alan-pratt Progress on the railroad has pretty much ground to a halt as the workers spend most of their time drinking rotgut in Dan Duryea's boozer.The leading citizens of the town request military help and tough soldier, Payne, is appointed as a sort of temporary marshal. Trouble is, he's an old mate of Duryea so it looks as though there's going to be a conflict of interests.This is an above average Universal western: the two main protagonists play off each other well and there is excellent support from a very large cast of familiar westerners (many uncredited). Special mentions must go to Lee Van Cleef as a menacing, trigger happy bad guy (was he ever anything else?), Mari Blanchard as a saloon girl with a heart of gold (was she ever anything else?) and James Griffith, cast against type in a humorous role, as a bumbling ineffectual lawman.Action scenes are well staged - particularly those on the trains - the photography is first class and the Technicolor beautiful as always.Oh, and as an added bonus for B western fans, there's a title song over the opening credits rumbled out by the ever popular Rex Allen....

Michael O'Keefe Universal-International presents a western thought of as mediocre by critics; but this doesn't mean the movie is not worth watching. RAILS into LARAMIE stars John Payne as Jefferson Harder, who intends to go to Laramie and clean up the wide-open town. Plus there is the matter of the railroad having problems building their line into town. Everybody around knows that all of the crime is coming from a gang taking orders from Jim Shanessy(Dan Duryea). No charges are able to stick in court because somehow the all-male juries are intimidated. Shanessy is surprised when his old buddy Harder arrives in town. It doesn't take long for Jeff Harder to find out that the railroad is not progressing, because Shanessy and saloon gal-pal Lou Carter(Mari Blanchard)are a tough team keeping the railhead out of Laramie so both can control their criminal activities without any interference. Well, Harder is in town and is determined to clean up Laramie, so the rail line can come through.Decent old west saga that also features: Barton McLaine, Ralph Dumke, James Griffith, Joyce Mackenzie and Lee Van Cleef.

bkoganbing In this quality B western rails are going into Laramie, Wyoming, but they're not leaving. That's because saloon owner Dan Duryea with the implicit connivance of the town's merchants is finding all kinds of ways to keep the railroad workers spending their pay in their town and not getting any work done. All this is troubling the railroad owners and troubleshooter John Payne is detached from the army to deal with the trouble.Rails Into Laramie takes elements from the DeMille classic Union Pacific and Destry Rides Again and a nice story is concocted. Payne is a stalwart no nonsense hero who when he's not on the job is a bit of a hell raiser himself. But when he's given this job he's quite serious.Dan Duryea the chief villain is married to Joyce McKenzie, but has his partner in the saloon Mari Blanchard on the side. He's also got to do his bidding treacherous telegrapher Douglas Kennedy, bully boy railroad worker Charles Horvath to intimidate the others, and a pair of killer brothers Myron Healey and Lee Van Cleef.If you know the plots of both the previous mentioned films than you know the result in the end. What I really liked about Rails Into Laramie was the fact that Wyoming was organized as a territory at the same time as the transcontinental railroad was coming through and women got the vote. They also got some other rights and that fact is integrated into the plot.One of John Payne's good B westerns from the Fifties and the rest of the cast supports him well. And Dan Duryea is always excellent.

revdrcac John Payne stars in this 1954 sagebrush saga, which also features several western favorites as co-stars. The railroad sends a representative to get to the bottom of a gang's attempts to disrupt the rail-lines.The film is well-paced and Payne is a good choice to play the lead role. Dan Duryea steals many of the scenes he appears in and the great Lee Van Cleef was fine in his all too brief supporting role.Payne appeared in a number of Westerns in the '40's and '50's, but was never able to reach the same success as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Glenn Ford had in the genre. This film was a good example of his work and should be enjoyed by die-hard Western movie fans........