The True Story of Jesse James (1957)

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22/03/1957 (US)•Western•1h 32m

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The real story… really told for the first time!

Overview

Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launch an attack on his mother's house, Jesse plans one more great raid -- on a Minnesota bank.

Top Billed Cast

Robert Wagner
Jesse James
Jeffrey Hunter
Frank James
Hope Lange
Zee James
Agnes Moorehead
Mrs. Samuel
Alan Hale Jr.
Cole Younger
Alan Baxter
Barney Remington
John Carradine
Rev. Jethro Bailey
Rachel Stephens
Anne James
Barney Phillips
Dr. Samuel

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Reviews 1

A review by Charles Tatum

6.0

Written by Charles Tatum on Sep 27, 2023

Director Nicholas Ray, hot off of "Johnny Guitar" and "Rebel Without a Cause," had a bit of contractual obligation to take care of before leaving for Europe, and handed in this short biopic of the infamous American outlaw. Mostly told through overly long flashbacks, all the major points of Frank and Jesse James' lives are touched on. Robert Wagner plays Jesse, and Jeffrey Hunter is well cast as older brother Frank. After being driven to crime by the treatment of Confederate soldiers and sympathizers after the Civil War -according to Walter Newman's script, based on the Nunnally Johnson screenp...