What a beautiful movie!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A first I thought this was an Allied Artists production: overblown script about the building of the titular railroad, Edmond O'Brien in the lead.... but no, it was a Paramount production, one of their A Westerns that seem overblown, despite an appealing cast, including Dean Jagger, personal favorite Zasu Pitts, Sterling Hayden (at the start of his "I'll say the line, but don't expect me to care" phase) and a spectacular railroad crash that used two actual engines. Ka-boom! Cute ingenue Kasey Rogers is spying for bad-guy Hayden (for a competing line) because she thinks D&RG people killed her brother, but she and O'Brien keep making goo-goo eyes at each other when they think the other isn't looking.I wasn't terribly impressed. It looked like a DeMille Western epic from the 1930s, but without the mythic characters, and it's too visually perfect, shot on site in the clean air of Colorado by former cameraman Byron Haskins and ace Technicolor specialist Ray Rennahan, meant to show off the the bright, accurate colors of fresh paint and clean clothes and green leaves that Technicolor could bring to the screen, like a mid-30s Warner Brothers short. I'm more interested in story and character than sheer spectacle, and the story and characters here are standard, while the spectacle (train crash aside) had all been done before. That leaves the outdoor photography around the tracks, and while the natural scenery is frequently beautiful, an hour and a half is pretty long for a travelogue. Despite the talent and effort, it winds up a pompous, overblown B Western.

Denver and Rio Grande is directed by Byron Haskin and written by Frank Gruber. It stars Edmond O'Brien, Sterling Hayden, Dean Jagger, Kasey Rogers, Lyle Bettger and J. Carol Naish. Music is by Paul Sawtell and Technicolor cinematography by Ray Rennahan.Two railroad companies battle for the right of way through Royal Gorge - with murderous results...In truth it's without doubt that the scenery on offer here, and if you happen to have any kink for olde steam trains, are what puts this in the above average department. Plot is based around real instances during the advancements of the Denver and Rio Grande railway. It plays out for entertainment purposes as baddies against goodies and as a notable observation of what some will do to get their way. There's strands involving wrongful accusations, simmering passions and a whole host of train sequences snaking through gorgeous locations. There's even some amazing train carnage, which is thrilling and more potent as it's not model work on show. Cast are fine and turning in perfs that we accept as viable for our enjoyment - with a pat on the back for Zasu Pitts and Paul Fix who are playing out a cute and funny mature courtship in the making - and all other tech contributions are safe and appealing enough.Opening with a voice over narration set to scenes of the then modern D&RG railway, before whisking us back to its formative years, this is a nice nostalgia piece that overcomes its plotting failings courtesy of big heart and ocular delights. 7/10

It's always good when a movie is filmed on location, as this is. Well, wait a minute. It's sort of filmed on location. The real incidents on which this film is based took place on the eastern edge of the Rockies, on the Royal Gorge Route of the railway. This was filmed mostly near Durango, on the western side of Colorado's Rockies. Okay, not bad, just about 220 miles off, but if you know Colorado, it makes a difference. The Royal Gorge area is relatively arid, while the Durango area is not arid, so the look is all wrong.Nevertheless, this is a pretty good fictionalized story about a real incident in Colorado railroad history. Incidentally, you can still ride part of the Royal Gorge Route out of Canon City, Colorado, and it's a swell journey about an authentic train.This was a Paramount flick, and a rather big budget production from a company that didn't typically make very many Westerns. It isn't the smoothest production you'll ever watch, but it's still an above average Western. And, the train collision is very well done and looks very real...not sure how they did it.The male star is Edmond O'Brien. O'Brien was usually a supporting actor, but occasionally showed up in a leading role. I always liked him, but he probably missed the A list simply because he was a bit chunky. Sterling Hayden was the lead bad guy, and does fairly well here. I always liked Dean Jagger, who plays General Palmer, the railroad owner here, but this is not one of his better portrayals. Kasey Rogers is the chief female actor here, a decidedly B list actress, but she does fairly well as a woman torn between revenge and loyalty. Lyle Bettger plays the real heavy here, and I have to say, after watching him a couple of years ago during the same year in "The Greatest Show On Earth", he was a bit of a cornball as an all too bad villain -- overacting in both roles, to the point of being the caricature of villainy. J. Carrol Naish was a good character actor, and does nicely here as the engineer (as in construction) of the railway. Zasu Pitts and Paul Fix are along for a few laughs as a rather dowdy romantic couple.I can't make up my mind whether this film is a very, very good B Western, or a so-so A Western. But if you like Westerns at all, this one -- based on real history -- is well worth watching at least once.

There were some weak points to this film that could have easily been fixed or edited and they probably should of. First of all the way Nelson is killed- how can you be convinced you shot someone when you were fist fighting them? Second of all the fact that Linda was the sister of Bob Nelson should have been saved to be revealed to the audience when it was revealed to Jim Vesser after the trains crashed. It would keep the audience in suspense and wondering where she's riding off to and why. And finally the head on collision between two old narrow gauge steam locomotives. Since they were capturing such an amazing scene the filming makers should have set up multiple cameras to capture that awesome crash. A couple close up shots would have been so much better than the single shot from far away. All in all I love this movie. Even though the script was empty at times the work put in to get those spectacular shots of the trains and the mountains made up for it.