THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES
T. it.: “La vera storia di Jess il bandito”; Scen: Walter Newman e (non accr.) Gavin Lambert, dalla sceneggiatura di Nunnally Johnson per “Jesse James” (1939) di Henry King; F.: Joe MacDonald; M.: Robert Simpson; Scgf.: Lyle Wheeler, Addison Hehr; Cost.: Mary Wills, Charles LeMaire; Mu.: Leigh Harline; Su.: Eugene Grossman, Harry N. Leonard; Consulenza storica: Rosalind Shaffer, Jo Frances James; Int.: Robert Wagner (Jesse James), Jeffrey Hunter (Frank James), Hope Lange (Zerelda “Zee” James), Agnes Moorehead (Mrs Samuel), Alan Hale (Cole Younger), Alan Baxter (Barney Remington), John Carradine (reverendo Jethro Bailey), Rachel Stephens (Anne), Barney Philips (Dr. Samuel), Biff Elliott (Jim Younger), John Doucette (Hillstrom), Robert Adler (sceriffo Trump), Clancy Cooper (sceriffo Joe), Sumner Williams (Bill Stiles), Anthony Ray (Bob Younger), Barry Atwater (avvocato Waler), Chubb Johnson (Askeew), Carl Thayler (Bob Ford), Marian Seldes (Rowena Cobb), Tom Greenway (vice-sceriffo Leo), Mike Steen (vice-sceriffo Ed), Clegg Hoyt (Tucker Basham), Tom Pittman (Hughie), Louis Zito (Clell Miller), Mark Hickmann (Sam Wells), Adam Marschall (Dick Lidell), Joseph Di Reda, Aaron Saxon (Wiley), J. Frederick Albeck, Jason Wingreen, Ray Kellogg, Nick Ray, Frank Gorshin (Charley); Prod.: Herbert B. Swoope Jr. per 20th Century Fox; 35mm. D.: 92’.
Film Notes
Nicholas Ray’s version of the familiar story of the James gang makes stunning use of CinemaScope, especially in the opening scenes of the Northfield raid which led to the break-up of the gang (and which features in all other versions of the story). A virtual remake of the 1939 Henry King film, except that Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter have not the weight of Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda as Jesse and Frank. Once again it is the behaviour of northern carpet-baggers which is seen as largely responsible for southern banditry, though Wagner and Hunter have more the aspect of juvenile delinquents than true outlaws.
Ed Buscombe