Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Spikeopath The True Story of Jesse James is directed by Nicholas Ray and adapted to screenplay by Walter Newman from a 1939 screenplay written by Nunnally Johnson. It stars Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Hope Lange, Agnes Moorhead and Alan Hale Junior. Out of 20th Century Fox, it's a CinemaScope/De Luxe colour production with music scored by Leigh Harline and cinematography by Joe MacDonald.20th Century Fox choose to remake their own 1939 movie that starred Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as Jesse and Frank respectively, that film itself was historically dubious, this version, with flashbacks a go go, is a dizzying mess structurally as much as it is factually. With Nicholas Ray at the end of his Fox contract, so therefore using this film as his contract filler, the picture lacks the pizazz so evident in some of his earlier movies. Undoubtedly hampered by studio interference, one can only wonder just how good the film could have been under Ray's total command. There is even some footage from the 39 film inserted into this version, yes the film is that lazy at times. It's rather bizarre to see Wagner and Hunter jump through a window on horseback, only for them to morph into Power and Fonda before completing their escape!Picture is dealing in the main points of the James' boys life, how and why they became the notorious crims that they were. However, in an attempt to beef up this new updated remake, we are asked to try and involve ourselves with Jesse by way of a complex narrative structure that is just too complex for its own good. Jesse James in his numerous film incarnations has always had an aura of romanticism about him, which is strange since he was a murdering armed robber! But the audience has always been coerced into caring about what happens to him, fully involved in the story of the man himself. Here, though, nobody is sure what to think once the eventuality comes to pass. Somewhere in the mix he was vengeful and driven, elsewhere he was an egotist who drank in the power of leading men, but in an attempt to make sense of the man and legend, the makers also made it a trifle dull. The blend shot to pieces by those flashbacks and too many cooks spoiling the broth.It's not all a wash out, though. It looks tremendous, beautiful scenery in CinemaScope with the De Luxe colour really soothing the eyes. A few scenes are good value and expertly staged by Ray and his team, with the Northfield raid and a night time train robbery in the glow of the moon particularly standing tall and proud. Cast performances vary, but even though Wagner and Hunter are pale shadows of Power and Fonda, they are not bad at all, and they make for a handsome pair and do come off as brothers. Carradine was in the 39 version as Robert Ford, here he plays a Reverend with his usual grace and smile. Hale Jr is oddly subdued as Cole Younger, Lange looks out of place in a Western setting and Moorehead fans are short changed by her screen time.Disappointing and only carrying curiosity value these days. Best advice is to stick with the 39 version instead. 6/10

Michael_Elliott 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.

zardoz-13 Scenarist Walter Newman adapted Nunnally Johnson's screenplay from the 1939 Henry King western "Jesse James" with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda for his script for "Johnny Guitar" director Nicholas Ray's quasi-remake "The True Story of Jesse James" with Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter as Jesse and Frank James. Ray and Newman cover all the main narrative points that the King film handled, but "The True Story of Jesse James" lacks anything in the way charisma, suspense, or surprises. Wagner plays the legendary folk hero here with little of the luster than most movies about the James' Gang muster. Whereas Power and Fonda were sympathetic outlaws, Wagner and Hunter are far from likable. "The True Story of Jesse James" differs in many respects from "Jesse James." This film lacks the sentimentality of the King epic. Mind you, Twentieth Century Fox encores scenes from the original where Jesse and Frank plunge their horses off a cliff into a river to elude a posse as well as their escape from the botched Northfield robbery by riding through a store. The final scene when Jesse is shot in the back by Bob Ford is virtually identical to the Power version. The problem with this revisionist take of the notorious James gang is that is consists of several flashbacks. Ray and Newman open the western with the disastrous bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, and the James' gang's desperate bid to escape the authorities. While they are holed up in a cave waiting for nightfall to elude the search parties, Frank and Jesse recount their lives, going back as far as when Jesse was beaten up by Union troops in the Civil War. The Younger Brothers emerge as far more likable than the James' brothers, and Cole Younger (a portly, pipe smoking Alan Hale, Jr., of "Gilligan's Island") is as close as any character comes to serving as comic relief. The scene when the gang is eating lunch at the home of a widow woman who needs $600 to pay off her landlord is as close as this movie comes to having comic relief. Cole gives the old woman the sum of twenty dollars rather than the ten cents that she says he owes her. He adds that he is Cole Younger and wants to be remembered well. Jesse hears the part about the old woman needing the $600 and gives her the money to prove that he--Jesse James--does take from the rich and give to the poor. No sooner has the gang left the premises than the landlord shows up and takes the $600 from the widow. Since the gang hasn't left the premises, Jesse holds up the landlord and recovers the six-hundred dollars that he gave the old woman. The fire-eating publisher that Henry Hull played in the original appears but doesn't hog the comic relief. Once again, the title suggests the reason for this remake. Ray and Newman try to imbue the legend with authenticity. Wagner's Jesse is a cold-blooded, callous individual, and Wagner makes his performance a business only effort. Wearing a mustache, he displays nothing that would endear us to him.Ray and Newman don't follow the straight-forward, chronological narrative pattern of "Jesse James." They fracture the story line with the memories that the James boys have and they show the horrible conditions that prompted the protagonists to pursue the owl hoot trail. This time, however, Jesse is far more violent and willing to kill. The irony is that Jesse spends considerable time and detail orchestrating his elaborate plans, only to see them collapse like a flimsy deck of cards because of ill-fated luck and/or incompetence by his underlings. At one point, it appears almost certain that the James brothers are bound to receive amnesty after the Remington Detective Agency blows up their mother's house, depriving his mother, Mrs. Samuel (Agnes Moorehead of "Raintree County'), of an arm and her youngest son Archie of his life. Instead, Jesse guns down the man who helped the detectives; indeed, he pumps four bullets into the unarmed man. Jesse's treatment of his accomplices is pretty callous and he threatens at least one of them, Tucker (Clegg Hoyt of "The Brass Legend"), with death when he botches an important role in the Northfield robbery. Basically, aside from Joe MacDonald's elegant Cinemascope lensing of the action, "The True Story of Jesse James" qualifies as little more than a potboiler. The outlaws do look cool in this white dusters that they all wear when they ride into Northfield. The last scene reflects the feeling of the times. After Bob Ford shoots Jesse in the back and kills him, the neighbors pour into the premises to gawk at the corpse. Frank runs them out, but as some leave, they appropriate souvenirs from the James' possessions. Clearly, this film reflects some of director Nicholas Ray's concerns about youths in the 1950s as it is essentially about a "Rebel with a Cause." The production values are above-average.

dinky-4 Not quite big enough to be an "A" movie, not quite small enough to qualify as a "B" movie, this version of the Jesse James story is too indecisive in its attitude toward its central character to have much impact. The Jesse depicted here is neither good nor bad, and the same thing could be said about the movie itself.It is a very good-looking movie, though it's completely out of touch with the times it's meant to portray. Every set, every costume, every hair-do says "Hollywood 1950s" rather than "Missouri 1870s."Robert Wagner seems too clean-cut to be a frontier outlaw but 20th Century-Fox was trying to push him toward stardom at the time, making use of his "hunk" appeal. He's thus given a few bare-chest scenes. Jeffrey Hunter, another would-be star, fits more easily into the western milieu as Jesse's brother, but his part has clearly been subordinated to keep the attention on the Jesse James character. One wonders how the movie might have been improved had these two actors exchanged roles.Agnes Moorehead and John Carradine lend interest to a better-than-average supporting cast.