Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

alexanderdavies-99382 "Union Depot" is a "Warner Bros" film that takes place as close to real time as possible. The story unfolds during a single night at a busy railway station where the viewers get to see people from all walks of life. The photography effectively shows all this, via a montage of people waiting for trains, having something to eat at the station cafeteria etc. In the midst of all this, two hobos played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Guy Kibee are looking for ways to feed themselves. Fairbanks is a smart operator in acquiring a new look by disguising his real one. He changes clothing, has a shave and then comes across a violin case that's full of stolen money. Then the film kicks off into high gear. Joan Blondell plays another character with a "hard luck" angle but it works well in "Union Depot." Alan Hale is great as the villain but Frank McHugh has little to do. The plot moves at a steady pace and the climax is very good.

utgard14 Interesting Pre-Code movie about a hobo (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) at a train station who finds a bag with money and clothes that he uses to transform himself into a gentleman, at least on the outside. He meets a woman (Joan Blondell) who's down on her luck and, after initially treating her pretty rough, decides to try and help her out. There are other characters with their own stories and eventually they all intersect.Doug Fairbanks is good in a role that's hard to like at first. He has nice chemistry with Joan Blondell. Joan's both sexy and cute, playing slightly against the types of parts she was normally playing then. Guy Kibbee is fun as Fairbanks' friend Scrap Iron. Frank McHugh has an amusing bit as a drunk, Alan Hale is a counterfeiter, David Landau a tough cop, and George Rosener a perverted weirdo after Blondell. The movie moves along at a quick pace and gets the most out of its 67 minutes. Colorful characters and a snappy script with some laughs, drama, and even action. It's solid entertainment but also has some interest for those curious about Depression-era America.

MartinHafer This film is highly entertaining and will probably keep your interest throughout, though it is far from cerebral or polished. Instead, it's a very good example of a drama spiced up with liberal doses of sex and violence during the "pre-Code era". Unlike a film that would have been made only a few years later, this film abounds with sleazy characters and plot lines as well as "colorful dialog" that would have been taboo once the more rigid and widely enforced Production Code was enacted due to pressure from low ticket sales and public outrage. As for me, I actually love to watch these films because they dare to be so different and because they are the antithesis of what people today think older films were.So what were some of the pre-Code plot elements? First, the "hero" of the film, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is a hobo who steals, lies and even slaps around a woman who he thinks is a prostitute! In addition, subplots involve a dirty old man who is addicted to having a nice young lady (Joan Blondell) read him dirty stories, a woman who walks her husband to the train where he's a porter and leaves with her lover who is just getting off this same train, pickpockets, counterfeiters, attempted murder and actual prostitution! You name a sin, and it's probably alluded to in some way during the course of this breezy film! Now despite all these sleazy elements, the film is surprisingly well-written and integrates all these subplots into a fine coherent picture. TCM described the movie as being inspired by the book GRAND HOTEL (the movie of this book actually came out after UNION DEPOT) and while this is certainly true, this film also features far more subplots and pre-Code taboos than the film version of GRAND HOTEL--which was a lot more polished and refined. In many ways, the sophisticated GRAND HOTEL (from the more polished studio, MGM) is more like an upper-crust version of this film and UNION DEPOT is more a film for the common man and woman--and so it's not surprising it's a Warner Brothers film.

gerrytwo Union Depot starts with an exterior crane shot that slowly zooms into the train station from above, with no noticeable break as camera goes through the wall into the lobby of the station. Alfred Green, the director of this and many other Warner Bros. movies in the 1930s, keeps things hopping as two homeless men, played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Guy Kibbee, come into some money accidentally. Joan Blondell, always a welcome addition to any movie, enters the picture as jobless young woman who meets Fairbanks while at the station, running away from a sex maniac played by George Rosener, usually a screenwriter. Someone figured he looked right for the part. Union Depot, with its cynical view of life and its casual approach to sex, stands up better than the synthetic movies made after the strict Production Code took effect in July, 1934. The stars, the off-beat story and Alfred Green's fluid direction make this dated movie fine entertainment.