Alias Jesse James (1959)

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

If the "Paleface" films made me laugh, this film made me smile. But smiling also is pleasant and so is this film with the incredible story of a an insurance agent who sells a policy to Jesse James. Jesse made his beneficiary the lovely Cora Lee (Rhonda Fleming) and he plans to murder the agent (Hope) and make people believe Hope is Jesse James, so the real Jesse can stay with the insurance money. Wendell Corey who played Jesse in "The Great Missouri Raid" (1951) is Jesse again and Jim Davis is Frank. Norman Z. McLeod , is the director, he also directed "The Paleface"(1948). I kept wondering when Bing Crosby was going to show up, and the best thing about this film are the cameos, unfortunately Gene Autry and James Garner (Maverick) had their scenes deleted. But we can't complain , there are Gary Cooper, Bing, James Arness, Hugh O' Brian, Gail Davies (Annie Oakley), Roy Rogers, Trigger, Ward Bond, Iron Eyes Cody, Jay Silverheels (Tonto), Scatman Crothers, Fess Parker and others... isn' that plenty?

I think the kids might enjoy this more than adults. The situations are amusing -- imagine Bob Hope as Jesse James' bodyguard in Missouri -- but they're kind of slow, a little drawn out, funny in a sitcom way. The punch lines are followed by rather long silences while the audience is supposed to be laughing. The kids might be laughing but the grown-ups, I suspect, are no more than smiling. I'm not a curmudgeon either. I laughed along with my twelve-year-old at some of Hope's earlier Western comedies, like "Fancy Pants." The usual wisecracks are muted. Slightly off kilter. And I didn't notice any playing with the fourth wall, usually a refreshing surprise. Hope is funny enough as his usual quivering coward, but I miss the fast pacing of his 1940s comedies and the easy exchange of barbs between him and Bing Crosby in the Road movies.Maybe I AM an old curmudgeon.

Funny film as Bob Hope portrays insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth. As Wendell Corey, who portrays James asks, "What's a Milford Farnsworth?"As far as I'm concerned, Mary Young as Ma James steals this picture as the soft spoken mother of the outlaw who only wants her Jesse to eat a good breakfast before he goes out to steal. With her sing-song voice, Ma comes across as a kindly old lady only to resort to the shotgun when Rhonda Fleming jumps ship in her wedding dress and flees with Hope.The plot is hilarious. The inept Farnsworth sells James an insurance policy and James in turn plans to have Hope dressed like him, and killed so that he can enjoy the $100,000 that the policy is worth. What's even funnier is that dance hall queen Cora Lee, Fleming, falls for Hope.The picture provides good laughs and was appropriate for the 1950s light comedies with Hope.

Bob Hope is an incompetent life insurance salesman who finally sells a policy - to Jesse James! Understandably, his boss wants Mr. Hope to return the $100,000 to the outlaw; if necessary, Hope is ordered to die on the job. Hope, calling himself an "eligible bachelor", wishes that he had Jessie's girl - the pretty Rhonda Fleming, who sings. Wendell Corey plays the straight man Jesse James. Hope loses his shirt in a card game. "Alias Jesse James" is a one-joke comedy with a cute ending - it features a slew of western star cameos; they help Hope and Fleming in a shootout. Bing Crosby says, "This fella needs all the help he can get." **** Alias Jesse James (3/20/59) Norman Z. McLeod ~ Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey