User reviews

OK-to-dull. Really doesn't add anything to the Jesse James story. Yes, I know it was released in 1957 but I doubt anyone in 1957 felt more informed about Jesse James by seeing this movie. Pretty much a paint-by-numbers docu-drama.

Also feels like some details are left out. Ending seems abrupt - pacing is a bit off.

Good action sequences, so goodish purely as a western.

Robert Wagner is miscast as Jesse James. Far too straight-laced for the role. Hope Lange gives a fairly wooden performance. Supporting cast aren't too bad though.

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.

This is a slight and plain biopic about Jesse James who ranks with Billy the Kid as the most famous of Western outlaws . Legend and folklore have cast him as a Robin Hood , a good boy forced by circumstances to follow a criminal life . The picture provides a simple portrait of Jesse and his band , as they move from Civil War to there territory becoming into semi-legends . As showing his home life in Missouri, his experiences with Quantrill's raiders and his career of banditry . As Jesse (Robert Wagner) and Frank (Jeffrey Hunter) joined the Confederate guerrillas of Quantrill and learned to kill in ruthless company . Jesse and Frank along with cousins Cole (Alan Hale Jr) , Bob and Jim Younger (Biff Elliot) return from War to find mommy (Agnes Moorehead) and family threatened by Northern people . As detective Barney Remington (Alan Baxter) was hired by the railroad company to hunt down Jesse and Frank . So James Brothers commence to robbin' banks and trains to help out the poor folks who been done wrong . In the course of their revenge , they will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West . Along the way , Jesse courts attractive young , filly Zee (Hope Lange) . As their fame grows, so will the legend of their leader, a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James.

This is a sprawling and glamorous Western with acceptable performances from Rober Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. The film gets spectacular shoot em'up , thrills , exciting horse pursuits ; it's entertaining , although nothing new but displays an ordinary pace and with no originality . A glimmer Western with a wild bunch look-alike that ends up into a fateful final . Packs colorful scenarios, moving pace and slick edition by means of flashbacks .Footage from the original 1939 production was used when Frank and Jesse go over a cliff on horseback into a river and when they crashed, on horseback, through a store window during the "Northfield Minnesota Raid." Features various passable acting by a popular group of today's known stars . This is a decent look about the known story of the West's greatest bandit , Jesse James , along with Frank , Cole Younger and brothers with acceptable performances and professional direction by Nicholas Ray who creates some good action scenes . As originally conceived by Walter Newman and Nicholas Ray, the film had a non-linear plot with flashbacks, but studio boss Buddy Adler couldn't understand it and forced Ray to recut it with the scenes in chronological order ; Bernstein said the recut rendered the film "pointless." Taut excitement throughout , beautifully photographed by Joseph MacDonald and with spectacular bloodletting but realized with some flaws . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Leigh Harline . The motion picture was well realized by Nicholas Ray who displays enough off-beat touches to keep .

Other films about this legendary outlaw are : The classic version (1939) titled ¨Jesse James(1939)¨ with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda, ¨The return of Frank james(1950) by Fritz Lang with Henry Fonda ; ¨I shot Jesse James¨ by Samuel Fuller with John Ireland as Bob Ford ; and ¨Jesse James vs the Dalton(1954)¨ by William Castle with John Ireland . And contemporary-style Western such as ¨Frank and Jesse¨ by Robert Boris with Rob Lowe as Jesse James , Bill Paxton as Frank James and Randy Travis as Younger ; ¨American outlaws¨ by Les Mayfield with Colin Farrell , Gabriel Macht , Terry O'Quinn , Harris Yulin and Ali Larter ; and ¨The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford¨ (2007) by Andrew Dominik with Brad Pitt , Sam Shepard , Mary Louise Parker , Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell.

