Kansas Pacific (1953)

Director:

Ray Nazarro

Writer:

Daniel B. Ullman (written by)

Release Date:

22 February 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Tagline:

Built by bullets, dynamite, and blood-stained spikes!

Plot:

With the Civil War about to begin, Southern saboteurs attack frontier railroad construction.

Plot Keywords:

Explosion | Dynamite | Rifle | Informant | Investigation

Cast

Sterling Hayden	...	Capt. John Nelson
Eve Miller	...	Barbara Bruce
Barton MacLane	...	Cal Bruce
Harry Shannon	...	Smokestack, Train Engineer
Tom Fadden	...	Gus Gustavson, Train Fireman
Reed Hadley	...	Bill Quantrill
Douglas Fowley	...	Max Janus
Robert Keys	...	Lt. Sam Stanton (as Bob Keys)
Irving Bacon	...	Telegrapher Casey
Myron Healey	...	Morey
James Griffith	...	Joe Farley, Railroad guard
Clayton Moore	...	Henchman Stone
Jonathan Hale	...	Railroad President Sherman Johnson

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Cinecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16144) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Jamestown, California, USA

Company:

Allied Artists Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In an establishing shot of the U.S. Capitol building, the dome is shown as completed. The dome was not finished until 1863, several years after the time of the movie.

Quotes:

Smokestack: It looks like we're already in the war everybody keeps talking about.
Capt. John Nelson: No, this is worse than war. In a war, at least you know who you're fighting.

The "Lone Ranger" as a bad guy!

I can't recall Clayton Moore as anyone but the "brave masked man," but here he is as a bad guy with no mask. I'd say that counts as irony.

Also: who ever heard of a main character named "Mr. Bruce" in the Westerns. I think I know the source of the name, as my dad wrote the script. The same goes for the daughter, Barbara. If they had a daughter, my folks planned to name her Barbara. Three years later, they did and my sister's name is Barbara.

The memorable quotes struck a chord with me, especially when Mr. Bruce says that no one pushes him around -- except his daughter and his wife. Such dry humor was a hallmark of my father and I miss it and, of course, him.