Western Union (1941)

Western Union is a 1941 western feature film directed by Fritz Lang. Filmed in Technicolor on location in Arizona and Utah, Western Union tells the story of a reformed outlaw named Vance Shaw who tries to make good by joining the team wiring the Great Plains for telegraph service in 1861. Edward Creighton is the man in charge of the operation, and Richard Blake is an easterner who is also part of the team. Sue Creighton, Edward's sister, becomes the object of both Blake's and Shaw's affections. In addition to the love-triangle, conflicts arise between Shaw and his former gang, as well as between the team stringing the wires and the Native Americans through whose land the new lines must run. In this regard, the film is not historically accurate; the installation of telegraph wires was met with protest from no one.¹