Les femmes de Jesse James

This is an undiscovered treasure and deserves to be considered right up there with "Plan 9 from outer Space" as the worst movie ever made. Outside the four or five professional actors this low budget could afford to hire, the cast is filled out with Mississippi amateurs who would embarrass a small town little theater production with their stiff, wooden acting. It is a real hoot.

You will not believe the sets where someone's idea of art direction was to dab spots of paint all over the walls. Along with the most painful acting, this has to also be the worst photographed film where the idea of lighting is to turn on some overhead floods. And the staging could serve as a textbook on how to NOT stage where you can see the "actors" walk to hit their mark and stomp on it like a bug.

The only explanation for the positive reviews above is that these people must be getting a share of the DVD sales. "Jesse James' Women" is to bad films what "Citizen Kane" is to great films.

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. And I have watched Dwain Esper films, and loads of shitteos and exploitation films. But this is boring, dull and yet it really does seen to qualify under the label of 'EXPLOITATION'.

In this film, Jesse James is a slimy creature that tricks women to get his money. Not at all what the legend depicts the famous outlaw as. Not only that, but these women all fall for him, and fight over him, and it's all just demeaning and incredibly sexist.

Furthermore, there is a whole sequence where you can see one after the other be knocked down by his 'charm'. No kidding, I thought all that was missing was the sex scene that would have made this an early porn feature, predating that likes of Deep Throat and Vixen...or even Lonesome Cowboy. (The most notable sequence is a cat fight between two women, which Jesse James ends...hear ye hear ye...by pouring beer over them). Oh yeah! I must admit, towards the end, the accents made me smile. I won't spoil the ending for anyone - which would be a real shame - but I will say that the screaming woman at the end I thought was so funny, trying to convince the sheriff that that man is Jesse James. But in all honesty, this is an awful, awful film that should not be watched by anyone - ever!

Donald Barry stars in, co-wrote, co-produced, directed and probably did the catering, landscaping and janitorial work on this cheesy, badly shot, ineptly written, amateurishly acted and poorly made low-budget-- VERY low-budget--western purporting to be about infamous western outlaw Jesse James. If you're going to make a movie about a real person, it would probably help if you stuck at least a few actual facts in it, and that's what you get in this stinker--few actual facts. Other than showing that Jesse had a brother Frank and that he and fellow outlaw Bob Ford didn't get along, there isn't much about this movie that has any basis in fact. The short and paunchy Barry wrote Jesse as being completely irresistible to women--and makes sure that his henchmen mention that fact every so often--and plays him like a Vegas lounge-lizard in the vein of Wayne Newton (but even smarmier) who has scads of beautiful women just throwing themselves at him. To give Barry credit he did pick some absolutely gorgeous women like Peggie Castle, Lita Baron and Joyce Barrett to fight over him, but whatever efforts they try to make at giving this film some kind of professional touch are ruined by the juvenile and pedestrian script and Barry's completely botched attempt at directing. He smirks his way through the picture and doesn't really have much chemistry with his cast, most of whom are amateurs whose "performances" consist of haltingly reciting their lines and trying to stay on their marks (a few of them even have trouble trying to stay on their horses). The whole project reeks of someone getting a little money together and telling his friends, "Let's make a movie!". Castle and Betty Brueck have a rather long catfight in a saloon, which is actually done fairly well, and there's a sequence with Barry engaged in a boxing match with a traveling prizefighter that is handled tongue-in-cheek and is mildly amusing, but other than those small pluses Barry, Castle (who is far and away the best thing about this picture) and Baron have done far better work, and I wouldn't doubt that at least those two women didn't bring up this picture in any discussion of their careers, as well they shouldn't have.

Don Barry was a heck of an actor; he probably could have been a good director, with a better script and a bigger budget.

As it was, he showed some inventiveness with camera angles in this generally not very good movie.

The title could be rather off-putting, sounding like some kind of exploitation film. As it turned out, the title actually made sense, or at least as much sense as the story could provide.

Peggie Castle was lovely, and actually quite good in a role that could have been ruinous if played differently.

Some of the cast members seemed to have been recruited from bystanders, but ultimately most of them did as well as they could with the script.

Jack Buetel showed he could perform and should be known as more than Jane Russell's leading man in "The Outlaw." Several others did little or nothing other than this film, but one, Mac McAllister, showed enough professionalism and personality I think it's a shame he didn't do more.

In some ways this is a standard Western, but the saloon brawl was definitely non-stereotypical. If you see this film, be sure to pay attention to the sheriff during the fight.

My copy of this film is a DVD in Volume 36 of The Great American Western series from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. It is not a very good quality picture, and, in too many places, the film was broken and spliced resulting in a jumpiness.

Still, all in all, this is a movie for Western fans and Don Barry fans to see at least once.

Added 18 July 2015: There are now some versions available at YouTube.com. Maybe at least one will be better quality.

Famed outlaw Jesse James is on the dodge and holding up in a small town in Mississippi. Before heading back to Missouri, James manages to complicate the lives of several women-mostly in low-cut gowns. This was star Don Barry's only stab at direction, and from the looks of it,all will be glad that he stopped here.**UPDATE**My earlier review of this picture was based on a viewing many years (decades?) prior. I recently obtained a copy of this movie, and I must say, that it is extremely BETTER than I remembered.

Not filmed in Hollywood, this one has a different feel than most of Barry's B Westerns, almost a nostalgic quality...it was to be his last starring role, of course. The acting isn't as bad as I recalled and Barry plays the Jesse role almost tongue-in-cheek. The story moves along at a nice pace and the bare knuckle fight between Barry and a boxing champ is good fun. Yes, the LOW budget shows, but it isn't any worse than some of what Barry did for Lippert a few years earlier. If you love B Westerns, or Don "Red" Barry, I would highly recommend this one.