Director Rudolph Maté's "Union Station", from Thomas Walsh's novel, again pairs William Holden with Nancy Olson following their triumph with "Sunset Blvd." While both stars are solid here, the step-down to genre shtick (particularly for Holden) is disheartening. After seeing what Holden was truly capable of, he's reduced here to the old cops-and-kidnappers formula, with barely a personality beneath his badge. Olson plays a worrisome secretary who spots some desperate-looking men on her train; after reporting them to the authorities, it's discovered--in an outrageous coincidence--the men have just kidnapped the blind daughter of Olson's wealthy employer. Aside from some uncommon brutalities, and a sadistically funny game of good cop-bad cop between detective Holden, chief inspector Barry Fitzgerald and one of the crooks, this paste-up case is pretty cut and dry. The train station surroundings are fun, but the victim (a real screamer) is a sad sack, as are the dopey villains. Olson has little to do but wring her hands, but she certainly comes out better than Jan Sterling, playing sweetheart to the bad guys. Sterling, after being forced to roll about in the gutter, later gets one of those Hollywood hospital scenes which doesn't even show her off to any great advantage. The picture is smoothly steady, but rather a no-brainer. ** from ****
Review of Union Station