The picture was based on actual events , these are the following : At the war's end in 1865 , Jesse rode in to surrender and was shot and seriously wounded by a Union soldier . It is believed that Jesse took part in his first robbery in 1866 when a dozen men held up the bank in Liberty , Missouri . A bank cashier was killed in the raid and a reward was offered for each of the James brothers . In 1873 Jesse and his band derailed and robbed a train on the Rock Island line . Jesse married his cousin Zerelda , who bore him two children . Pinkerton detectives were contracted to chase Jesse and Frank , the agents surrounded the home , believing they to be there , tossed a bomb and the explosion killed Jesse's young half-brother . This outrage brought much sympathy for the brothers . On 1876 Jesse and Frank in company the three Younger Brothers , attempted a bank robbery at Northfield , Minnnesota , and walked in disaster . The alerted citizens opened fire on the raiders , of the eight bandits involved , three were killed and three Younger brothers were captured . On 3 April 1882 Bob Ford , a new member of the gang , treacherously shot Jesse dead in back of the head in his home at St Joseph , Missouri .

As an actor, Robert Wagner has shown remarkable staying power, especially when one considers that his success in the cinema was effected almost entirely through his dark, boyish good looks…

In "The True Story of Jesse James", Robert Wagner (Jesse) is proud of his name… His name means something, especially when those Yankee bankers hear it, they start shaking… Jesse James was the shooting spokesman for everyone whose life was quietly desperate… To ones, he was a thief… To others he was already becoming a legend, one that kindles a fire in their hearts…

Jesse has planned the very last robbery perfectly to make enough money to retire on… But in spite that he never struck a bank in Northfield, the Minnesota banks were anxiously waiting for him… So something went wrong…

Mrs. Samuel (Agnes Moorehead) recalls the past… The Yankees came riding down on her farm, and her neighbors dragged her out of the kitchen… Her elder son Frank (Jeffrey Hunter) was fighting for the South… The State of Missouri has taken sides with the North… Any man from this state who joins the South was considered a traitor…

For Zee (Hope Lange), Jesse had a dream for the future… But that night, his neighbors, who were Northern sympathizers, broke his reverie…

All begins when the war has sapped the two brothers and their friends bone-dry… Every bank in the state of Missouri was owned by a Yankee man who hates their hide and wants them to get out… Those banks have got a lot of Northern money rolling in… Jesse wanted one or two robberies to get enough money to leave for his mother, for his sweetheart, for protecting the farm… But then he becomes addicted to the exciting life of robbing banks and trains…

The film—well paced by director Nicholas Ray—was beautifully acted by all its stars

The True Story of Jesse James was the third Western directed by Nicholas Ray after fabulous Johnny Guitar and rather average Run for Cover. At the time director took the project he was at the peak of his prestige mainly due to an enormous success of the film he made prior to The True Story, which is Rebel Without a Cause. He was one of the highest paid directors in Hollywood at the time and the most beloved one by James Dean. Also he was one of the few directors who managed to get a certain independence from the Studio's control, an independence that was proven in making of Bigger Than Life, when his opinion won over the one by film's main star and producer James Mason.

But with the True Story of Jesse James, those glorious days where over. It was the first Nick Ray's film where his artistic freedom was completely taken away by the producer and the studio, the first film where he didn't have the final word in making of it, and also the most hated one by the director himself, who later referenced to it in `F**g awful' terms, as being the film completely different from the one he was intending to do when took the project.

One of the main points he mentioned later was the construction of the story in ill-achieved and ridiculous flashbacks, instead of which Ray wanted to move the story back and front several times without any explanation to the viewer, avoiding using the cliché flashback sequences with the narration by Jesse's mother and Zee, which were used in final version of the film, regardless of his opinion re-edited by the order of then Fox producer Buddy Adler, who found it difficult to understand the development of the story while seeing it in the director's cut. Also with The True Story that Ray obtained the reputation of the rebel, of a difficult person to work with and realized that his artistic freedom was quite limited.

