{ "id": "epks6vm0c2", "slug": "union-pacific", "title": "Union Pacific", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure", "label": "Action and adventure films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.westerns-before-1980", "label": "Westerns before 1980", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.westerns-before-1980" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.westerns-before-1980.yr-1930-1960", "label": "Released 1930 to 1960", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.westerns-before-1980.yr-1930-1960" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Union Pacific (1939) is Cecil B. DeMille's Paramount Western, from Ernest Haycox's Trouble Shooter, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea as allies defending transcontinental railroad construction from saboteurs; it won the 2002-retroactive 1939 Cannes Palme d'Or.", "snippet": "Union Pacific (1939) is Cecil B. DeMille's Paramount Western, from Ernest Haycox's Trouble Shooter, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea as allies defending transcontinental railroad construction from saboteurs; it won the 2002-retroactive 1939 Cannes Palme d'Or.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.action-adventure.westerns-before-1980.yr-1930-1960", "markdown": "# Union Pacific\n\n**Union Pacific** is a 1939 American Western drama directed by [Cecil B. DeMille](https://www.edgepedia.org/cecil-b-demille), starring [Barbara Stanwyck](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbara-stanwyck) and [Joel McCrea](https://www.edgepedia.org/joel-mccrea), about the sabotage-plagued construction of the first transcontinental railroad. Produced by Paramount Pictures from Ernest Haycox's 1937 novel *Trouble Shooter*, it was one of the big-budget Western hits of 1939 and later received the Palme d'Or awarded retrospectively for the canceled 1939 Cannes Film Festival.[1](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/the-festival/the-history-of-the-festival/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and studio | Cecil B. DeMille, producer-director; Paramount Pictures[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) |\n| Source | Ernest Haycox's novel *Trouble Shooter* (Garden City, NY, 1937)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985) |\n| Cast | Barbara Stanwyck (Mollie Monahan), Joel McCrea (Jeff Butler), Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman, Anthony Quinn[1](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific) |\n| Release | Omaha premiere April 28, 1939; United States release May 5, 1939[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) • [5](https://www.blu-ray.com/Union-Pacific/348234/) |\n| Runtime | 135 minutes, black and white[1](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific) |\n| Finances | Cost $1.45 million, grossed $3.2 million[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) |\n| 1939 box office | Tied for second place in receipts with M-G-M's *Babes in Arms*; first place was *Gone With the Wind*[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) |\n| Cannes | In the canceled 1939 festival's selection; the 1939 Palme d'Or was awarded to it unanimously in 2002[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/the-festival/the-history-of-the-festival/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nThe story opens in 1862, during the [American Civil War](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-civil-war), when one of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the [Union Pacific Railroad](https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific-railroad) across the wilderness toward California. Bank president Asa M. Barrows stands to make a fortune if the rival Central Pacific reaches [Ogden, Utah](https://www.edgepedia.org/ogden-utah) first, so he hires the gambler Sid Campeau to sabotage the Union Pacific's construction. Three years later, as the first engine leaves Cheyenne, the railroad hires troubleshooter Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea) to keep order and root out the saboteurs.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985) • [6](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/union-pacific/)\n\nThe personal conflict runs alongside the industrial one. Campeau's partner [Dick Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/dick-allen) (Robert Preston) is Jeff's old war buddy, and the two men end up on opposite sides of both the railroad fight and the contest for Mollie Monahan (Barbara Stanwyck), the railroad's spirited postmistress and the engineer's daughter, who favors Jeff. Other schemers include the gambler Jack Cordray ([Anthony Quinn](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthony-quinn)).[1](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific) • [7](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/union-pacific-2015-02-20/) The spectacle DeMille built around this plot includes political intrigue, stampeding buffalo, train wrecks, Indian raids, and a derailment in which a wooden trestle viaduct collapses under a train crossing the winter Rockies.[1](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific) • [8](https://www.eisenbahn-im-film.de/info/union01.htm)\n\n## Production\n\nDeMille won the backing of the Union Pacific Railroad, and the company let the filmmakers consult its historical documents and blueprints from building the line.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/240786/union-pacific) The number of trains required was so large that Paramount had to obtain a regulation railroad operating license from the Interstate Commerce Commission.[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032080) The elaborate railroad sequences were staged on the Sierra Railroad near Sonora, California, with Virginia & Truckee locomotives rented or bought by Paramount standing in for Union Pacific engines; the V&T's No. 11, *Reno*, played Union Pacific No. 119 in the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Summit.[8](https://www.eisenbahn-im-film.de/info/union01.htm)\n\nThe credited screenwriters were Walter DeLeon, Jesse Lasky Jr., and C. Gardner Sullivan, with additional material by Jack Cunningham, Stuart Anthony, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Harold Lamb, Jeanie Macpherson, and Stanley Raub. Victor Milner was the cinematographer, Anne Bauchens the editor, and Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson the art directors.[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) According to material in the Paramount Story Files at the AMPAS Library, an early treatment by Brennan was written for [Fredric March](https://www.edgepedia.org/fredric-march), Joel McCrea, and [Irene Dunne](https://www.edgepedia.org/irene-dunne), and [Charles Bickford](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-bickford) was originally cast in a role.