Kansas Pacific (film)

1953 film by Ray Nazarro

Kansas Pacific

Film poster

Directed by| Ray Nazarro
Written by| Daniel B. Ullman
Produced by| Walter Wanger
Edward Morey Jr.
Starring| Sterling Hayden
Eve Miller
Cinematography| Harry Neumann
Edited by| William Austin
Walter Hannemann
Music by| Albert Sendrey

Production
company

Walter Wanger Productions

Distributed by| Allied Artists Pictures Corporation

Release date

* February 22, 1953 (1953-02-22)

Running time

| 73 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

Kansas Pacific is a 1953 American Cinecolor Western film released by Allied Artists Pictures and directed by Ray Nazarro. It stars Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller. While the film was released in 1953, the title screen clearly states "Copyright MCMLII" (1952). The film offers a fictionalized account of the struggle to build the Kansas Pacific Railway in the early 1860s just prior to the American Civil War. In the film the building of the railroad in Kansas is opposed by sympathizers of the South before it forms the Confederacy.

General-in-Chief of the United States Army Winfield Scott sends a Corps of Engineers captain (Hayden) incognito to complete the railroad in order to supply western Union 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.

Miller plays the only female character within the entire movie. This film also features Clayton Moore. Andrew V. McLaglen is credited as assistant director in the opening credits of this movie.

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

## Plot

[edit]

Prior to the Civil War but after the South has seceded from the U.S., the film centres on the efforts to build a railroad across Kansas toward the West Coast. Southern sympathizers attempt to sabotage the railroad construction efforts so U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Captain John Nelson 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.

## Cast

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* Sterling Hayden as Captain John Nelson
* Eve Miller as Barbara Bruce
* Barton MacLane as Cal Bruce
* Reed Hadley as William Quantrill
* Irving Bacon as Casey
* James Griffith as Joeh Farley
* Douglas Fowley as Max Janus
* Harry Shannon as Smokestack
* Myron Healey as Morey
* Clayton Moore as Stone
* Robert Keys as Lieutenant Stanton
* Tom Fadden as Gus Gustavson
* Jonathan Hale as Sherman Johnson
* Lane Bradford as Max (uncredited)
* Fred Graham as Corvin (uncredited)

## Production

[edit]

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]

## Notes

[edit]

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

## External links

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* Kansas Pacific at IMDb
* Kansas Pacific on YouTube
* Kansas Pacific is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive (Black-and-white)
* Kansas Pacific is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive (Color)
* Kansas Pacific at AllMovie
* Kansas Pacific at Rotten Tomatoes

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Films directed by Ray Nazarro

* Al Jennings of Oklahoma
* Apache Territory
* The Arkansas Swing
* Baby Burlesks
* Bandits of El Dorado
* The Black Dakotas
* Blazing Across the Pecos
* The Blazing Trail
* Buckaroo from Powder River
* Challenge of the Range
* Cowboy Blues
* Cripple Creek
* Cyclone Fury
* David Harding, Counterspy
* The Desert Horseman
* Domino Kid
* El Dorado Pass
* Fort Savage Raiders
* Frontier Outpost
* Galloping Thunder
* Gunning for Vengeance
* Heading West
* Hoedown
* Home in San Antone
* Indian Uprising
* Junction City
* Kansas Pacific
* The Kid from Amarillo
* Laramie
* Laramie Mountains
* Last Days of Boot Hill
* Law of the Canyon
* The Lone Hand Texan
* Lone Star Moonlight
* Montana Territory
* Outlaws of the Rockies
* Over the Santa Fe Trail
* The Palomino
* Phantom Valley
* Quick on the Trigger
* Renegades of the Sage
* Return to Warbow
* Roaring Rangers
* Roaring Roads
* Rose of Santa Rosa
* The Rough, Tough West
* Singin' Spurs
* Singing on the Trail
* Six-Gun Law
* Smoky Mountain Melody
* Song of the Prairie
* South of Death Valley
* Southwest Passage
* Streets of Ghost Town
* Terror Trail
* Texas Dynamo
* Texas Panhandle
* That Texas Jamboree
* Throw a Saddle on a Star
* Top Gun
* The Tougher They Come
* Trail of the Rustlers
* Trail to Laredo
* Two-Fisted Stranger
* West of Dodge City
* West of Sonora

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Films produced by Walter Wanger

* The Sheik (1921)
* The Cocoanuts (1929)
* The Lady Lies (1929)
* Applause (1929)
* Roadhouse Nights (1930)
* Tarnished Lady (1931)
* Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
* Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
* The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
* Going Hollywood (1933)
* Another Language (1933)
* Queen Christina (1933)
* The President Vanishes (1934)
* Private Worlds (1935)
* Smart Girl (1935)
* Every Night at Eight (1935)
* Shanghai (1935)
* Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935)
* The Moon's Our Home (1936)
* Her Master's Voice (1936)
* The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936)
* Fatal Lady (1936)
* Palm Springs (1936)
* The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
* Big Brown Eyes (1936)
* Spendthrift (1936)
* You Only Live Once (1937)
* Vogues of 1938 (1937)
* History Is Made At Night (1937)
* Stand-In (1937)
* 52nd Street (1937)
* Trade Winds (1938)
* Blockade (1938)
* Algiers (1938)
* I Met My Love Again (1938)
* Stagecoach (1939)
* Winter Carnival (1939)
* Eternally Yours (1939)
* Foreign Correspondent (1940)
* The Long Voyage Home (1940)
* Slightly Honorable (1940)
* The House Across the Bay (1940)
* Sundown (1941)
* Eagle Squadron (1942)
* Arabian Nights (1942)
* We've Never Been Licked (1943)
* Gung Ho! (1943)
* Ladies Courageous (1944)
* Scarlet Street (1945)
* Salome, Where She Danced (1945)
* Night in Paradise (1946)
* Canyon Passage (1946)
* Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)
* The Lost Moment (1947)
* Tap Roots (1948)
* Joan of Arc (1948)
* Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
* The Reckless Moment (1949)
* Reign of Terror (1949)
* Tulsa (1949)
* Aladdin and His Lamp (1952)
* Lady in the Iron Mask (1952)
* Battle Zone (1952)
* Fort Vengeance (1953)
* Kansas Pacific (1953)
* Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
* The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954)
* Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
* Navy Wife (1956)
* I Want to Live! (1958)
* Cleopatra (1963)

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