Le grand Bill

Gary Cooper, along with very few others in Hollywood (at the time this movie was made, 1945) had the ability of so many facial and physical nuances of comic dimensions as Coop did. Being old enough to have seen this movie on it's original release (and I did) you might say, this was an early satire of what characters of the old west were really like. The cast was very well selected for the time, and very well performed. Also, the fact that Coop himself produced, and as America was definitely needing a belly laugh, I felt this to be an excellent vehicle for all involved and a welcome film of comedic entertainment. Concerning the poorly made studio riding sequences, how else to get the point across on a limited budget. Thanks for listening.

Poor Melody Jones, a simple soul, a good cowboy who has never really developed skill with firearms, gets himself mistaken for notorious western badman Monty Jarrad. Same general build, same initials and both are known to hang around with a cantankerous old timer. A recipe for trouble?

For Melody yes, but for the viewer it's a recipe for one of the best comic westerns ever made. Gary Cooper who produced as well as starred in this film, seems to be having a grand old time spoofing all the western heroes that people like he have played for years.

Quite a few stock western types are here. Loretta Young is the killer's girlfriend, a Calamity Jane type who's pretty accurate with a rifle fortunately. William Demarest is the cantankerous old timer sidekick, he could have had a great career portraying those had he stuck to westerns. And Dan Duryea is just fine as the real Monty Jarrad who's coming back to his hometown to get the loot he's stashed there.

Cooper as Melody gets in one fix after another at almost a dizzying pace. His final showdown with Dan Duryea must have influenced John Ford when he made The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Though this is a comedy and Ford's film was deadly serious, the showdown between Cooper and Duryea is quite serious.

I'm also sure that Mel Brooks was influenced by Along Came Jones when he created his classic Blazing Saddles.

Thank you to director Stuart Heisler and writer Nunnally Johnson for creating a fabulously funny film.

A good premise runs out of ideas and becomes a talkfest, even getting a little mean spirited near the end. Cooper is good as Melody Jones, an amiable but inept cowpoke mistaken for a surly killer named Monte Jarrad played suitably well by one of the greatest movie villains of all-time, Dan Duryea. The first 20 minutes of the story has real promise but this is one of those movies which somehow didn't get developed beyond its first draft. Some good dialogue and a great cast get kind of squandered as the muddled plot thickens. Would have succeeded better with less talk and characters and more gags and action. A miss but worthy of a look. Not Cooper's worst by any means.

Loretta Young makes a rare foray into western territory with her role in Along Came Jones. This is a charming independent production from Gary Cooper's company. Mr. Cooper, of course, is calling all the shots here—especially when poking fun at the cowboy persona he has previously established in other pictures. Meanwhile, Dan Duryea is on hand as the villain (what else), which makes us take some of this a bit more seriously.

The casting of the two leads, and Duryea-- plus William Demarest as Coop's exasperated sidekick-- make this a little film worth checking out. It succeeds, where other films fail, because the filmmakers keep it simple. They get by with so little, but it does so much in the way of entertaining the ordinary western fan.

It's hard to see Gary Cooper as a singing cowboy, but that's exactly what he is in this film. He plays a cowboy who is mistaken for a bandit (played by Dan Duryea). Cooper is accompanied by his sidekick (William Demarest).

Pretty soon, almost everyone is after them, including the bandit. Loretta Young saves Cooper's hide more than once in this mildly funny and rather slow-moving film.

Loretta Young gives a strong performance as a woman torn between the bandit and the cowboy. Cooper is not really believable as the amiable but clutzy cowpoke.

The plot for this movie is better than average, and I enjoyed the laughs. The worst thing about it is the amount of time spent on horseback. Most of these scenes were obviously filmed indoors and technically were quite funny.

The movie is worth watching for its script and Loretta Young.