SnoopyStyle Grant McLaine (James Stewart) is a fired railroad worker who is playing the accordion for scraps. Recent train robberies by Whitey Harbin and his men force the boss to rehire him to carry the payroll cash to the workers. When his train is held up, he hides the money in a boy's shoebox. The boy turns out to be The Utica Kid (Audie Murphy).The start is very slow. We don't get to the train for awhile. This part of the story definitely needs more tension. Once the train robbery happens, a more proper amount of pace is injected into the movie. But even here, the dialog is hokey and the movie is every bit a run of the mill western. This is definitely missing a more adventurous style. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this for more than a James Stewart fan or a Sunday afternoon filler.

jhkp This is a good western, though it lacks the atmosphere and pace Anthony Mann (originally slated to direct) would have brought to it. Then again, there was a reason he didn't direct it. (He walked at the 11th hour, causing a rift between him and Stewart, who was getting a percentage of the profits.)The film, to me, has a kind of deadness at the center. I don't think it really has a stylistic concept, a way of telling this particular story that would make it intriguing. Even with a flawed concept, the original director might have given it all a unity, purpose, or vision. This is just filmed in a workmanlike fashion. We seem never to get inside the story.In a way, this is the Stewart-Mann-Borden Chase formula re-worked one too many times. There are elements here from all the previous westerns, and it had to get tired, eventually. James Stewart is beginning to look old and wiry, rather than the young-middle-aged leading man. That's okay but it's not in keeping with the plot. Dan Duryea is here, playing almost the same psycho he played in Winchester 73. The good brother/bad brother theme is back, too. Supposedly, one of the attractions of the film for James Stewart was that he got to play the accordion and sing; in a rather unbelievable story point, he plays a man who entertains the railroad people. The cast is quite good, overall, and it must have seemed a good idea to Universal, at the time, to have not merely a James Stewart western, or an Audie Murphy western, but a Stewart-Murphy western. Shame it was just okay, not great.I enjoyed Olive Carey in her scenes with Stewart, and the location.

BJJManchester Somewhat obscure and unheralded,NIGHT PASSAGE is not one of James Stewart's better known westerns.It apparently was not a particularly pleasant production either,with Stewart's long time directorial collaborator Anthony Mann resigning his post early on after concerns over the script and main co-star (Audie Murphy).It is very sad and regrettable that relations between Mann and Stewart never recovered over the various disputes and rifts,and the two reportedly never spoke again.A shame as this cinematic partnership usually produced some very impressive results,especially in the western genre (WINCHESTER 73 and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE being the best of them).With such friction behind the scenes,how does replacement James Neilson manage? The answer is in fact not too badly,though Neilson clearly lacks Mann's cinematic style and depth,and directs in an efficient if straightforward manner.NIGHT PASSAGE's main asset is it's striking colour photography by William Daniels,with some Colorado locations shown to spectacular effect.Along with the ever-reliable Stewart,there are many familiar western character actors involved such as Paul Fix,Jay C.Flippen,Robert J.Wilke,Jack Elam and Chuck Roberson,though Mann's concerns over the script are justified in some aspects as the story (about a stolen payroll from a train) ,dialogue and characterisations are mostly mundane and unremarkable,though the above-mentioned cast and scenery at least manage to keep interest to a decent level.Juvenile Brandon De Wilde's role here is nowhere as notable as it was in the classic SHANE four years earlier,and Dan Duryea overplays his hand as the main villain involved.Audie Murphy appears as Stewart's younger brother and Duryea's partner in crime,and actually acquits himself rather well.An underrated actor (not least by absent director Mann himself),Murphy's underplaying carries far more menace than Duryea's amplified histrionics,though in the end he turns good again and works alongside his elder brother Stewart in a fairly well-staged gunfight finale. Jimmy Stewart also has an opportunity to show his real-life prowess on the accordion throughout the film (although it was allegedly dubbed over by someone else afterwards), and vocalise as well,which he does adequately if nothing else.The title itself seems rather ambivalent and unclear,and aspects of the plot pre-date a similar storyline (about sibling relations and inter-conflicts) in a western Stewart made 11 years later with Dean Martin (BANDOLERO!).NIGHT PASSAGE has certain points of merit,but is not as memorable or notable as you would usually expect from a James Stewart western.One can only speculate how more conspicuous the final result could have been had Anthony Mann ironed out his concerns and differences with the script,Murphy,and Stewart himself;the world of cinema was a poorer place after their parting of the waves.RATING:6 and a half out of 10.

jcohen1 If you caught Western fever as I did in good measure due to Jimmy Stewart's Winchester 73 (1950), Bend of the River, Naked Spur (1953) , The Far Country (1954) and Man from Laramie (1955) then the last of the wild bunch , Night Passage (1957) is a weak swan song. Dan Duryea lampoons his Winchester 73 role and Audie Murphy doesn't really fit here as the bad brother. Would have been more interesting to make Duryea the older brother. None of the supporting players really add much punch (no Walter Brennan) and there is no truly compelling villain. Couldn't John McIntire try Jimmy for not havin his train ticket? Stewart manages to get hurt bad (a trademark ) but he recovers quickly. Bottom line I'll probably watch it again as I bought the DVD, but unless you like accordion players, take the next train. That's the train that has a wreck with Stewart wearing clown makeup.