True Story of Jesse James, The (1957)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Handsomely produced remake of Fox's 1939 film JESSE JAMES tries to tell the reasons why Jesse and his brother Frank were such bad men. The film starts off just after the Civil War as Jesse (Robert Wagner) and Frank (Jeffrey Hunter) have their farms burned due to them fighting for the South. The proud Southerners need money to start over so they decide to form a gang and begin robbing banks. Many people take exception to this film because of the title as well as a prologue that tells us this film is as close to the truth as you can get. Needless to say, there are several liberties taken with the "true" story but I personally never go into a movie expecting a history lesson so I don't mind things being changed around. Overall I thought this was a pretty good version of the James Gang even if it doesn't hold a candle to the 1939 film or its sequel. It's interesting to note that John Carradine, who played Bob Ford in the Fox movie and its sequel, plays a preacher here. Another interesting move was casting Wagner and Hunter as the James brothers. If you read enough reviews you'll see that opinions are split on both of them but I personally thought they were quite good. They're not going to make you forget Tyrone Power or Henry Fonda but I thought both men brought their own personalities to the roles. Wagner seems to be doing a James Dean-ish type performance but it was never overly dramatic. Hunter is probably the best thing in the movie as I really enjoyed his father-like qualities as he tries to keep Jesse on somewhat of a good track. Hope Lange has a few embarrassing moments as Jesse's wife including one really bad line delivery when James is returning home from the war injured. Agnes Moorehead does a good job as the boy's mother and we even get Alan Hale, Jr. playing Cole Younger. Carradine is pretty laughable in his few minutes on the screen, although they're so memorable that you might want to consider them the highlight of the film. One happens when he shows up at the mother's deathbed and is asked to pray for her boys, which he refuses because his "prayers are for the mother". The mother then upsets him so much that he starts ranting about how evil the boys are and it's rather funny especially when he's suppose to be calming the mother. Another funny scene has Carradine baptizing Jesse and his wife and his Biblical speech is pretty amusing. There are quite a few things working against the film that keeps it from being a complete winner and one is the screenplay, which never seems to know what type of story it wants to tell. At one point it wants to make you like the boys but then it wants to remind you that they were cold-blooded killers. At one point it tries to be a Western but then it throws in some psychological stuff that ends up not going anywhere. The screenplay could have used some work but Ray at least makes a visually interesting film.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Handsomely produced remake of Fox's 1939 film JESSE JAMES tries to tell the reasons why Jesse and his brother Frank were such bad men. The film starts off just after the Civil War as Jesse (Robert Wagner) and Frank (Jeffrey Hunter) have their farms burned due to them fighting for the South. The proud Southerners need money to start over so they decide to form a gang and begin robbing banks. Many people take exception to this film because of the title as well as a prologue that tells us this film is as close to the truth as you can get. Needless to say, there are several liberties taken with the "true" story but I personally never go into a movie expecting a history lesson so I don't mind things being changed around. Overall I thought this was a pretty good version of the James Gang even if it doesn't hold a candle to the 1939 film or its sequel. It's interesting to note that John Carradine, who played Bob Ford in the Fox movie and its sequel, plays a preacher here. Another interesting move was casting Wagner and Hunter as the James brothers. If you read enough reviews you'll see that opinions are split on both of them but I personally thought they were quite good. They're not going to make you forget Tyrone Power or Henry Fonda but I thought both men brought their own personalities to the roles. Wagner seems to be doing a James Dean-ish type performance but it was never overly dramatic. Hunter is probably the best thing in the movie as I really enjoyed his father-like qualities as he tries to keep Jesse on somewhat of a good track. Hope Lange has a few embarrassing moments as Jesse's wife including one really bad line delivery when James is returning home from the war injured. Agnes Moorehead does a good job as the boy's mother and we even get Alan Hale, Jr. playing Cole Younger. Carradine is pretty laughable in his few minutes on the screen, although they're so memorable that you might want to consider them the highlight of the film. One happens when he shows up at the mother's deathbed and is asked to pray for her boys, which he refuses because his "prayers are for the mother". The mother then upsets him so much that he starts ranting about how evil the boys are and it's rather funny especially when he's suppose to be calming the mother. Another funny scene has Carradine baptizing Jesse and his wife and his Biblical speech is pretty amusing. There are quite a few things working against the film that keeps it from being a complete winner and one is the screenplay, which never seems to know what type of story it wants to tell. At one point it wants to make you like the boys but then it wants to remind you that they were cold-blooded killers. At one point it tries to be a Western but then it throws in some psychological stuff that ends up not going anywhere. The screenplay could have used some work but Ray at least makes a visually interesting film.