Rails Into Laramie

A railroad sends an agent (John Payne) to Laramie to try to find out who is behind the efforts to stop the railroad from building its line into the area.

An enjoyable railroad western that is brisk and keeps your attention throughout. There's a nice buddy angle between John Payne and Dan Duryea, but when Duryea realises Payne isn't going to turn a blind eye to his crooked ways, he chooses to get rid of him the hard way. There's fistfights, attempted riots and Lee Van Cleef snarling with his trigger-happy fingers. There's also an interesting women's jury sequence. But what stands out for me is the wonderful looking trains; the finale with a shootout and a fistfight on top of the train is an exciting one. Mari Blanchard sizzles as Payne's love interest.

A satisfying railroad western that makes you feel good. Nice title song sung by Rex Allen.

Troubleshooter Jefferson Harder (John Payne) is sent to Laramie by the Army to investigate the sabotage that is preventing the railroad from finishing it's line connecting the East and West. Upon arrival Payne quickly finds out the worst kept secret in town, that old buddy and current town saloon owner Jim Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is behind the chicanery, though nobody is ever able to prove Shanessy and his henchmen (Myron Healey and Lee Van Cleef) are involved. The town leaders, while happy about support from the Army, are disappointed from the start that they have only sent one man to do the job and grow increasingly critical of the heavy-handed tactics employed by Payne to clean up the town.

Rails Into Laramie packs a lot of action into it's 80 minute run time. Between busting bad guys heads Payne barely has time to strike up a romantic relationship with Dance Hall owner and partner of Jim Shanessy, Lou Carter (Mari Blanchard). Very little melodrama to be found in this one as Payne spends most of his time eradicating the town's scofflaws.

This movie follows the Universal International Pictures formula of using off the A-list leading actors with familiar casts, packaged in a medium budget production. A formula that worked very well for them and it works here too. John Payne may be the best leading actor of the post World War II era that few people remember today. A versatile actor Payne looked equally a home whether in the saddle, a crime drama or a comedy. Here he carries the day in this action saddle flick.

Good drive-in grade Western flick.

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........

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.

Director Jesse Hibbs does not mean much to me but he did some extraordinary TV work, notably directing 44 PERRY MASON episodes.

RAILS INTO LARAMIE presents an interesting premise: a misbehaving US Army sergeant is sent to restore order and get the railroad operational in Laramie, where crime kingpin and saloon owner Shanessy (smug Dan Duryea) is pulling all stops to prevent it.

Yep, interesting but not exceedingly believable premise. Cinematography OK, screenplay requires considerable extension of disbelief, acting moderately wooden.

I guess I'll forget it fast enough. 6/10.