User Reviews

The character Stewart portrays in "Night Passage" is the kind Mann intensely dislikes... A railroad worker entrusted with a payroll finds that the bandits, trying to rob it, are led by his own brother, so he assumes the blame for it himself...

With a soft cast including Brandon de Wilde and Herbert Anderson, Stewart felt himself very much in command... Maybe because he had enough of getting thrown under horses hooves, being shot in the hand, and dragged through fire... So he allowed himself to play the accordion, and to sing two Dimitri Tiomkin-Ned Washington songs: "Follow the River," and "You Can't Get Far Without a Railroad."

Dan Duryea gets the role of a railroad raider whose gang includes Stewart's wayward brother Audie Murphy... Gentle Brandon de Wilde is a teenager in whom Stewart takes a filial interest, and there is a climactic shoot-out with Duryea and his force of men...

The differences between Mann's Western concepts and Stewart's are on dramatic display in the film... The screenplay is written much more to Stewart's style, revealing a more kind humane quality... While Neilson is no action director, he does moderately well, providing standard excitement with the gunfights and chase scenes... But the movie lacks the severe sadism that Mann would have injected it...

Somewhat obscure and unheralded,NIGHT PASSAGE is not one of James Stewart's better known westerns.It apparently was not a particularly pleasant production either,with Stewart's long time directorial collaborator Anthony Mann resigning his post early on after concerns over the script and main co-star (Audie Murphy).It is very sad and regrettable that relations between Mann and Stewart never recovered over the various disputes and rifts,and the two reportedly never spoke again.A shame as this cinematic partnership usually produced some very impressive results,especially in the western genre (WINCHESTER 73 and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE being the best of them).

With such friction behind the scenes,how does replacement James Neilson manage? The answer is in fact not too badly,though Neilson clearly lacks Mann's cinematic style and depth,and directs in an efficient if straightforward manner.NIGHT PASSAGE's main asset is it's striking colour photography by William Daniels,with some Colorado locations shown to spectacular effect.Along with the ever-reliable Stewart,there are many familiar western character actors involved such as Paul Fix,Jay C.Flippen,Robert J.Wilke,Jack Elam and Chuck Roberson,though Mann's concerns over the script are justified in some aspects as the story (about a stolen payroll from a train) ,dialogue and characterisations are mostly mundane and unremarkable,though the above-mentioned cast and scenery at least manage to keep interest to a decent level.Juvenile Brandon De Wilde's role here is nowhere as notable as it was in the classic SHANE four years earlier,and Dan Duryea overplays his hand as the main villain involved.Audie Murphy appears as Stewart's younger brother and Duryea's partner in crime,and actually acquits himself rather well.An underrated actor (not least by absent director Mann himself),Murphy's underplaying carries far more menace than Duryea's amplified histrionics,though in the end he turns good again and works alongside his elder brother Stewart in a fairly well-staged gunfight finale. Jimmy Stewart also has an opportunity to show his real-life prowess on the accordion throughout the film (although it was allegedly dubbed over by someone else afterwards), and vocalise as well,which he does adequately if nothing else.The title itself seems rather ambivalent and unclear,and aspects of the plot pre-date a similar storyline (about sibling relations and inter-conflicts) in a western Stewart made 11 years later with Dean Martin (BANDOLERO!).

NIGHT PASSAGE has certain points of merit,but is not as memorable or notable as you would usually expect from a James Stewart western.One can only speculate how more conspicuous the final result could have been had Anthony Mann ironed out his concerns and differences with the script,Murphy,and Stewart himself;the world of cinema was a poorer place after their parting of the waves.

RATING:6 and a half out of 10.

Night Passage was supposed to be the 6th western and 9th film of the director/actor combination of James Stewart and Anthony Mann. Unfortunately Stewart and Mann quarreled and Mann walked off the picture. James Neilson, who later went on to direct a bunch of Disney products, did most of the film. Of course Jimmy Stewart and a cast of Mann regulars like Jay C. Flippen, Robert J. Wilke, Dan Duryea, knew what was expected of them and delivered the goods.

Night Passage like the first Stewart/Mann film, Winchester 73 is the story of a good and bad brother. Stewart was a former railroad detective who was fired off the job for giving a break to bad brother Audie Murphy. Murphy is popularly known as fast gun Utica Kid and he rides with Dan Duryea's outlaw band. Like in Winchester 73, Dan Duryea's criminal activities deter Stewart in his mission.

Unlike in Winchester 73, Stewart's mission is to redeem and not kill his outlaw brother. That's a task easier said than done as Murphy, Duryea and the gang hold up the train Stewart's on that is carrying the railroad payroll. What happens to the brothers and the gang is the story behind Night Pasage.

