Night Passage

Dir: James Neilson

1957

**

1957's Night Passage was due to be Anthony Mann and James Stewart's sixth collaboration until Mann left the project citing other obligations and the casting of Audie Murphy. I think he was wise to leave, although I don't think Murphy was the problem. The real issue I have with Night Passage is that it doesn't seem to know what kind of western it wants to be. It starts off a little too hunky dory for my liking and then gets worse when Jimmy Stewart starts singing. Now I love Jimmy Stewart and I love a Jimmy Stewart western but in my opinion westerns and music don't mix unless they are a full-blown, all singing, and all dancing musical. Even then I'm not that fond of them. A lot of the film is gritty with great sprawling Cinemascope in glorious Technicolor, with some great performances, interesting plot twists and overall strong writing. It's just that singing that really gets to me. Worst of all, I actually quite liked the song Stewart kept singing! The highlight of the film in my opinion are the great lines Audie Murphy was given and his cool but disjointed delivery of them. The film also scores point for having some good quality steam train scenes, something I enjoy in my westerns but loses them straight away by having an annoying child as a lead character. It's a very middle of the road western, James Stewart has made a hundred better ones and director James Neilson was far more suited to television work. Not even legendary editor Sherman Todd could piece together a story that warranted a 90 minute run time. 90 minutes was quite short for a western in the 1950s but Night Passage seems much longer than that. It's an exciting story with huge possibilities, let down by a popular but inappropriate approach. Watch any other Stewart western instead, particularly the ones directed by Anthony Mann.