In the film we follow the true-life story of legendary James brothers, Jesse and Frank, played by Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter, which starts with the ill-fated bank robbery that goes wrong and while the brothers are on the run from the authorities, the story moves back and tells as the 18 years of their lives prior to that, the circumstances which lead them to become the most famous outlaws in the history of the West, their successes and final separation which resulted in tragic end for Jesse and helped in moulding of Jesse James' figure as a legend of the West, the beginning of which is shown in the film's marvellous ending with the blind man singing the Jesse James song predicting so the future immortality destined to the hero.

The True Story of Jesse James continues with the chain of rebel personalities so characteristic of the Nicholas Ray films with Robert Wagner as Jesse James following James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and John Derek in Run For Cover where the role of the characters' past in forming of their without a cause future is quite obvious.

Ultimately it's one of those numerous films in Hollywood history, which probably could have been great, provided the director was given the opportunity to make it the way he wanted. 7/10

Every re-telling of the Jesse James story has been flawed. This picture has neither the carelessly cobbled script of "The Long Riders" nor the Robert Duvall version's annoying quirkiness and skewed morality. However, it is a highly selective narrative omitting much of the suffering caused by the Jameses and with several outright distortions of the historical record. For example, when he was shot by Robert Ford, Jesse James was in the process of assembling a new gang, not about to retire to the life of a farmer as depicted here.

Robert Wagner is appropriately youthful in the title role. As brother Frank, the impossibly handsome Jeffrey Hunter has little to do but acts well. Agnes Moorehead plays Mrs. Samuel, the matriarch, as too saintly for my taste. But portraying a media-savvy Cole Younger, Alan Hale leads a particularly able supporting cast including, as an honorable Union soldier, the father of contemporary star Kurt Russell.

The narrative is anchored to the disastrous expedition to Northfield, Minnesota. One nice touch, copied in a later retelling, was the inclusion of a Swedish-speaking actor to play one of the two town residents killed by the gang.

20th Century-Fox and screenwriter Nunnaly Johnson's belated follow-up to their high-spirited and excellent 1939 smash hit JESSE JAMES has returned on DVD to annoy and bore another generation.

The 1957 True Story of Jesse James isn't such a bad movie, but it's inferior in every way to the 1939 movie as well as the 1940 sequel Return of Frank James. Also, the "true story" is no more historically factual than the revisionist history original. Just do a Google search and see what I mean.

Robert Wagoner and Jeffery Hunter were the pretty boys of 1957 but can't hold a candle to the excellent portrayals of Frank and Jesse by Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda. Screenwriter Nunnally Johnson wrote both, but was obviously more fired-up with inspiration in 1939, as that film had nary a dull 5 seconds. It was brilliantly staffed with one rich characterization after another, good guys as well as bad. Even the Technicolor was better in the original. They used 3-strip Technicolor and those cameras which were 1/2 the size of a Pontiac --- to produce a brilliantly rich color still unmatched in 2007.

The 1939 Jesse James was the obvious inspiration for 1972's great hit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The 1957 version inspired only a Z-session.

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

While there is the legend and the truth about Jesse James and his gang, this film, in which the title strongly implies a truthful account, perpetuates the legend of a man who was of the people and who robbed banks that grew rich at their suffering. Is there truth to the legend, then? Google it and find out. The film itself is a solid piece of work from director Nicholas Ray, who, another poster has written, disowned it since the studio forced him to follow a familiar and hokey flashback style. However, even that works out OK, as the film starts with James's biggest failure, the notorious Northfield Minnesota bank robbery fiasco, which it revisits later on to show how the gang was trapped and picked off by strategically placed sharpshooters. The acting is not that great, a factor that seems to be related to the script, but the story itself moves along and has many good scenes from the flashbacks, especially when Jame's neighbor whips him with his belt, and when preacher John Carradine baptizes Jesse and girlfriend Hope Lange on the banks of a river. The film includes some interesting "facts" (?) about the Northfield raid, one of which, the Swedish townsperson wanting to buy one of the gang's horses, made it into Walter Hill's The Long Riders. And the Ford brothers' betrayal is very well done and seemed to have been copied in the Brad Pitt film. Frank Gorshin was an excellent choice to play one of the Ford's. The portrayal of the Fords of hanging around in the background, but present nonetheless, adds a lot for the viewer who knows this story already. As Jesse, Robert Wagner wasn't great, but definitely up to the task. Jesse James is a legend, no matter what the real truth is about him.

