Night Passage (1957)
The workers on the railroad haven't been paid in several months. That's because Whitey and his gang - including fast-shooting, dangerous, but likeable Utica Kid - keep holding up the train for its payroll. Grant McLaine, a former railroad employee who was fired in disgrace, is recruited to secretly take the payroll through. A young boy and a shoe box figure into the plot when Whitey's gang tries to hold up the train, and Grant and the Kid meet again to settle an old score.
THE SAGA OF THE McLAINE BROTHERS!
Grant McLaine: You like eggs?
Joey Adams: No!
Grant McLaine: That's too bad. You got an omelet comin' up.
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado, USA
Durango, Colorado, USA
Silverton, Colorado, USA
Buttermilk Country, Inyo National Forest, California, USA
Cerro Gordo, California, USA
Anthony Mann refused to direct the film, saying nobody would understand it. He also said he believed the script was bad, and Audie Murphy and James Stewart would not be believable as brothers. After the film opened to poor reviews and business, Stewart never spoke to Mann again.
James Stewart was disappointed by the film's critical and commercial failure, and did not agree to make another western for four years, until John Ford cast him in Two Rode Together (1961).
This was originally intended to be the sixth Western combining the talents of James Stewart and Director Anthony Mann, but Mann pulled out of the project because he wasn't impressed with war hero-turned-actor Audie Murphy. Stewart and Mann never made another movie together.
The scenes with James Stewart and Audie Murphy were filmed carefully in an attempt to downplay their marked difference in height. However, at certain times, this is quite apparent.
Some critics felt that Audie Murphy, who was 31, looked too young to be the brother of 48-year-old James Stewart.
Continuity
When the train collides with the water tower, it is on dual gauge track, with three rails. When Grant gets up to walk along the track, it is now single gauge with only two rails.
When the gang returns to their hideout after robbing the train, Latigo holds up the bottle of whiskey he took from the train. The card players all come to the bar for a glass. When the bottle is carried to the table it is still full.
When Utica and Joey leave the abandoned mining camp during the shootout, the shadows are high on the mountain range, a sign that the sun is just coming up. The same is true when Grant, Verna and Charlotte leave after them. But a few minutes later as they ride out in the open, the horses' shadows are much shorter, as if the sun were at mid-morning height in the sky.
Revealing mistakes
At the old mill during the shootout, you can clearly see an airplane contrail in the sky.
Audio/visual unsynchronized
Eighty-three minutes into the film, a bullet hole suddenly appears on a steel cable car right behind Charlie as she ducks bullets with Grant. Charlie looks behind her, apparently reacting to the sound of the bullet hitting the car - but there is no sound whatsoever.
Plot holes
Grant McLaine finds the hideout much too easily.