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.
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.”
Cast
- Robert Young – Richard Blake
- Randolph Scott – Vance Shaw
- Dean Jagger – Edward Creighton
- Virginia Gilmore - Sue Creighton
- John Carradine – Doc Murdoch
- Barton MacLane – Jack Slade
- Russell Hicks – Provisional Governor of the Territory of Nebraska
- Slim Summerville – Cookie
- Chill Wills – Homer Kettle
- Victor Kilian – Charlie