Fox's "The True Story Of Jesse James" (1957) is a remarkably poor widescreen remake of their prestigious 1939 Tyrone Power/Henry Fonda classic "Jesse James". I'm not sure where the fault lies but the casting in this version of the two central characters, the uneven direction of Nicholas Ray and the ham-fisted screenplay must surely have something to do with it.

In the late thirties and forties Tyrone Power was Fox's top leading man but in the fifties his star began to wane and studio head Darryl Zanuck started to groom newcomer Robert Wagner to take his place. This was a major error on Zanuck's part as Wagner proved to be a less than a suitable replacement. With the possible exceptions of "Broken Lance" (1954) and "Between Heaven & Hell" (1956) it is hard to think of Wagner distinguishing himself in anything! Also, Jeffrey Hunter was nothing more than a Fox contract player before being assigned to play Frank James to Wagner's Jesse in "The True Story Of Jesse James". Borrowed from the studio the previous year this actor's one distinguishing mark was his excellent and revealing performance in John Ford's classic "The Searchers". But his playing here, along with Wagner as the second half of the James Brothers, is nothing short of boring. Neither player bring any personality or colour to their respective roles. They totally miss the mark, lacking the charisma and appeal so vividly displayed by Power and Fonda in the original. The movie is also marred by too many flashbacks and with the all over the place screenplay Wagner, as the Robin Hood of the American west, comes across as a charmless introverted twit that you can feel no empathy for whatsoever. The supporting cast are hardly worth mentioning but it is a shame to see such a great actress as Agnes Moorhead barely getting a look in as Ma James.

The best aspects of this uninvolving so-so western is the wonderful Cinemascope/Colour cinematography by the great Joe McDonald and the excellent music score by the underrated and little known composer Leigh Harline!

The intent of this film remains a mystery to me. Was it to portray the notorious outlaw Jesse James as sympathetic, forced into his position as a bank robber due to the atrocities of the Civil War? Or was it to show how an honest man could eventually turn into a cold-blooded killer through motivations of greed and power?

Whatever the message is, it does not help that much of the film itself remains murky and mostly uninteresting. Robert Wagner has to be one of the least believable choices to play Jesse James, going more for the brooding, internally conflicted character rather than the passionate rebel. Jeffrey Hunter is adequate as brother Frank but mostly inoculate and the rest of the cast adds nothing to keep the audience interested.

Hard to believe this was directed by Nicholas Ray, a director known for his quirky traits and idiosyncratic cinematic style. None of that appears here. This is a rather forgettable film that only adds to the myth of Jesse James and his band rather than attempting at all to understand him.

About the only thing I can say about The True Story Of Jesse James is that it's invested with a little less star glamor than the 1939 version with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as the James Brothers. Here Jesse and Frank are played by Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter with a bit more of a realistic style rather than it being substantially true.

Otherwise a lot of the same ground covered in flashbacks rather than a straight narrative is used. In fact Nunnally Johnson who wrote the 1939 screenplay for 20th Century Fox is given a screen credit here. The same theme is used here, Jesse might have turned outlaw for good and sufficient reason, but was getting a real taste for it by the time the Ford Brothers did him in.

There is a harbinger of the Oscar nominated performance that Casey Affleck gave a few years ago in the most recent Jesse James film in Carl Thayler's brief appearance as Bob Ford. Thayler hints at what Affleck spent a whole film doing, showing that Ford was a mixed up kid who thought he would gain public approval shooting down a notorious outlaw. However a sadly neglected Jesse James film was done in the Nineties by Rob Lowe as Jesse.

For better or worse many consider Jesse James as the last Confederate out there when he died in 1881. He certainly was a hero to many of the defeated Confederates doing what he did to the banks and railroads who were controlling a lot of the agrarian south and west.

