The True Story of Jesse James (1957)
Directed by Nicholas Ray

Film Review

With his time at 20th Century Fox almost up director Nicholas Ray was persuaded by the studio to take on a big budget remake of Henry King's classic Jesse James (1939).  Ray was the obvious candidate to direct the film, as its central protagonist was the kind of likeable outsider, a symbol of defiant youth, he closely identified with and who featured in many of his films.  Had be been given a totally free hand Ray's take on the Jesse James legend might have been an extraordinarily daring proposition, even more brazenly idiosyncratic than his earlier western Johnny Guitar (1954), but the executives at Fox thought they knew better and over-ruled almost every left-field thought that entered his cranium.  What Ray had initially conceived as an expressionistic ballad, complete with painted backdrops and obviously fake horses, ended up as a routine western that feels as if the life has been sucked out of it.  Ray's flair for creativity shines through in a few dazzling scenes, but for the most part The True Story of Jesse James is a plodding and routine affair, made without any real commitment or flair.

One of Ray's saner plans for the film was to cast Elvis Presley in the lead role of Jesse James.  Presley had recently proven he could act in his debut feature Love Me Tender (1956) and, more crucially, had star presence by the cartload, but for 20th Century Fox he was just too big a gamble.  Instead, the studio played it safe and gave the role to one of its contract players who was being groomed for stardom, Robert Wagner.  Capable actor as he was, Wagner had nothing like the charisma, authority and heroic presence that the part required.  It is hard to see how his Jesse James could ever have inspired undying loyalty in his followers, let alone became a mythic hero.   Maybe Wagner is being too subtle, playing his character in an ironic vein as if to imply there is nothing to James beyond a trumped up folk legend, but his inability to take centre stage means that he is too easily overshadowed by the stronger personalities in the supporting cast, notably Jeffrey Hunter and Alan Hale Jr.  Without a strong central performance, the film can hardly help appearing insipid and unfocused.  Another poor casting decision was Hope Lange for the role of James' wife Zee.  Lange's performance is so wooden that you could easily mistake her for a ventriloquist's doll.

Perhaps the most interesting idea that Ray had for the film was to probe the psychology of its doomed protagonist rather than merely present as fact the half-truths that made up the famous legend of Jesse James.  Ray's view was that the outlaw had a deathwish and consciously sought his destruction in his later years.  Why else would he put a gun in the hands of his killer (Robert Ford), remind him of the price on his head, and then conveniently turn his back on him?  In one scene (which was actually shot), Ray left his audience in know doubt that Jesse James had deliberately engineered his own death, but, as it had done right down the line, overriding virtually every creative decision the director made, Fox vetoed this suggestion and the crucial scene was cut.  Ron Hansen espoused the same (not implausible) theory in his 1983 book The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was in 2007 made into a film of the same title, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck.

The one advantage that The True Story of Jesse James has over the 1939 film that inspired it is its dramatic use of the recently created CinemaScope process.  The action scenes (most closely modelled on those in the original film) have far greater visual impact, and there is an astounding lyrical beauty to the sequence in which the outlaw is seen in silhouette making his away atop the train he is about to rob.  Regrettably, too much of the film is lazily staged with static set-ups that would be more at home in a piece of staged theatre.  Ray gives the film his best shot but it is clear right from the start that his heart just isn't in it, and who can blame him?  His paymasters at 20th Century Fox insisted that he played it safe and that's what he did, the result being nothing more than a mundane rehash of an earlier film.  When you think what this might have been you have to weep.

Film Synopsis

When a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota goes disastrously wrong, Jesse James and his brother Frank escape across country on horseback, leaving most of their gang behind, either dead or captured.  Hot on their heels is the Remington Detective Agency, which hopes to pocket the $30,000 reward for the arrest of the notorious outlaw.  As they await what fate has in store for them, the James brothers recall the unlikely series of events that led them to become the most famous criminals of their day.  It all began during the American Civil War, when Frank James was pursued by Union soldiers after his home state of Missouri switched allegiance to support the North...