Frank and Jesse James, farming brothers and bitter strays in the years following the Civil War, turn to a life of crime. After about 15 minutes of random shooting and killing, this remake of Henry King's 1939 drama "Jesse James" goes into corny flashback mode to fill us in on the reasons behind Jesse and Frank's slide into destruction (with a voice-over from their frail mother on her deathbed!). We get to see Jesse romantically baptized in the river alongside his girlfriend while the church congregation looks on, this just before the James boys call their posse together with plans of robbing their first bank. Screenwriter Walter Newman cribbed a great deal of his work from Nunnally Johnson's earlier script (which is also credited), yet the caveat that these proceedings are based on fact is too tough to swallow. Robert Wagner, his crop of glossy copper hair boyishly tossed to one side, is almost pitilessly miscast as Jesse; never finding the right tone of voice or the proper emotional inspiration for the role, Wagner is the laziest incarnation of a movie outlaw in some time. The rest of the cast--talented Fox contract players--do what they can, but this project is stillborn. *1/2 from ****