Not true, but The True Story Of Jesse James is a passable retelling of the events that made him the legend he became.

After the American Civil War, two brothers (Jesse and Frank James) try to be peaceful farmers, but end up becoming famous bandits - along with Cole Younger's gang. Their nationally famous robberies make their heads a prize and peace will never be possible in their lives again.

A retelling through flashbacks remembered by Jesse James' wife and mother, of how he began his life of crime, as well as the entire family that had a certain purchasing power (among slave farms). They sympathized with the Democratic Party (which at the time in 1860, was Unionist conservative segregationists). After his brother's death, Frank James surrendered, was tried, acquitted and lived 30 years as a "common piece". Great film, excellent production, aged very well, lovely...

They must have misnamed the title. The movie is an ok watch, but to call it the "real" story is a disservice to hmmm IDK, truth!

It is a movie that paints him and his deeds in the best light possible and either willfully or in ignorance mistells the end of his journey/life. (For an accuratish account of his end, watch the Brad Pitt version).

As for this one? It is a decent film. But that is all. Watch it if you like old westerns like me and haven't seen it, or are a Jesse James "fan". Otherwise it's one of those that won't mean much one way or another on its own. The acting is decent throughout and that is a plus.

Although the ending of this Nicholas Ray movie is very similar to Andrew Dominik's much, much finer version, (or should that be vice-versa?), there is no comparison between the two films. This is mostly a dull affair with very little of the psychological insights into troubled personalities that have distinguished Ray's best films; all the more mystifying considering the complexity of the central character.

Perhaps it was the weak casting. Robert Wagner is pretty as in pretty vacant and is totally out of his depth. (Contrast his performance with that of another 'pretty boy', Brad Pitt, in the most recent version). As his brother Frank, Jeffrey Hunter has little to do but growl on the sidelines while Hope Lange is hardly even a pretty presence as Jesse's wife. Ray also misses the opportunity to use the widescreen for dramatic effect so the movie is handsome without engaging us in any way. No one's finest hour.

That word 'True' in this film's title got my alarm bells ringing. They rang louder when a title card referred to America's Civil War as the 'War Between the States' (the circumlocution preferred by die-hard southerners). Jesse James -- thief, slave-holder and murderer -- is described as a quiet, gentle farm boy.

How dishonest is this movie? There is NO mention of slavery, far less of the documented fact that Jesse James's poor widdered mother owned slaves before the war, and that Jesse and his brother Frank actively fought to preserve slavery. According to this movie, all those Civil War soldiers were really fighting to decide whether Missouri is a northern state or a southern state ... that's ALL. (Missouri: It's a candy mint! It's a breath mint!) Black people are entirely absent from this movie, except for two glimpses of a pair of beggars, one of whom wears a "HELP THE POOR" sign that's very implausibly typeset instead of handwritten. (Some shots of 19th-century newspapers are inaccurate too, with 20th-century type fonts.)

This film has a weird flashback structure. There's some very impressive stunt riding (and some fine work by stunt horses), and one excellent montage. I savoured one line of dialogue: 'Some of those boys will never taste beans again.' The movie gets a few facts straight: Agnes Moorehead, as Jesse's mother, conceals her right arm in the scenes following the raid by the agents of Pinkerton (here called 'Remington') in which Jesse James's real-life mother suffered injuries requiring the amputation of her lower arm. Some errors here are pardonable: during his bushwhacking days, the real Jesse James accidentally shot off part of his left middle finger, but Robert Wagner (in the title role here) does not have a stumpfinger. I've seen a photo of Jesse James's real wife; if she had looked half as glamorous as Hope Lange looks in this movie, Jesse James might have stayed home more.