Anthony Mann even though he was not directing this had the path already marked out and the players followed his lead. Audie Murphy and Jimmy Stewart, World War II heroes both, have a good chemistry between them. Dan Duryea like in Winchester 73 is unforgettable as the slightly psychotic outlaw leader.

Also featured here is Jimmy Stewart playing the accordion and singing a couple of songs that blend nicely with the plot. No surprise to real movie fans, after all Stewart is the guy who introduced Cole Porter's Easy to Love in Born to Dance.

With "Night Passage", you get Jimmy Stewart uncharacteristically playing an accordion and singing a few songs, and Audie Murphy in another one of his baby face villain roles. You also have Dan Duryea in a co-starring effort, but you have to wonder if he might have been hard of hearing during filming. He shouts every single one of his lines except one, as I was so curious about his over the top manner that I started to keep track. It actually distracted me at times because I kept wondering why he was yelling all the time.

I also had to wonder why Jimmy Stewart appeared to be out of breath after his first encounter with villain Concho (Robert J. Wilke) while saving young Joey (Brandon De Wilde) from a thrashing. At fifty one, perhaps he wasn't in as good shape as he should have been to be riding horses and chasing down bad guys.

As for the story, it's fairly formulaic with Stewart and Murphy as brothers on opposite sides of the law, a theme done countless times in Westerns. There's not much new to add here either, and as I've noted earlier, Murphy doesn't have the face to be taken seriously as a villain, the same being true for his portrayal as gunman Gant in the 1959 film "No Name On The Bullet". Try picturing Roy Rogers as a bad guy. See, it just doesn't work.

It was cool to see veteran Jack Elam as part of the Whitey Harbin gang, and whenever I see Hugh Beaumont in a non-Ward Cleaver role I have to wonder what the 'Beav' is up to. Not a bad film, with some great Colorado scenery on display, but truthfully, the most emotion this got out of me was seeing Grant McLaine's (Stewart) accordion go up in flames. That was hard for this Polish boy.

Say, here's something to wonder about. As Miss Charlotte (Dianne Foster) pines for The Utica Kid (Murphy) throughout the film, and she finally gets to hear that he wants to marry her, why isn't she all torn up with the way the gun battle plays out? And brother Grant just moves right in?

Ready for another good brother/bad brother match up with a railroad theme? Try 1949's "The Last Bandit" with Wild Bill Elliott and Forrest Tucker. No accordions in that one though, you'll have to hum.

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

As good a Western as it is, "Night Passage" was filmed under quite unfortunate circumstances. The primary disaster involved the breakup of James Stewart (my favorite actor) and director Anthony Mann, who suddenly walked off the picture very early in production. Apparently the cast and crew knew about Stewart's and Mann's parting of ways and simply wished to get the picture over with. And according to Jack Elam, who played one of the bad guys named Shotgun, the miserable weather in Durango, Colorado caused delays in the filming and subsequently some pretty hot tempers.

Nevertheless, "Night Passage" is a good Western about an itinerant musician named Grant McLaine (Stewart), who is hired by railroad tycoon Ben Kimball (Jay C. Flippen) to defend the payroll train against Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his gang. It so happens that one of the outlaws is McLaine's brother, known as the Utica Kid (Audie Murphy). Stewart and Murphy do a very fine job together in this Western, and the casting of Duryea as the head villain is so great it is quite laughable. One particular author pointed out that Duryea gives one of his whiniest performances in "Night Passage," and he is correct.

The best thing about this film is that it offers Stewart the opportunity to play the accordion, which he did in real life, and sing. The three tunes that he performs in this movie are "Sweet Betsy from Pike," "Follow the River," and "You Can't Get Far Without a Railroad." His singing is fine, but his accordion playing is obviously faked, and for myself, this is a major disappointment. Watch how brilliantly Stewart handles a rifle in "Winchester '73" (1950) or how accurately he handles the slide positions on a trombone in "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954). These two examples reveal the authenticity of Stewart's handling of various objects on film, as if he had used them all his life. Hence I am at a complete loss to understand why Stewart could not be equally as authentic with the accordion, an instrument he had played since he was a boy. Fortunately, I do not allow this disappointment to prevent me from enjoying the three songs.

"Night Passage" did not receive the greatest reviews, and it is certainly not James Stewart's most popular Western. But it is still a good one, with beautiful scenery, shoot-'em-up action, a lively dance sequence, and pleasant music.

