Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Review

Night Passage (1957)

A very so-so Jimmy Stewart western, in which Jimmah must give up his quiet, retired life as a tramp railway musician in order to guard a train and its valuable railworkers' payroll from the predations of a desperate gang of robbers which includes Jimmah's improbably-named brother, the "Utica" Kid. (They may as well have called him the "Scranton" Kid or the "Wilkes-Barre" Kid. I cannot believe that there was ever a person in the entire history of the westward expansion who voluntarily went under the nickname "Utica" Kid.) The plot is kinda lame, the acting is kinda uneven and you have to listen to Jimmah sing and play the accordion. On the other hand, it is Jimmah after all, and this film comes complete with the gergious scenery and long, lanky, loose style usually associated with his westerns.

As in most of his other westerns, Jimmah here plays a quiet, decent, honorable guy who is trying to live down a past filled with ferocity and (sometimes) villainy. I must say that I've never bought this for an instant, not with Jimmah. You can easily imagine Clint Eastwood's stock Avenging Angel character having his own summer place in one of the lower circles of hell. And even the Dook could pull out latent savagery when he wanted to. But Jimmah? He was one of Nature's gentlemen and I simply can never imagine that one of his characters had ever done anything bloodthirsty, mean or dishonorable. Audiences were shocked and troubled by Henry Fonda's stone killer in Once Upon A Time In The West, especially when he shoots the kid in cold blood. Had Jimmah been cast in that role, the audiences either would have hooted in disbelief or else burned the theatre down.

Anyhoo, if you want a good Jimmah western, Winchester 73 is probably the best, although I also have a fondness for Bend of the River and The Far Country. And there is Bandolero! of course, if for no other reason than that you get Rachel Welch in chaps.

Robbo's Recommendation: Say two and a half yips! out of five. It's a pleasant way to waste 90 minutes but don't go out of your way for it.