, except for the miscasting (he's young enough to be Stewart's son), I very much enjoyed his performance. I had never seen one of his films before, but I look forward to seeing more. The two bad guys, the second one being the always dependable Dan Duryea, are more interesting than the hero here. Also making an appearance, Jay C. Flippen, always a great Western character actor. Even if this doesn't compare with the Mann/Stewart Westerns, it's a fine one itself. You can find it in Universal's new James Stewart: The Western Collection. It looks great, but the sound was kind of muffled.

If you caught Western fever as I did in good measure due to Jimmy Stewart's Winchester 73 (1950), Bend of the River, Naked Spur (1953) , The Far Country (1954) and Man from Laramie (1955) then the last of the wild bunch , Night Passage (1957) is a weak swan song. Dan Duryea lampoons his Winchester 73 role and Audie Murphy doesn't really fit here as the bad brother. Would have been more interesting to make Duryea the older brother. None of the supporting players really add much punch (no Walter Brennan) and there is no truly compelling villain. Couldn't John McIntire try Jimmy for not havin his train ticket? Stewart manages to get hurt bad (a trademark ) but he recovers quickly. Bottom line I'll probably watch it again as I bought the DVD, but unless you like accordion players, take the next train. That's the train that has a wreck with Stewart wearing clown makeup.