Stewart's westerns are always worth the watch but Night Passage is a paint by numbers cliched western. An extremely poor script coupled with mediocre directing doom this film. Stewart's singing is cringe worthy and his fake playing of the accordion is a nonsensical character add. Old nemesis Dan Duryea is way over the top. Mann wouldn't have allowed such baloney. Murphy rises somewhat to the occasion against all odds with a fairly decent performance. The rest of the cast is painful to watch. Brandon De Wilde is stranded without Shane and JC Flippen manages to notch the worst performance of his career. The lead women Foster and Stewart are as wooden as Kawliga.
As other have noted the second half of the film is slightly better but overall this is one of Stewart's rare duds. If you're a Stewart fan, (like I am) it might be worth your time. Barely.
As other have noted the second half of the film is slightly better but overall this is one of Stewart's rare duds. If you're a Stewart fan, (like I am) it might be worth your time. Barely.