Talk:Night Passage (film)

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Why does Follow the River redirect here? I came trying to find information on this book: http://www.amazon.com/Follow-River-JAMES-ALEXANDER-Thom/dp/0345338545. Never heard of the movie and it doesn't look like it has anything to do with the book above.

Matt 94.189.140.76 (talk) 08:00, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Just found Thom's page and an article. if anything, Follow the River should be redirected to this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draper's_Meadow_massacre.

Matt 94.189.140.76 (talk) 08:02, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Stewart's accordion playing

James Stewart did not actually play the accordion in the finished film. All of his accordion playing was re-recorded by a professional before the film's release. This is mentioned in any biography of Stewart, including the 1996 book by Donald Dewey, and was in fact one major reason why Stewart disliked the film. (92.11.202.101 (talk) 17:48, 28 October 2013 (UTC))

Jeff Corey in the background?

As I recall from a recent viewing, during the scenes aboard the moving train's passenger car, where Grant (Stewart) and the boy are aboard with villan Concho, a elderly figure passes in the background, going for a cup of coffee, apparently, and is later shot as he tries to open a door (or something). His momentarily visible face seemed extremely familiar.

While not credited, I got the impression that the actor may be Jeff Corey -- at the time (1950s) a blacklisted actor of the McCarthyism era -- who became a popular acting coach while banned from films. It would stand to reason that he might have been allowed to appear as an uncredited "extra", in a bit part, by a sympathetic colleague. If this can be verified, it would make a notable addition to the cast list. ~ Penlite (talk) 09:14, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

Tendentious editing removed

User:Penlite your recent edits to Audie Murphy and, to Night Passage (film), constitute Tendentious editing (editorial bias), and have been reverted. — Maile (talk) 14:28, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

— Maile , I see that you restored my edits, after some discussion of the matter elsewhere, with other editors. I'm truly baffled that my edits appeared to you to reflect "editorial bias." The substantial prose addition to the cast list was meant in keeping with MOS:FILMCAST, paragraph 2, which notes:

"The real-world context for actors and their roles may vary by film. Real-world context may be about how the role was written, how the actor came to be cast,... ...a list may be maintained and accompanied by prose that discusses only a handful of cast members."

The real-world context, here, is that the post-war film era gave casting credibility to actual combat veterans, especially in action genres (of which Westerns were the chief mode of the time). (Brodie-Smith described this concept, originating in the 1920s, that Western actors were “indigenous heroes, white men who had served in the military, with impressive war records...”.)

However, it was both exceptional (and thus notable by Wikipedia standards) and iconic, that Hollywood's two most famously decorated combat veterans were paired in the lead roles in this film (notwithstanding both actors' insistence that their war records not be used in publicity).

Numerous online searches for the subject of war heroes as actors in postwar films listed, with conspicuous consistency, two names above all others: Stewart and Murphy. For instance: the IMDB, History Hit, the AARP's retrospective, the USO, the Smithsonian, an academic text, and even a college course on the subject, among many others.

Thus, their pairing in Night Passage, and comparable duplicate casting in the Destry films, are appropriately relevant and notable here, IMHO.

Respectfully, ~ Penlite (talk) 13:39, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

And, in case my notation of "critical acclaim" was not adequately documented (and thus may have erroneously appeared as fandom), please note the laundry-list of accolades for Murphy in "Destry" cited in this book's academic treatise on Murphy. ~ Penlite (talk) 13:41, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

OK. I already reverted myself on this. — Maile (talk) 13:47, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. But I wanted to document, more fully, the justification, before some other editor is tempted to jump to the same conclusion. Respectfully, ~ Penlite (talk) 14:01, 9 January 2024 (UTC)