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985)\n\n## Premiere and promotion\n\nThe world premiere in [Omaha, Nebraska](https://www.edgepedia.org/omaha-nebraska), on April 28, 1939, was a gala three-day celebration that, according to 1939 news items, drew crowds of over 250,000, temporarily doubling the city's population and requiring eight national guard troops to help maintain order. President [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://www.edgepedia.org/franklin-d-roosevelt) was to open the proceedings from Washington, D.C. by pressing a button that would start Omaha's civic auditorium, and the premiere, accompanied by parades, special radio broadcasts, and a banquet, was advertised as the \"biggest world premiere in motion picture history.\"[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985) Afterward, DeMille and many of the stars continued a fifteen-day, coast-to-coast promotional tour aboard an antique train, scheduled to stop at thirty cities.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985)\n\n## Reception and box office\n\nThe film cost $1.45 million and grossed $3.2 million, figures not adjusted for inflation and excluding later reissue, television, and home-entertainment income. It tied for second place in 1939 box-office receipts with M-G-M's *Babes in Arms*, behind David Selznick's *Gone With the Wind*.[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) Contemporary reviews were largely favorable. Joseph F. Coughlin in the *Motion Picture Herald* wrote that DeMille had \"again demonstrated his special art of the epic,\" and Frank S. Nugent in *The New York Times* praised the staging of action while noting DeMille's claim to \"complete documentation of every spike, shovel, costume, engine number and war-bonnet in the film.\"[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/) Regional theater owners reported strong business, though one Kansas exhibitor blamed the lack of [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor), compared with the competitor *Dodge City*, and a late release date for costing the film grosses.[4](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/)\n\n## The 1939 Cannes story\n\nUnion Pacific was among the selection of the first Cannes International Film Festival, scheduled to open on [September 1, 1939](https://www.edgepedia.org/september-1-1939). Germany invaded Poland that day, war was declared on September 3, and the festival never took place; its selection also included *The Wizard of Oz*, *Only Angels Have Wings*, *The Four Feathers*, and Jacques Feyder's *La Loi du Nord*.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/the-festival/the-history-of-the-festival/) In 2002, the festival organized a tribute to this forgotten selection, screening seven of the original films. A jury under the presidency of the writer Jean d'Ormesson unanimously awarded the 1939 Palme d'Or, 63 years late, to DeMille's film, whose title the festival noted echoed its founding vision of collaboration between film-producing countries.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/the-festival/the-history-of-the-festival/) • [11](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/1939-war-prevents-the-festival-from-taking-place/)\n\n## Historical framing and legacy\n\nThe film is a fictional story set against real events, closing with the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, wiping into a shot of a modern diesel locomotive. A scholarly account describes its opening shot of straight tracks heading west into the setting sun as an image of Manifest Destiny, and notes that, like DeMille's earlier *The Plainsman*, it celebrates the conquest of the frontier while depicting Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages.[12](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=kent1449250157&disposition=attachment) A Stanford screening series similarly warns that some portrayals of immigrants, Native people, women, and people of color in the film are stereotyped and offensive.[13](https://west.stanford.edu/events/union-pacific-transcontinental-railroad-film-series-images-west)\n\nAlong with John Ford's *Stagecoach*, the film is credited by a railroad-history newsletter with raising the yardstick for future Westerns.[14](https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/2020%20News%20April%202020%20Final.pdf) The UCLA Film & Television Archive restored it from DeMille's personal 35mm nitrate print, with funding from The Cecil B. DeMille Foundation and the cooperation of Universal Pictures, and it remains available on digital, DVD, and Blu-ray.[7](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/union-pacific-2015-02-20/) • [15](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/union-pacific)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Union Pacific, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/union-pacific)\n2. [Union Pacific (1939), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/8054-UNION-PACIFIC?cp=1&pos=1&sid=7119dbc2-c8a0-4fa4-add9-17e39371f294&sr=0.18849985)\n3. [The history of the Festival, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/the-festival/the-history-of-the-festival/)\n4. [Union Pacific, Cecil B. DeMille estate site](https://www.cecilbdemille.com/portfolio-item/union-pacific/)\n5. [Union Pacific 1939, Blu-ray.com](https://www.blu-ray.com/Union-Pacific/348234/)\n6. [UNION PACIFIC, Festival de Cannes film page](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/union-pacific/)\n7. [Union Pacific screening, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/union-pacific-2015-02-20/)\n8. [Union Pacific, Eisenbahn im Film](https://www.eisenbahn-im-film.de/info/union01.htm)\n9. [Union Pacific, Turner Classic Movies article](https://www.tcm.com/articles/240786/union-pacific)\n10. [Union Pacific (1939), IMDb trivia](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032080)\n11. [1939, War prevents the Festival from taking place, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/1939-war-prevents-the-festival-from-taking-place/)\n12. [Dissertation on DeMille's Westerns, OhioLINK ETD](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=kent1449250157&disposition=attachment)\n13. [Union Pacific, Transcontinental Railroad Film Series, Stanford Bill Lane Center for the American West](https://west.stanford.edu/events/union-pacific-transcontinental-railroad-film-series-images-west)\n14. [NRHS Newsletter, April 2020](https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/2020%20News%20April%202020%20Final.pdf)\n15. [Union Pacific streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/union-pacific)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1930 to 1960*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Union Pacific\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Union Pacific](https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific](https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Union Pacific\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/union-pacific. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Union Pacific is Cecil B." }