"Night Passage" paired Jimmy Stewart and Audie Murphy as two brothers who find themselves on different sides of the law during the days and months spent in building the railroads through canyons, mountain passes, across plains, and treacherous land vistas. Steward portrays Grant McLaine, a former trouble-shooter for the railroad who was fired for helping his brother, Lee, escape the railroad posse during an attempted train robbery. Lee, or the Utica Kid, played by Audie Murphy, has joined up with a band of outlaws led by the infamous Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and the gang intends to hold up the next railroad train coming down the line and take the payroll that workers are expecting. Ultimately, the two brothers square off in the conflict over good and evil, but waiting to nix the outcome is Whitey's gang, and the final shootout will settle all the scores.

Stewart is his usual heroic self, even gets to play an accordion and sing a lively tune or two, Murphy has the rather unusual bit of casting as a bad guy but with a decent streak in him, and other members of the cast include Dan Duryea as Whitey, Jay C. Flippen as the manager of the railroad line, Brandon De Wilde in a post "Shane" role, with good support coming from Dianne Foster and Elaine Stewart. The film was released in Technirama, which gave a new bend to the opening credits, but did not seem to add much to the quality of the picture. A watchable western with Stewart's musical talent being displayed on the screen.

Night Passage is a traditional American Western that's only unusual in treating accordion music as though it were just as powerful as a gun.

Grant McLaine (James Stewart) is a traveling accordion player. He's pretty good, but he doesn't make nearly as much money as he once did working as a trouble shooter for the railroads. 5 years after a mysterious betrayal, railroad boss Ben Kimball (Jay C. Flippen) calls McLaine back into service. He needs Mclaine to take a payroll to a rail camp at the end of the line. Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his gang have stolen the last three payrolls and the workers are ready to walk off the job if they don't get their money. McLaine takes the job and he and a boy named Joey (Brandon deWilde) that McLaine saved from a violent beating on the trail set off with the payroll hidden in McLaine's clothes.

Here's where the story gets a bit complicated. A team of armed guards is secretly aboard the train, ready to ambush Whitey's gang if they attack. Ben Kimball and his wife Verna (Elaine Stewart) also join the train, Elaine having once been in love with McLaine but having abandoned him when things went bad 5 years ago. The gang attacks the train successfully, thanks to some inside information, but can't find the money. So instead, Whitey decides to hold Verna for ransom. Things aren't so swell for Whitey, however. A member of his gang called the Utica Kid (Audie Murphy) is always needling him and looking to take over. The Kid is cool and controlled while Whitey is wild and erratic. Whitey is, in fact, a terrible leader but he's so fast with his gun no one will challenge him. The Kid is in love with Charlie (Dianne Foster), a waitress who knows both the Kid and McLaine and has known them since 5 years ago when McLaine was ordered to track down the kid but instead helped him escape. The connection between McLaine and the Kid becomes the key to everything when McLaine somehow walks in on the gang's secret hideout, determined to leave with Verna, Joey and the railroad's money.

This film certainly gets points for handling such an involved plot very well. There are a series of intertwined relationships at work in Night Passage and the story gives each one a chance to breathe on screen. Even though it's just a bit more than 90 minutes long, it allows the actors to have some meaningful interaction with each other. The movie starts out focusing on Grant McLaine, shifts to The Utica Kid for the middle of the story and then brings those two main characters together for the conclusion.

But as I mentioned earlier, other than an emphasis on accordion music, there's really noting noteworthy or exceptional about Night Passage. Stewart is excellent, there's some traditional Western action and excitement and a moral to the story about the choice between good and evil. The morality of Night Passage is of a fairly corny and simplistic variety, however, and the main plot point of the story doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If the railroad payroll is small enough to hide in a person's clothes, why put McLaine on the train in the first place? Why not have him just ride his horse to the rail camp, making himself a much tougher target for the gang? Why in the world does Kimball bring his wife along, when he expects there to be a big gun battle between his guards and Whitey's gang? How does McLaine know how to find the gang's hideout?

Those problems, though, are fairly minor for this sort of good-natured adventure story. If you like traditional Westerns, you'll find Night Passage to be quite fun. If you prefer postmodern Westerns or aren't a fan of the genre at all, there's nothing out of the ordinary in the film to make it worth your while.

James Neilson directs an accordion playing and folk singing James Stewart in a close to run of the mill western. Have yet to figure out the title NIGHT PASSAGE; but its interesting enough. Grant McLaine(Stewart)is working with constructing the railroad through Colorado. After being fired once, he is given another chance to prove himself by hand carrying the railroad's payroll to the end of the line. The workers have not been paid in months because a gang led by Whitey Harbin(Dan Duryea)keeps robbing the payroll. Part of that gang is McLaine's own brother known at the Utica Kid(Audie Murphy).

