Kansas Pacific (film)

Kansas Pacific

Directed by Ray Nazarro
Produced by Walter Wanger
Edward Morey Jr.
Written by Daniel B. Ullman
Starring Sterling Hayden
Eve Miller
Music by Albert Sendrey
Cinematography Harry Neumann
Edited by William Austin
Walter Hannemann
Production
company
Walter Wanger Productions
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
Release dates
  • February 22, 1953 (1953-02-22)
Running time
 73 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Kansas Pacific is a 1953 U.S. Cinecolor Western film released by Allied Artists Pictures and directed by Ray Nazarro. It stars Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller. The film offers a fictionalized account of the struggle to build the Kansas Pacific Railway in the 1860s just prior to the American Civil War. In the film the building of the railroad in Kansas is opposed by sympathizers of the Confederacy.

General Winfield Scott sends a Corps of Engineers captain (Hayden) incognito to complete the railroad in order to supply western outposts when the anticipated war starts. Opposing the railway is Confederate William Quantrill (Reed Hadley), whose mission is to stop or delay the railway from being completed.

The rights to the film are currently in the public domain.

Production

The movie was filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch and the Sierra Railroad in what is now Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, Jamestown, California. Walter Mirisch of Allied Artists had Walter Wanger's name put on the picture as a producer, although he was in prison for shooting agent Jennings Lang, whom he believed to be having an affair with his wife, Joan Bennett. Thanks to Mirisch, Wanger received a producer's billing, salary and profit participation.[1]

Plot

Set prior to the Civil War but after the South has seceded from the U.S., Kansas Pacific centres of the efforts to build a railroad across Kansas toward the West Coast. Southern sympathizers attempt to sabotage the railroad construction efforts so Army Captain John Nelson, played by Sterling Hayden, is brought in to keep the project going. Captain Nelson must not only contend with the efforts of the saboteurs but also try to romance the railroad foreman's daughter, Barbara Bruce, who is played by Eve Miller. This film also features Clayton Moore, best known for his roles in films and on television of The Lone Ranger.

Notes

  1. ↑ p.49 Mirisch, Walter I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History 2008 University of Wisconsin Press
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