cult film freak: WILLIAM HOLDEN AND SUSAN OLSEN RETURN FOR 'UNION STATION'

Susan Olsen and William Holden in UNION STATION Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2

Cinematographer of THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI turned DOA director Rudolph Maté's UNION STATION begins with a kind of Alfred Hitchcock premise of an innocent young lady who witnesses something wrong about a train passenger headed to the titular UNION STATION, that becomes central to not only a kidnapping thriller-plot, but provides the procedural location instead of a crowded police headquarters like most film noirs of this semi-hardboiled fashion...

Reunited with SUNSET BOULEVARD good girl Susan Olsen has STATION detective William Holden playing it safely gruff while bordering on kindhearted, so a potential romance can lurk underneath...

Jan Sterling and Allen Roberts in UNION STATION

There's a side-story involving gangster's moll Jan Sterling with Olsen's kidnapped blind sister Allene Roberts, that feels like a more pulpy kind of b-crimer yet peters out much too quickly since Sterling, combining narrowed eyed prowess with doe-eyed sympathy, has edgy potential...

Basically, UNION STATION packs several well-filmed action sequences expanding into the dark THIN MAN-style train tunnels and, while never meshing tightly enough for classic status or sinister enough for cult value, is more of a solidly-basic 80-minute programmer with just-enough to keep the viewer (and characters) intrigued.