Les rebelles du Missouri

Entertaining "A" Western

Here's another of the Paramount Shaky A westerns from the 1950s, when B westerns were no longer profitable, but true A westerns were very chancy. So they got Technicolor, another 20 minutes of screen time to tell a story, some actors who could also get hied for non-western work.

This one might be called "The life and death of Jesse James", since the Great Missouri Raid makes up a small bit of it as we watch the whole gang of ex-Quatrill Raiders from the end of the Civil to the death of Jesse, as portrayed by MacDonald Carey. It's not their fault they were villains; no one gave them a chance, particularly nasty old Ward Bond, who pursued them like they had pled the Fifth before HUAC. The writing by Frank Gruber is good, if fanciful; the direction by Gordon Douglas is plebian. Ray Rennahan's camerawork is excellent. That's hardly surprising, since he had been a leading expert on it since the 1920s. The net result is good, although I've seen the story so many times in so many versions that I'm bored by it. When are they making another one about Billy the Kid?

Passable Western with a good cast , dealing with the most colorful bandit who ever lived . This is the usual tale of hard-bitten gunslingers assembling a detail of misfit rebels to hold-off rampaging law pursuers and a mean Union Army Major . Spectacular as well as exciting Western talks the lives of Jesse and Frank James . This is a slight and intelligent biopic about Jesse James who ranks with Billy the Kid as the most famous of Western outlaws . Legend and folklore have cast him as a Robin Hood , a good boy forced by circumstances to follow a criminal life . The picture provides a good portrait of Jesse and his band , as they move from Civil War to there territory becoming into semi-legends . As showing his home life in Missouri , his experiences with Quantrill's raiders and his career of banditry . As Jesse (MacDonald Carey) and Frank (Wendell Corey) along with cousins Cole (Bruce Bennett) , Bob and Jim Younger (Bill Williams) and Jim return from War to find their mommy (Anne Revere) , her husband (Edgar Buchanan) and family threatened by Union soldiers and railway chiefs . As Maj. Marshal Trowbridge (War Bond) created a detective agency , being hired by the powerful bankers to hunt down Jesse and Frank . So James Brothers commence to robbin' banks and trains to help out the poor folks who been done wrong . In the course of their crimes , they will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West . Along the way , Jesse courts attractive young (Ellen Drew) . As their fame grows , so will the legend of their leader , a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James . At the end , he is betrayed by the Ford brothers , Charlie and Bob (Whit Bissell) .

This is a sprawling and glamorous Western with nice performances from MacDonald MCarey and Wendell Corey . The film gets spectacular shoot em'up , thrills and exciting horse pursuits . A glimmer Western with a wild bunch look-alike that ends up into a fateful final . Packs colorful scenarios , moving pace and slick edition . This is a decent look about the known story of the West's greatest bandit , Jesse James , along with Frank , Cole Younger and brothers with acceptable performances and compelling direction creating some good action scenes . The picture shows nice as well as spectacular frames , as when both Jesse and Frank are relentlessly chased . Taut excitement throughout , and beautifully photographed by Ray Rennahan . Thrilling as well as atmospheric musical score by Paul Sawtell . The motion picture was professionally directed by Gordon Douglas . He's an expert on adventures genre , such as ¨Black arrow¨ , ¨Fortunes of Captain Blood¨ and Western , as he proved in the films starred by Clint Walker such as ¨Fort Dobbs¨, ¨Yellowstone Kelly¨ , ¨Gold of seven Saints¨ , Gregory Peck as ¨Only the valiant¨ , Richard Boone as ¨Rio Conchos¨ considered the best , ¨Chuka¨, and ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ , among others .

This story has been adapted several times , the main rendition was : ¨Jesse James¨ by Henry King with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda ; followed by a sequel : ¨The return of Frank James¨ (1950) by Fritz Lang with Henry Fonda . Other films about this legendary outlaw are : ¨I shot Jesse James¨ by Samuel Fuller with John Ireland as Bob Ford ; ¨Jesse James vs the Dalton (1954)¨ by William Castle with John Ireland . ¨The true story of Jesse James¨ (1957) by Nicholas Ray with Robert Wagner , Jeffrey Hunter , Hope Lange , Agnes Moorehead ; in which footage 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" . And contemporary-style Western such as "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" by Philip Kaufman with Cliff Robertson , Robert Duvall , Luke Askew , ¨Frank and Jesse¨ by Robert Boris with Rob Lowe as Jesse James , Bill Paxton as Frank James and Randy Travis as Younger ; ¨American outlaws¨ by Les Mayfield with Colin Farrell , Gabriel Macht , Terry O'Quinn , Harris Yulin and Ali Larter ; and ¨The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford¨ (2007) by Andrew Dominik with Brad Pitt , Sam Shepard , Mary Louise Parker , Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell.

The picture well produced by Nat Holt was based on actual events , these are the followings : At the war's end in 1865 , Jesse rode in to surrender and was shot and seriously wounded by a Union soldier . Jesse and his brother joined the Confederate guerrillas of Quantrill and learned to kill in ruthless company . It is believed that Jesse took part in his first robbery in 1866 when a dozen men held up the bank in Liberty , Missouri . A bank cashier was killed in the raid and a reward was offered for each of the James brothers . In 1873 Jesse and his band derailed and robbed a train on the Rock Island line . Jesse married his cousin Zerelda , who bore him two children . Pinkerton detectives were contracted to chase Jesse and Frank , the agents surrounded the home , believing they to be there , tossed a bomb and the explosion killed Jesse's young half-brother . This outrage brought much sympathy for the brothers . On 1876 Jesse and Frank in company the three Younger Brothers , attempted a bank robbery at Northfield , Minnnesota , and walked in disaster . The alerted citizens opened fire on the raiders , of the eight bandits involved , three were killed and three Younger brothers were captured .

I nearly forgot this Gordon Douglas' feature, made in the early fifties, the most prestigious for this director, and looked like a Warner Bros production but was actually a Nat Holt's for Paramount release. Anyway this is a terrific little western, with Ward Bond as the heavy. All characters are in their places, their roles, the cast flawless. This western is fast paced, tremendous, with a beautiful color support. There are several Gordon Douglas's films that I still have to review, because I have all of them in my library. At least in this western, James and Younger brothers don't meet Billy The Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hicokck or the Frankenstein' creature.....As in so many westerns craps which I prefer not to mention here. Read my previous comments.

Macdonald Carey and Wendell Corey play the roles of Jesse and Frank James in Paramount's The Great Missouri Raid. The James brothers story has never ceased to fascinate people and any number of Hollywood legends have taken a crack at one brother or the other.

Ray Rennahan who is the Mercedes Benz of color cinematographers lends his talents to a nicely photographed western, this is one of the best things about The Great Missouri Raid.

Part of the screen time here is shared with Ward Bond, first as a Union Cavalry Major and then as the head of a private detective agency Bond is obsessed with bringing in the James brothers after his brother James Millican is killed raiding the James farm. That was the way it was in Missouri, the James brothers rode with Quantrill who were border raiders, not regular troops. Bond sees no reason to extend any clemency to these two especially after Millican is killed.

Ellen Drew and Lois Chartrand are the women Jesse and Frank woo and wed and Anne Revere just before her blacklist hiatus days registers strongly as their mother who lost an arm in a rather ill conceived move by the authorities to get the James boys.

No new ground broken her, still western fans will enjoy this retelling of the Saga of the James Brothers.