Overland Pacific (1954)

Jock Mahoney plays Ross Granger, a railroad agent posing as a telegrapher. The Indians have been raiding the railroad work crews under the direction of a rail boss named Dennison, and there’s something suspicious about the attacks.

First, the Indians are armed with repeating rifles, hard to find in these here parts. Second, the Indians seem awful interested in wrecking railroad equipment.

When he arrives, Ross runs into an old friend, Del Stewart, a rogue who’s fallen into good luck.

He won a saloon in a card game and he’s about to win the hand of the prettiest girl in town, Ann Dennison (Peggie Castle), daughter of the aforementioned rail boss.

But as Granger starts investigating the attacks on the railroad, he becomes more and more suspicious that whites are behind them — white men interested in convincing railroad authorities to change their course and run the line through a nearby town.

That would be the very town where Del Stewart owns his saloon and has been buying up land rights.

Jock Mahoney as Ross Granger, a railroad man ready to level some accusations in Overland Pacific (1954)

William Bishop as Del Stewart, trying to convince Dennison to route the railroad through Oak Town in Overland Pacific (1954)

Review:

Jock Mahoney does his best with the material and throws in some acrobatic moves during a pair of fistfights. Peggie Castle looks great in Western duds. Those are the highlights.

Unfortunately, this is far from the best of the Mahoney Westerns from the 1950s as the cast is saddled with a script filled with purple prose. And one character’s death scene is downright laughable, which certainly isn’t what was intended.

There are also a couple of glaring miscues. Like Dennison referring to the telegraph line as a telephone line. And like two Indians falling from their saddles as though shot dead … long seconds after all fire has ceased from the railroad camp they were attacking.

And here’s a new one: the repeating rifles being dealt to the Indians are transported in whiskey barrels.

Adele Jergens plays Jessie Loraine, a saloon girl with a torch for Del Stewart that she’s managed to cool down to a match. But she’d still take him back in a heartbeat if she could lure him away from Ann Dennison.

Peggie Castle as Ann Dennison, watching newcomer Ross Granger exchange punches with a stage driver in Overland Pacific (1954)

Walter Sande as Mr. Dennison, trying to build a railroad and suspicious of Del Stewart’s motives in Overland Pacific (1954)

Directed by:
Fred Sears

Cast:
Jock Mahoney … Ross Granger
Peggie Castle … Ann Dennison
Adele Jergens … Jessie Loraine
William Bishop … Del Stewart
Chubby Johnson … Sheriff Blaney
Walter Sande … Mr. Dennison
Pat Hogan … Dark Thunder
Chris Alcaide … Jason
Fred Graham … Jenks (stage driver)
Phil Chambers … Weeks (undertaker)
G. Pat Collins … Connors
George Eldredge … Broden
Dick Rich … Saber (bartender)

Runtime: 73 min.

William Bishop as Del Stewart with Jessie Loraine (Adele Jergens), a former flame tired of his antics in Overland Pacific (1954)

Chris Alcaide as Jason, henchmen for the men trying to re-route the railroad, waiting in ambush in Overland Pacific (1954)

Memorable lines:

Jessie Loraine, upon seeing a lineman on a telegraph pole, an arrow through his back: “What an awful way to die.”
Ross Granger: “Know of a good one?”

Ann Dennison: “Del’s always lucky. Aren’t you?”
Ross Granger: “Not me. Every time I say heads, it comes up tails or stands on end.”

Del Stewart to a partner balking at selling repeating rifles to the Comanche: “Be honest with yourself, Broden. If the railroad can be forced to change its route and go through Oaktown, you won’t care if every tie is a human body.”

Chubby Johnson as Sheriff Blaney, trying to explain why he’s sided with Del Stewart in Overland Pacific (1954)

Pat Hogan as Dark Thunder, the Indian chief Del Stewart has been providing with repeating rifles in Overland Pacific (1954)

Mr. Dennison: “I don’t understand what she (his daughter Ann) sees in you.”
Del Stewart: “You keep trying to build a fence around her. I’m offering her a ladder.”
Dennison: “And every step on it is rotten.”

Del Stewart, about Mr. Dennison, right after he’s been gunned down: “He’d have seen the light.”
Gunman: “Well, just in case he didn’t, I let a little through him.”

Jessie Loraine, making another play for Del: “Why don’t you forget the little princess and come back to the common herd?”
Del Stewart: “The only thing you’ll find in a herd is a cow.”

Ross Granger to Blaney: “Some sheriff. All that lard you’re packing around, you’re going to be my favorite target.”

Peggie Castle as Ann Dennison, ready to marry Del Stewart (William Bishop) in spite of her father’s objections in Overland Pacific (1954)

Pat Hogan as Dark Thunder, pointing out to Del Stewart (William Bishop) how the Indians have been lied too in Overland Pacific (1954)

Jock Mahoney as Ross Granger and Peggie Castle as Ann Dennison, watching a rider approach in Overland Pacific (1954)

Walter Sande as Dennison, Jock Mahoney as Ross Granger and Peggie Castle as Ann Dennison surveying damage in Overland Pacific (1954)