This is yet another wildly inaccurate Jesse James picture--and certainly not the first one featuring Roy Rogers. In fact, I just saw "Days of Jesse James" starring Rogers yesterday. Now call me a glutton for punishment, but I was just hoping that this film would at least try to be accurate---like Rogers' "Billy the Kid Returns". But, once again, it's just another poor film trying to capitalize on the myth of Jesse James. Because it's pure myth, in this film James is good. Sure, in real life he murdered several people and stole money from innocent folks--but here, he's like Robin Hood--and a Robin Hood that almost never kills anyone and, like a typical Rogers films, mostly shoots people in their shooting hand! Rogers plays Clint Burns and Jesse using the old 'identical strangers' cliché. Oddly, Burns is a bad man--a lookalike who evil bankers and speculators (it's ALWAYS evil bankers and speculators) have hired to commit crimes while posing as Jesse. That way, the nice Jesse will get blamed and the common folk will stop supporting him. But, eventually, Burns overplays his hand and is killed by Jesse in self-defense (his only killing in the film--again, it's SELF-DEFENSE!). Now Jesse pretends to be Burns and works to expose the schemers for who they really are.
Along for the ride are Gabby Hayes (a Rogers regular supporting actor) and he plays the sheriff (again, a pretty common role for this grizzled old buzzard) as well as a nosy reporter lady (a common cliché, though very, very few existed in the mid-late 19th century) and her friend.
Overall, a historical nightmare for history teachers like me, as almost nothing about this film approaches who James really was. On top of that, the story just abounds with clichés and feels like yet another sub-par Rogers film. He did do better films than this--a lot better. With better music and MUCH better stories.
By the way, this is a VERY unusual film in that Roy does NOT play a particularly good guy and he also does not use this name for his character. A strange moral compass in this film, that's for sure.
Along for the ride are Gabby Hayes (a Rogers regular supporting actor) and he plays the sheriff (again, a pretty common role for this grizzled old buzzard) as well as a nosy reporter lady (a common cliché, though very, very few existed in the mid-late 19th century) and her friend.
Overall, a historical nightmare for history teachers like me, as almost nothing about this film approaches who James really was. On top of that, the story just abounds with clichés and feels like yet another sub-par Rogers film. He did do better films than this--a lot better. With better music and MUCH better stories.
By the way, this is a VERY unusual film in that Roy does NOT play a particularly good guy and he also does not use this name for his character. A strange moral compass in this film, that's for sure.