Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie Review

Heck on wheels.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 27, 2012

My hometown of Portland, Oregon has provided the world with a number of high profile show business talents, including everyone from Matt Groening to Jane Powell to Mel Blanc. Also on that list is director Byron Haskin, a man who for a certain class of movie lover (and/or geek) will forever be linked with two of the best remembered science fiction films of all time, 1953’s The War of the Worlds and 1964’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Haskin, despite what was probably a less than A-list career as a director, still managed to work in a hugely disparate variety of genres, and like any good journeyman helmsman, he made a few westerns along the way. Interestingly two of them were shot back to back and included some of the same cast and production personnel. 1951’s Silver City is a fairly run of the mill, yet still surprisingly engaging, potboiler about a man with a shady past attempting to help a woman whose father has a short term lease on a valuable silver mine. Silver City’s star Edmond O’Brien returned to the Haskin fold for 1952’s Denver and Rio Grande, a fictionalized treatment of some real life drama surrounding the building of one of the more treacherously placed stretches of railroad in the United States. This second Haskin Paramount western is a good deal more melodramatic than even Silver City, but it’s equally as scenic and on its own somewhat limited terms provides ample entertainment value. It may not be history, but it’s enjoyable hyperbole, as Edmond O’Brien battles Sterling Hayden for the best path through the Rocky Mountains and not so incidentally also for the love of Laura Elliot (another holdover from Silver City).

Denver and Rio Grande gets off to an unintentionally humorous start with a brief prelude which traces the gleaming “modern” (read early fifties) rail liner that then plied the peaks and valleys between Colorado and Utah. It’s like one of those patently silly documentaries about “American progress and ingenuity” they used to show to schoolchildren through at least the seventies. We’re told of the brave and fearless exploits of the master builders and engineers who crafted the Denver and Rio Grande railroad, and then we meet—Edmond O’Brien. Much as with Silver City, O’Brien makes for an extremely unlikely hero, one who seems ill at ease with the action elements and doesn’t have the stalwart good looks of a traditional romantic hero (much more in that mold is the film’s chief villain, portrayed by a strapping and athletic Sterling Hayden).

O’Brien portrays Jim Vesser, a surveyor and builder for real-life character Gen. William J. Palmer (Dean Jagger). Vesser’s attempts to site the Denver and Rio Grande come into immediate conflict with a rival railroad whose site engineers include McCabe (Sterling Hayden) and his kind of smarmy henchman, the hilariously named Johnny Buff (Lyle Bettger). A melée ensues (you expected anything else?), and though McCabe mistakenly shoots and kills once of his comrades, he successfully frames Vesser for the killing. In the meantime the General is on his way to look over the situation, accompanied by a comely lass named Linda (Laura Elliot).

It’s kind of an interesting synchronicity that Olive Films should be bringing this old (and probably mostly forgotten) Paramount catalog title out on Blu-ray at around the same time that Hell On Wheels: The Complete First Season has also arrived. The two projects are an interesting study in how the mammoth task of forging America’s railroads has been dealt with differently by filmmakers in two different eras. Hell on Wheels is an intentionally dark, grimy series that has a rather conflicted anti-hero at its core, while Denver and Rio Grande is typically glossy early fifties fare with a very traditional hero, an equally traditional bad guy, and a love interest that seems gratuitous at best. Still, the film manages to hang on to it entertainment value, much like Haskin's Silver City.

The most memorable thing about Denver and Rio Grande is not in fact its performances (as good as they generally are) or even the incredibly scenic location photography (which unfortunately only makes the studio bound “outdoor” scenes look laughably fake by comparison). Instead the film retains some visceral impact due to an incredibly well staged and filmed head on collision featuring two vintage trains, a practical effect that was evidently done with real, full size trains and brings the film some really incredible verisimilitude. It’s a rare moment of absolute, undeniable excitement in an otherwise rather plodding (albeit just as undeniably enjoyable) film. (No doubt Haskin's long history as a special effects artist helped make this sequence so realistic.)

Once again, as with Silver City, O’Brien ends up taking a back seat to several of the other actors in terms of charisma and screen presence. Sterling Hayden is aces in a pretty traditional bad guy role, all burly and heavily bearded, seething with villainy. Laura Elliot is once again quite wonderful, this time as the putative love interest for O’Brien, but one with a certain secret up her flowery sleeve that keeps the romance from being consummated right away. There’s some winning comedy relief courtesy of Zasu Pitts and Paul Fix as a buffoonish older couple, though their shenanigans often seem shoehorned into the proceedings for no good reason other than that there’s not much else going on at the time.

The fifties were probably only slightly less awash in B-movie westerns than the forties were (with television taking over the role of the B-movie factory by that time), and both of Haskin’s Paramount efforts might be thought of as something akin to B+-movies. They’re not cheap productions by any stretch, but they also have none of the real flash or flair that helped make, say, Anthony Mann’s fifties outings perhaps more memorable in the long run. Denver and Rio Grande is a slightly above average programmer that is fun to revisit now, especially for those who have an affinity for railroads and the men who helped build them.

Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Denver and Rio Grande is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Like Silver City, Denver and Rio Grande is another Paramount catalog title that was evidently a three strip Technicolor film, and it shows, with that beautifully lustrous look that is so redolent of the iconic color process. The elements here are in somewhat better shape than those of Silver City. While there is still some noticeable wear and tear, there's nothing near the level of Silver City's scratches, flecks and even small missing pieces of frame. As with virtually all of these Paramount catalog titles which Olive has licensed, Paramount has provided an HD master which appears to have undergone absolutely no digital tweaking of any kind. Color here is generally quite robust, especially with regard to flesh tones and some of the costumes. As with Silver City, some of the midrange location footage looks considerably softer than the bulk of the film, but overall this is a solid, if not overwhelming, presentation of a film few probably thought would ever be released in high definition in the first place.

Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Denver and Rio Grande features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix that is about in the same sonic ballpark as Silver City's was, albeit with perhaps just a tad less fulsome midrange sound, something that is most apparent during Paul Sawtell's energetic music cues. While obviously narrow, the track provides clean and clear dialogue and some very good sound effects, and the entire mix here is well prioritized and sounds fine, given appropriate expectations. While there is an undeniably slightly shallow and tinny sound to some of the proceedings, overall this track has no horrible damage to report and is probably the best that could be expected given the age of the film and whatever stems or source elements were utilized.

Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As has been the case with almost all of these Olive Films releases, this Blu-ray contains no supplements of any kind.

Denver and Rio Grande Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not an especially big western fan, especially for these middling fifties efforts like Silver City and Denver and Rio Grande, so I was rather surprised by how engaged I was by both of these films. It's little wonder that Edmond O'Brien never became a huge western star, as he seems at least partially miscast in both of these films, despite his best efforts. This film, again like Silver City, derives most of its color from expert supporting turns and some gorgeously scenic location footage. Denver and Rio Grande is a little more over the top in its hyperbolic melodramatic elements than Silver City was, but it's still a fun little film that has limited ambitions and fulfils those limited ambitions fairly well. This Blu-ray offers very good video and decent audio, and despite the usual Olive situation of no supplements, for western fans at least, this release is Recommended.