WESTERN UNION

Once upon a Sunday Times' poll Fritz Lang's "Western Union" was voted one of the ten best westerns ever made and yet of all of Lang's American films this is one of the least known and talked about. It's about the building of the trans-continental telegraph and it's taken from a book by that great teller of western tales, Zane Grey and one of its stars was that noblest of western heroes, Randolph Scott, (though here he's playing a reformed outlaw). It's a very unfussy film, simple and likeable; there's no psychological depth to it but the period detail is close to perfection, the many action scenes are beautifully handled and it has a great cast of character actors, (the heroine is that lovely and undervalued actress Virginia Gilmore). Today it's unlikely it would make that top 10 poll and it's probably closer to a job of work for Lang rather than one of his personal projects but it's very enjoyable and certainly doesn't deserve to be overlooked.