There's plenty of revisionism here, and most of the male actors wear 1950s hairstyles. But many of this movie's errors were avoidable. Jesse James's mentor William Quantrill is mentioned several times, but all the actors mispronounce his name. We see Jesse and his wife moving into an elaborate two-storey house (where he will soon die) after paying a rent of $18. Actually, Jesse James's last residence (at 1318 Lafayette Street, St Joseph, Missouri) was a simple one-storey cottage, renting for $14. There was no upper storey ... so, when Jesse James is killed, his wife could not come running from upstairs as Hope Lange does here. (She was actually in the kitchen.)

One continuity error: Robert Wagner (with no stunt double) does an impressive job of taking a slug to the jaw and falling over while his hands are tied behind his back ... but when he gets up, the rope binding his wrists has vanished.

The screenplay does some weird and unnecessary juggling of dates. Following the Northfield robbery attempt, Jesse says he expects to get home by his birthday. The actual Northfield bank raid by the James Gang (7 September, 1876) was two days AFTER Jesse James's birthday. (Maybe he meant next year's birthday.) Later, we see Jesse and his wife moving into their St Joseph home on a fine summer day, while Jesse tells her what he plans to do when Christmas Eve arrives ... but in real life, Mr and Mrs Jesse James moved into that house on 24 December, 1881 ... so this scene should *BE* on Christmas Eve! These errors were entirely avoidable.

Some of the fictionalisations here don't make sense. According to this movie, the Northfield bank raid failed because one (fictional) henchman was late in cutting the telegraph wires. If this had actually happened, it would indeed have hampered the James Gang's getaway ... but it wouldn't have affected the robbery itself, which failed for other reasons.

There are good performances here by Jeffrey Hunter (as Frank James), Moorehead, Alan Hale Jnr (as Cole Younger) and by stage actress Marian Seldes in a rare screen role. I was disappointed by Robert Wagner, normally an under-rated actor. Elsewhere, Wagner has proved his impressive range by convincingly portraying heroes, villains and morally ambiguous characters. Here, he can't seem to decide whether to depict Jesse James as a goodie or a baddie ... so he doesn't much bother. John Carradine phones in his performance in a brief role as a fictional jackleg preacher who baptises Jesse and his wife at their wedding. In fact, Jesse James was baptised in childhood by his uncle, a Methodist minister ... but perhaps this second baptism is a topping-up.

Jesse James was no Robin Hood. (I doubt that Robin Hood was Robin Hood either, but that's another story.) There is not one single documented instance of Jesse James ever sharing his loot with anyone beyond his own family. After some of his hold-ups, he didn't even split the swag with the rest of his gang. In this movie, Jesse gets gunned down right after he vows to give up his bandit ways forever. In reality, the night before his death, Jesse James and the Ford brothers stole horses that Jesse planned to use the next day in a robbery of the Platte City bank. As preparation for most of his robberies, Jesse James stole horses from local farmers ... the same poor folk who (in the inaccurate legends) were supposedly the beneficiaries of his largesse. I cringed at one scene here, in which the fictional Jesse James is so gol-durn refined that he disapproves of an oil painting which tastefully depicts nudes.

'The True (not much!) Story of Jesse James' is wilfully dishonest about a thieving murderer, and likewise dishonest about the Civil War. For the very impressive stunt work, one good montage and a few fine acting turns, I'll rate this obscenely dishonest movie 2 points out of 10.

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 ****

Although TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES provides some interesting angles into the legendary figure of Jesse James, I doubt very much that truth is this film's central concern.

That said, Wagner is an unexpected choice as JJ. He has never been a great actor, but he fares OK in this role, not as convincing, or as likeable, as Jeffrey Hunter as Frank James.

The rest of the cast is not as memorable as the long coats worn by the James and Younger brothers during their attack on Northfield. Photography largely pedestrian, but the scene where the James brothers jump off a cliff on horseback is one that stays with you.

Direction is as uneven as the script, which uses a completely needless flashback to trot out a predictable narrative. As for psychological credibility - well, none that I could honestly detect, apart from an eagerness to clear JJ of all blame, and of any murderous tendencies.

Not recommended, unless you are a diehard Western fan. 5/10.

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.