When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Invasion U.S.A." director Alfred E. Green's charming little romantic thriller "Union Depot" qualifies as a pleasant bit of escapism. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Blondell, Alan Hale, Guy Kibbee, and David Matthau comprise the capable cast in this Warner Brothers' release. Scenarists Kenyon Nicholson of "Laughing Sinners" and Walter DeLeon of "Pot o' Gold" adapted the play penned by Joe Laurie Jr., Gene Fowler, and Douglas Dirkin and writers Kubec Glasmon and John Bright handled the dialogue. "Union Depot" chronicles the escapades of two jailbirds just released from the city lock-up and have gone to Union Depot to rustle up with dough. Chic Miller (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. of "Little Caesar") and his woebegone hobo cohort, Scrap Iron Scratch (Guy Kibbee of "Babbitt"), set about scavenging around Union Depot. Scrap Iron stays out of sight, while Chic indulges in harmless kleptomania. The wiry Miller enters the restroom and slips into an official uniform of a Union Depot Information Agent and then later sheds the uniform. Fortune smiles on him when another passenger, an absent-minded drunk (Frank McHugh of "All Through the Night"), abandoned his suitcase in a toilet stall. Incredibly enough, despite their obvious difference in height and weight, Miller dons some of the drunk's apparel and finds a wad of bills. Off he goes to enjoy a decent meal. Meantime, Scrap Iron finds a pawn shop claim ticket and turns it over to his buddy. Chic takes the claim check to the pawnshop and he looks glum when the clerk returns with a violin case. Chic is poised to sell violin when he takes a peeks inside. He discovers bundles of bank notes. Indeed, the violin belongs to a crook, The Baron - aka Bushy Sloan (Alan Hale of "Santa Fe Trail") who has it stuffed with counterfeit bank notes. He lost the claim check at the depot, and he has been hanging around to recover it.Meantime, as a change of pace, Chic enjoys the advantages of having folding money. He runs into a chorus girl at Union Depot, Ruth Collins (Joan Blondell of "The Public Enemy"), treats her to dinner. He listeners to her sob story about catching a train to Salt Lake City where she can rejoin a dancing troupe. Initially, Chic thought that she might be a prostitute, but he learns that she had broken her ankle and desperately needs enough money to get to Salt Lake City where she can rejoin her dance company. Chick tries to behave like a carefree bachelor, but he is obviously attracted to Ruth. He buys her a ticket on the next train to Salt Lake City and gives her enough loot to buy a new dress. Chic doesn't realize, however, but The Baron has been shadowing him. The Baron saw Chic break out a fresh batch of bills, and the wrapper flutters to the floor where the Baron recognizes it from his stash of cash. Eventually, we learn through the character of Federal Agent Kendall (David Matthau of "Horse Feathers") that the money that Chic and Ruth have been flashing is counterfeit. Kendall arrests them, and Chic cuts a bargain with him to turn loose Ruth because she has not been a part of this crime. Chic leads Kendall's partner to where he cached the cash, but The Baron follows them and shoots the Federal agent with Chic. Chic and The Baron chase each other through the railway yard. At one point, these two are running around actual trains. Eventually, Chic catches up with The Baron, and Kendall arrests The Baron, while setting the other characters free.Fast-paced and funny, "Union Depot" is a glimpse into the past about transportation. Nobody in the first-rate class gives a bad performance. Clocking in at 67 minutes, "Union Depot" ranks as an above-average thriller with sympathetic characters and a dastardly villain.

"Union Depot" is an interesting and absorbing melodrama loaded with vignettes and subplots. There is something for everyone in this train station but the plot focuses on Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Blondell, she a struggling actress and he a hobo in disguise. But besides their budding romance there is more going on than meets the eye; the FBI has staked out the station for a counterfeiter arriving on a train; an unbalanced psycho has followed Blondell, hoping to grab her/ attack her/ kill her, or all of the above. And so on.There is a lot of activity and camera movement which keeps the picture moving and a screenplay which I felt captures the unsavory nature - or, perhaps, the human nature of a train depot, warts and all. Lowlifes blend in with the uppercrust just as would be the case in a real train station, and with some pre-code elements thrown in which couldn't be done a few years later. There are several recognizable character actors adding to the production, among them Guy Kibbee (hobo), David Landau (FBI), Alan Hale (crook) and Frank McHugh (amiable drunk).TCM showed this one the other day. If you missed it and old movies are your cup of tea, catch it the next time it's listed, because it's a cut above the norm.

UNION DEPOT is a must see for all fans of Pre-Code Hollywood movies! Its chief attractions are fluid camera movement, a fast moving plot involving hardboiled Warner Bros-type characters from the lower rungs of society, as well as plenty of sexual situations, humor, suspense and action. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER*** One may notice that after Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Alan Hale engage in a train yard fight - jumping off boxcars, crawling through gravel, rolling around over oily tracks, getting kicked and punched - they emerge inside the station a moment later looking perfectly intact! Not even a smear of grime on their cheeks or a disheveled lock of hair or a rip in the fabric of their garments! ***END OF POSSIBLE SPOILER***One can, of course, suspend disbelief like mad because the movie is so splendidly entertaining and colorfully cast. Joan Blondell has never been more charming or attractive, playing a "decent" girl who by economic necessity must mix with indecent people. And the ending is harsh and rather sad. What a refreshing piece of work!

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.