Denver & Rio Grande

Moviecut—Denver & Rio Grande

Great cast derailed by horrible script. Nearly two hours of my life that I'll never get back.

First I'd like to know who put that foolish hat on mr. O'brien,??? It's hard to get past it. I dont know the real story, the facts before Hollywood got a hold of them, but I hope they had nothing to do with the movie. O'Brien is angry most of the time. What a cast! Excellent! Movie just didn't make use of all the talent.

There is a promotional film for "America's last narrow gauge passenger train" that includes scenes on the making of this film. The film is titled "Journey to Yesterday" and does not seem to be listed on the IMDb. Starting in Durango, this film follows the tourist train on it's journey to yesterday. At one point it reaches the location where the "Denver and Rio Grande" movie is being made. It has extensive coverage of the actors at work and especially the "day for night" cinematography being used for some of the movie's night scenes. It also shows the preparation work for the filming of the train collision right up to the collision itself. During the 1990's this film was available on video tape but a recent (2009) check of Amazon.com indicates that this tape is no longer available.

There were some weak points to this film that could have easily been fixed or edited and they probably should of. First of all the way Nelson is killed- how can you be convinced you shot someone when you were fist fighting them? Second of all the fact that Linda was the sister of Bob Nelson should have been saved to be revealed to the audience when it was revealed to Jim Vesser after the trains crashed. It would keep the audience in suspense and wondering where she's riding off to and why. And finally the head on collision between two old narrow gauge steam locomotives. Since they were capturing such an amazing scene the filming makers should have set up multiple cameras to capture that awesome crash. A couple close up shots would have been so much better than the single shot from far away. All in all I love this movie. Even though the script was empty at times the work put in to get those spectacular shots of the trains and the mountains made up for it.

Pretty standard 50's action-western with a railroading theme. Edmund O'Brien's team of men are trying to build a rail line through the mountains, and dirty-dealing Sterling Hayden's men are trying to build their line first by sabotaging the other group. Lots of trains and mountain scenery, and not much else. Landslides, robberies and shootings abound, but despite the action the poor actors can't do much with the dead-end script. Dean Jagger is always good, and Paul Fix and Zasu Pitts are the comic relief as the broadly Irish train engineer and the camp cook who keeps trying to get Fix to propose to her. If you like trains and beautiful scenery, this is a decent movie.

What we have here is the typical western shoot-up between two rival railway companies attempting to build through the Colorado Rockies. What makes this film somewhat unique is the head-on collision of two trains engineered by the "bad guys." The collision is for real! The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad provided two narrow-gage trains that we destined for the scrap-heap for the Big Scene. With adequate dynamite placed on the engines, the crash was carried off. There were, obviously, no re-takes. After close-ups, the engines were hauled off to the steel-mills at Pueblo. A good Western that rail buffs will appreciate.

Two railroad construction crews go head to head in getting a new line through to the west. One crew is filled with dirty rotten scalawags who stop at nothing to fulfill their duty. The other group are square shooters who just want to do an honest days work for an honest days pay. They meet for the final showdown in an explosive ending. Good western filmed in beautiful mountain country.

The Denver and the Rio Grande is purportedly the story of the construction of that line financed by Dean Jagger, designed by J. Carrol Naish and constructed by Edmond O'Brien. They meet some stiff opposition from the the bad railroad where Sterling Hayden and Lyle Bettger run things. With some elements taken from films like Union Pacific and Saratoga Trunk, Denver and the Rio Grande is entertaining, but not consistently. Part of the plot is where the baddies convince Edmond O'Brien he killed Don Haggerty. They do a weak job of it in my opinion. Unfortunately that weakness leads to some rather silly motivation on the part of other characters. What is nice is the good Rocky Mountain location photography and two very good performances by Zasu Pitts and Paul Fix in sidekick roles. They have a very cute romance going and at times they're better than the leads.