In Rudolph Maté’s
Union Station, William Holden plays Detective William Calhoun, head of security for the titular train station in Chicago. When arriving passenger Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson) reports two suspicious passengers, one with a gun, Calhoun follows them to a station locker where they store a suitcase and then drop the key in the mail. Teaming with Police Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald), Calhoun soon discovers that the surreptitious men are part of a gang of kidnappers who have abducted Lorna Murchison (Ailene Roberts), the young, blind daughter of millionaire Henry Murchison (Herbert Heyes) for whom Joyce happens to work as secretary. A taut, fast-paced thriller,
Union Station doesn’t shy away from brutality (Lorna’s constant sobbing admittedly does grow irritating but knocking her out with a punch to the head is pretty drastic), makes fantastic use of underground train tunnels for dramatic and visual effect, and even features death by cattle stampede! (Note: This isn’t the only stampede death in film noir; see 1961’s
Pigs and Battleships.) We also get Jan Sterling, albeit briefly, as an empathetic moll with a pathetic fate.
