*Spoiler/plot- I shot Jessie James, 1949. After a bank robbery goes bad, Jesse James and a wounded Bob Ford hide out and quit for 6 months. Ford is thrilled to learn that his love, Cynthy Waters, is in town acting on stage with a traveling company. She's happy to see him but both realize that with a price on his head. They are unlikely to ever marry so their happiness is in doubt. When the Governor announces an amnesty for any criminal that brings in Jesse James, dead or alive; Ford decides to act and shoots his best friend in the back. He receives a pardon from the Governor but finds that he's become something of a pariah. Ford is being labeled both a traitor and a coward by the public. He goes off to make his fortune in mining but finds that there is nothing he can do to get Cynthy love him again with this curse of his actions.
*Special Stars- John Ireland, Preston Foster, Barbara Britton. DIR: Sam Fuller.
*Theme- Bad people should not be canonized as heroes.
*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W. Directorial debut of Samuel Fuller. The character played by Robin Short, identified in the cast merely as "Troubadour," is obviously based on the real-life traveling musician Billy Gashade, who shortly after Jesse James' death wrote the "Ballad of Jesse James" sung by Short in the film. It's also used as a recurring theme by composer Albert Glasser.
*Emotion- I enjoyed this film for it's realism and honesty. Director Samuel Fuller said that he wanted to make this picture because, unlike many filmmakers in Hollywood, he did not see the real Jesse James as a "folk hero" or someone to be admired. Fuller saw him as a cold-blooded psychopath who shot down women, children, the elderly, the helpless (his gang once stopped a Union hospital train and executed every wounded federal soldier on it) In Fuller's words, Bob Ford "did something that should have been done quite a bit earlier in the life of Jesse Woodson James".
*Based On- A new more honest view of Jesse James.
*Special Stars- John Ireland, Preston Foster, Barbara Britton. DIR: Sam Fuller.
*Theme- Bad people should not be canonized as heroes.
*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W. Directorial debut of Samuel Fuller. The character played by Robin Short, identified in the cast merely as "Troubadour," is obviously based on the real-life traveling musician Billy Gashade, who shortly after Jesse James' death wrote the "Ballad of Jesse James" sung by Short in the film. It's also used as a recurring theme by composer Albert Glasser.
*Emotion- I enjoyed this film for it's realism and honesty. Director Samuel Fuller said that he wanted to make this picture because, unlike many filmmakers in Hollywood, he did not see the real Jesse James as a "folk hero" or someone to be admired. Fuller saw him as a cold-blooded psychopath who shot down women, children, the elderly, the helpless (his gang once stopped a Union hospital train and executed every wounded federal soldier on it) In Fuller's words, Bob Ford "did something that should have been done quite a bit earlier in the life of Jesse Woodson James".
*Based On- A new more honest view of Jesse James.