Beautiful Colorado scenery; quirky villains; a real good shoot out and an outstanding supporting cast featuring: Dianne Foster, Hugh Beaumont, Elaine Stewart, Jack Elam, Brandon De Wilde and Jack Elam.

Night Passage is unusual in that Audie Murphy actually turns in a more interesting performance than Stewart. Someone else here has caught that Audie is at his absolute best here. Though actually he is equally good in John Huston's The Unforgiven. Those two are his centerpiece renditions.

The movie itself is really pretty stupid, yet rises far far above said same by the main performers. Anytime Murphy is on the screen it comes electrically alive. Here we see the baby faced killer at his most terrifying. Look up his Colmar Forest action in world war two and you will see that he was the real deal, and his twisted smiles are positively psycho in this one, and even crazier is that he is playing it all one stop below Dan Duryeas supposedly even wilder psychosis. When they are on the screen together it's almost Laurel and Hardy with guns, very very funny stuff in a totally fraught way.

Here comes a spoiler. So if you are going to see the movie first, I would suggest you skip this paragraph. It revolves around a very curious feature of Stewart. Nobody ever did one thing in the entire history of cinema and got away with it more naturally than Sir James. And he does it again here. Crying. Repeatedly he has broken into tears so believably, so touchingly, that nobody ever noticed. Yet time and again he does it, in Naked Spur, Its a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Night Passage. In Night Passage right at the end just watch him break down so heart breakingly with the line.....no, I'll ....I'll take care of my brother.

Very very moving. Also I have mentioned elsewhere that nobody ever received physical punishment so horrifyingly as Stewart. Far Country, Bend of the River, Man From Laramie, Winchester 73 (all Mann westerns) he does it so well you wince: this is what is must actually look like when people are shot or burned or beaten. Just amazing what the guy could do, and do it more believably than Brando, great as Brando was. Yet all that said, Murphy for once gives the more interesting performance, because this is the perfect vehicle for his killer mentality. After all the guy did sleep with a service 45. under his pillow until the day he died.

Night Passage was his best.

There are a few of very necessary things to remember when creating a Western especially back when Westerns were a thriving genre. There are A LOT of them and some of them are spectacular and fans of Westerns are a very particular sort and if you don't give us what we want...we'll hate it. Night Passage in general has a potentially decent story but it gets bogged down in poor production decision, bad casting and (if the rumours are true) there was a lot of tense clashing on the set and that hurts a film and often comes through in the final product. Night Passage feels like missed potential. It feels like they rushed certain parts, and they weren't sure whether they were going for a thriller, a heist movie or...oh yah a Western. It just quite often felt like it was often missing its heart and soul somewhere in there and I think it boils down to not feeling the chemistry and energy from the cast. Still, the landscape, scenery and scenes aboard the tops of trains are truly outstanding. There is just some jaw dropping moments of scenery that they would have to create without the aid of computers like they do now.

Since I became a MASSIVE James Stewart fan in the last year or so, I am piling through his Westerns. I will say that Night Passage is the first Western of his I've seen where he isn't the angry, volatile, rough cowboy as he is in some of the other ones. He has a much softer side but not too soft in his performance. He does well but rumour has it that he took this role so that he could play his accordion and sing (both of which he does quite well) BUT it feels forced into the story and seems silly in context. I had heard of Audie Murphy before but I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've seen him in action. Another rumour is that original director Anthony Mann left the project because he felt (among other things) that Murphy was wrong for the role...well Mann should rest easy because he was right. Murphy is too soft, too short, looks ridiculous and completely unbelievable as this legendary evil criminal. I don't know if he is like this in every role but this was not a good one for him and the chemistry between he and Stewart is non-existent. Dan Duryea was actually the far superior villain and instead he is reduced to a sidekick for Murphy and that's ludicrous. However, Duryea still makes a good villain and saves that aspect of the film. Everyone else is decent in their perspective roles. Brandon DeWilde does a decent job as the kid that latches onto Stewart's cowboy. He's a little irritating and overused but he's alright. The women in the film are so underused and out of place and too much emphasis is put onto the bizarre love triangles and former flames going on.

On the surface a Western is sort of like a horror film...reeeeally easy to make and please fans. There are a few key ingredients that have to be in place to make a good Western and Night Passage seems to have some brawls, bad guys, good guys, train robberies and dusty towns but none of it comes together just right. It was okay but when you're swimming in a sea of westerns you have to be better than just okay. Director James Neilson is someone who comes from mostly television and perhaps he didn't have the chops or experience to make this work quite right. Night Passage (as far as I know) isn't considered a classic and you will find out why though I am sure it has its solid fans. I look forward to moving on and getting back to high quality Westerns. This one is forgettable at best. 5.5/10