Biopic loosely based on the last 18 years of Jesse James' life and focused on the relationship between brothers Jesse and Frank James.Biopic loosely based on the last 18 years of Jesse James' life and focused on the relationship between brothers Jesse and Frank James.Biopic loosely based on the last 18 years of Jesse James' life and focused on the relationship between brothers Jesse and Frank James.
- Cole Younger
- (as Alan Hale)
- Sheriff Trump
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFootage 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.
- GoofsModern buildings are visible in the background during the Northfield, Minnesota robbery.
- Quotes
Mrs. Samuel: Jesse... They drove my son to it. The Yankees drove him to it. He's a good boy. You're his wife, Zee, you know how kind he is.
Zee James: Try and sleep, Mother Samuel.
Mrs. Samuel: You know, once, he brought home a bird that had fallen from its nest. His father was alive then, and little Jesse wouldn't be comforted until Reverend James gave the little bird a funeral service. Jesse always was a gentle boy.
- Alternate versionsAll UK versions are cut by 9 secs to remove stock footage of the same fatal cliff-top jump that resulted in the death of a horse in the 1939 Jesse James (1939).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Big Sky: Huckleberry (2021)
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.
- vitaleralphlouis
- Sep 21, 2007
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,585,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1