How sad is this?

Best movie ever!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Over the years there has been much mis-information about this very good Western. Some on the Trivia page. For instance, Night Passage was the 18th biggest hit of 1957 and made a nice profit. Second was that Anthony Mann quit over Audie Murphy being cast as Jimmy Stewart's brother (Murphy was also 5'7", not 5'5" which was his height when he enlisted in WW 2 when he was 17). Actually, Mann and Stewart had an argument that led to them never speaking again. Murphy is perfectly cast as the younger brother "Lee" and he also does some of his best acting. Dan Duryea is always good and the cast is excellent with Brandon de Wilde also doing a nice job as Joey. All in all, the plot, the cast(Jay C. Flippen is always good and it's a pleasure to see Hugh Beaumont in a Western) and especially the beautiful scenery make this a very good Western flick. Western movie fans look at this western and see the movie that Anthony Mann "didn't make". You have no possible way of knowing that Mann would have done a better movie. Forget Anthony Mann. On it's own merits--this is a fine Western. Close to Winchester 73' in script--but in Technicolor with better scenery and without the corny Indian sequence and without the corny Wyatt Earp parts.

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.

"Typical Western" is one of those frequent time-worn labels I think some people use who don't find this particular genre of much interest or entertaining. It's like the "typical war movie," the 'typical musical," the "typical romantic comedy," the "typical mystery." I apologize to people who write such things, because I don't read them. If someone can't describe the qualities – good or bad – of a film, but instead choose to use such catch-all phrases as "typical," well – I typically don't think there's much reason to read their comments further. A couple of reviewers gave that label to "Night Passage," and I tried to think what was so typical about it. How was it like Stagecoach? El Dorado? Once Upon a Time in the West? High Noon? Along Came Jones? MacKenna's Gold? Angel and the Badman? The Searchers? Hombre? Rooster Cogburn? The Big Trail? Major Dundee? One-Eyed Jacks? Broken Arrow? Gunfight at the O.K. Corral? Man of the West? The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance? Open Range? The Cowboys? Fort Apache? The Horse Soldiers? The Magnificent Seven? This is just a sampling of some of the better "typical" Westerns that are all quite different in plot, setting, action, and scenery. So, how is Night Passage typical? Well, it has guns and horses and cowboy hats and boots and a fist fight and women. And, it has an accordion and some singing. Now that's real typical for a Western. And there's a train. Yes, indeed, probably half a dozen to a dozen Westerns have been made that have trains in them – out of 200 or more notable films of the genre. And Western scenery? Absolutely – only this is set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with trees and mountains and streams, but not lots of sagebrush or buttes of Monument Valley. It does fall short on some "typical" things such as the one or two "standard" Western towns. Mostly this is shot in a train camp, a mining area, and in the great outdoors.Enough of my tongue-in-cheek fun with the typical-ness of Night Passage. This is one very good film with a very interesting plot. But mostly, it has a top notch cast – a big one – of excellent actors who all give very good performances. And the scenery is spectacular. Just a typically very good Western all around. And just different enough to not bore one to death watching it.

Ex-railroad man James Stewart agrees to take a railroad payroll, concealed on his person, to the end of the line and ends up tangling with a gang of train-robbers led by loopy Dan Duryea (who's excellent in this), along with the charismatic Audie Murphy and Jack Elam.Night Passage is a prime example of straight-foreword storytelling on a healthy budget. This is really one handsome production, with fantastic sets and locations. It takes a little time to get started but it's always solid and the exciting, action-packed final act is about as suspenseful as it gets.Jimmy Stewart, Audie Murphy, and especially Dan Duryea are all great. I don't know what the rub was about casting Murphy. He's alright in this. Also giving a good performance is young actor Brandon de Wilde, who's probably best known as the kid from Shane.