"Night Passage" paired Jimmy Stewart and Audie Murphy as two brothers who find themselves on different sides of the law during the days and months spent in building the railroads through canyons, mountain passes, across plains, and treacherous land vistas. Steward portrays Grant McLaine, a former trouble-shooter for the railroad who was fired for helping his brother, Lee, escape the railroad posse during an attempted train robbery. Lee, or the Utica Kid, played by Audie Murphy, has joined up with a band of outlaws led by the infamous Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) and the gang intends to hold up the next railroad train coming down the line and take the payroll that workers are expecting. Ultimately, the two brothers square off in the conflict over good and evil, but waiting to nix the outcome is Whitey's gang, and the final shootout will settle all the scores.
Stewart is his usual heroic self, even gets to play an accordion and sing a lively tune or two, Murphy has the rather unusual bit of casting as a bad guy but with a decent streak in him, and other members of the cast include Dan Duryea as Whitey, Jay C. Flippen as the manager of the railroad line, Brandon De Wilde in a post "Shane" role, with good support coming from Dianne Foster and Elaine Stewart. The film was released in Technirama, which gave a new bend to the opening credits, but did not seem to add much to the quality of the picture. A watchable western with Stewart's musical talent being displayed on the screen.
Stewart is his usual heroic self, even gets to play an accordion and sing a lively tune or two, Murphy has the rather unusual bit of casting as a bad guy but with a decent streak in him, and other members of the cast include Dan Duryea as Whitey, Jay C. Flippen as the manager of the railroad line, Brandon De Wilde in a post "Shane" role, with good support coming from Dianne Foster and Elaine Stewart. The film was released in Technirama, which gave a new bend to the opening credits, but did not seem to add much to the quality of the picture. A watchable western with Stewart's musical talent being displayed on the screen.