Telegraph History Movie (Western Union)
A must buy for all history buffs especially telegraph buffs! I'm elated to have a copy of Western Union in my movie collection. The movie is about how Western Union set up telegraph poles across the United States to the west coast. Showing all the struggle, killing of people, all in the effort to set up communications across the nation. At the end of the movie it showed how wonderful it was to have communications from east to west. This was the beginning of what was later to become telephone communications!

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Randolph Scott wrestles with fate in this Fritz Lang western
It might seem strange that Fritz Lang would make a western, since his forte was clearly the crime film, but then you remember that his first American film, "Fury," was about a lynching and you realize that the Old West has long been an ideal location for playing out the major themes of the American identity. "Western Union" is the story of the first trans-continental telegraph line being strung across the west, which represents the director's interest in modern technology, although clearly this is retrospective in the same way that "Metropolis" was futuristic. Vance Shaw (Randolph Scott) is fleeing a posse and when his goes lame he ends up with Edward Creighton (Dean Jagger), a telegraph engineer who hires the outlaw as a scout. Richard Blake (Robert Young) is a surveyor who arrives from the east and takes a spark to Sue Creighton (Virginia Gilmore), the sister of Edward, which sets up the film's love triangle. Meanwhile, Confederate raiders led by Jack Slade (Barton MacLane) are stealing cattle and disrupting the building of the telegraph line. Shaw is caught in the middle of this as well because he has a relationship with Slade.

Because this is a Fritz Lang film "Western Union" does not play out the way you think in terms of who gets the girl and who kills who in the big gunfight at the end. Shaw is trying to reform and his efforts are contrasted with those of the raiders, who call themselves Confederates but are clearly more interested in profiting from their actions. Shaw was one of Quantrill's raiders and we understand that was a legitimate guerilla group unlike the one headed by Slade. Despite being handicapped because he has come from the East and likes to wear nice clothes, the character of Blake emerges as a hero as well (we can tell because he starts dressing like a cowboy), which is certainly something of a surprise. For that matter, Sue Creighton is more than widow dressing in the film, because she is also a telegraph operator and is as excited about the building of the telegraph as anyone. Still, the big picture of the telegraph becomes secondary to Shaw's personal struggle.

This was Lang's second color film and the director takes advantage of the setting to offer up some great shots of the beautiful landscapes filmed by Edward Cronjager. The flaw in "Western Union" are the comic episodes, which really cut against the grain of the film. You have Chill Willis as Homer Kettle and Slim Summerville as Cookie (the cook) who is always scared witless by the Wild West, providing the unnecessary comic relief and John Carradine bringing his distinctive touch to the role of Doc Murdoch. This is one of Scott's better roles and better performances, and given the stakes involved from his perspective the humor is at least misplaced if not forced. Jagger was always a solid character actor and even Young manages to do something with the strictures of his character.

"Western Union" was Lang's second Western, the first being "The Return of Frank James," which better fits the traditional Lang mold. You cannot tell the story of how the "singing wire" was strung from Omaha to Salt Lake City and just focus on the technological accomplishment so the dilemmas faced by Shaw become the real driving force of the narrative. The 1941 film was a personal favorite of Lang's and the director took pride in photographing Native Americans wearing accurate warpaint and battle gear. Lang made one more western, "Rancho Notorious," and if there is a clear commonality to this trio of westerns made by a master director who immigrated from Germany, it would be the theme of a man ruled by fate. However, in "Western Union" it would seem that fate wins. Final Note: I have never managed to spot him, but Jay Silverheels (a.k.a. Tonto from "The Lone Ranger") is an uncredited extra in this film.