The Age of Commercialism

Excellent film with a gripping story!

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

No stranger to comedy Westerns, Bob Hope's film with Roy Rogers in the early Fifties ("Son of Paleface") is better regarded than this one, but "Alias Jesse James" has it's share of laughs and offers a terrific punch at the finale. Hope's character is a hapless insurance salesman who's latest client is the notorious outlaw, who figures on cashing in by having his alter-ego Martin Farnsworth (Hope) replace him in a pine box.In hindsight I guess one could question the choice of Wendell Corey to portray Jesse James, since he doesn't have any significant Western movie or TV screen credits. By contrast, Jim Davis starred as Matt Clark, Railroad Detective in the early Western TV series "Stories of the Century", and also appeared in a passel of movie Westerns. Corey did portray Frank James in 1951's "The Great Missouri Raid", so maybe flip-flopping their roles here might have made more sense, but Corey did a pretty good job anyway.As saloon gal and Jesse's fiancé Cora Lee Collins, Rhonda Fleming seemed to get prettier throughout the picture, but falling for Hope's Farnsworth character seemed a bit of a stretch for me. But let's face it, it would have meant a one way ticket out of the Dirty Dog saloon, so I guess you can't blame her.Say, did you catch the bit with Milford Farnsworth's horse pushing him along to his showdown with Snake Brice? Back in 1952's "Son of Paleface", Bob Hope was upstaged by Roy Rogers' horse Trigger in a bedroom scene that was just hilarious. You read that right, but I won't give it away here, you'll just have to look it up yourself.Getting back to my earlier tease - the final shoot out with Farnsworth and Jesse's gang was a veritable trip down memory lane for long time Western fans. Making cameos in order of appearance were Wyatt Earp (Hugh O'Brian), Major Seth Adams (Ward Bond), Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), Roy Rogers, Davy Crockett (Fess Parker), Annie Oakley (Gail Davis), Gary Cooper, and Tonto (Jay Silverheels). Each one shot a bad guy, only to be upstaged by the Bingster who told the viewer Hope could use all the help he could get. Actually, I think he got it.

I first saw this move in 1959 as an 11-year-old, and thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. When Hope jumps into the back of the buckboard and falls through and can't climb out so he's forced to run to keep up with the horses, his legs were a blur, and I remember laughing so hard my ribs ached.I'm well past 11 today, and I see things differently. The scene in question evoked not so much as a chuckle from me when I saw it recently, though it was fun to reconnect with such a vivid memory from my childhood. (It was the same sense of deja vu I got watching Gene Autry and the Phantom Empire).Even by the low movie standards of Bob Hope, this is lesser Hope. He doesn't act in this movie, he monologues. It's one one-liner after another. And, really becomes quite tedious after awhile.The premise .. not that anyone cares .. Hope plays an insurance agent who sells a policy to Jesse James (played by Wendell Corey, who was terrible). James is a somewhat high-risk customer, so Hope is sent out by his company to protect their investment by protecting James, which puts him at risk from all sorts of people and goings-on, including Jesse James himself. The idea is Hope's character gets into one hopeless situation after another, and comes through without a scratch, oblivious even to what's going on, then offers some awful one-line commentary on what just happened. Repeat for 90 minutes. Boring.There's a ton of cameos at the end of the picture from many of your favorite western stars: Hugh O'Brien, Ward Bond, James Arness, Gary Cooper, Gail Davis, Fess Parker, Roy Rogers, and many others. All these characters appear without explanation to side Hope's character in the climactic gunfight.My favorite was Jay Silverheels as Tonto, who plonks one of the James Gang with an arrow in the back, and in the denouement of the picture, this same guy, arrow sticking from his back, gets up and walks meekly off to jail. If you're beginning to feel this was a live action Looney-Tune, you're getting the picture of what this picture was about.Rhonda Fleming was slumming and stuck in this disaster with Hope, but she never looked lovelier. Lord, but that was a beautiful woman! In addition to the cameos mentioned earlier, this movie featured some of my favorite minor-league players: Jim Davis as Frank James, craggy-faced Will Wright as Hope's boss, and the exotic-looking Gloria Talbot as an Indian princess.I loved it in spite of myself. 6 out of 10.

The Bob Hope movies I liked best were the ones that were a mixture of mirth and murder (CAT AND THE CANARY, THE GHOST BREAKERS), where he played the cowardly hero who gets the girl in the final reel. His westerns were fun too, films like THE PALEFACE or SON OF PALEFACE. It's good to report that ALIAS JESSE JAMES fits the standard for his western spoofs, all done up in fancy Technicolor and given a good cast.The comic set-up has him selling a life insurance policy to Jesse James (WENDELL COREY) and then told by his bosses that he must go out west and get the policy back at all costs--even if it means his own life, since the policy is worth $100,000. BOB HOPE, of course, takes the assignment and gets mixed up with the James brothers (brother Frank James is played by JIM DAVIS). Not only is he surrounded by a gun-toting gang but he falls in love with Jesse's girl (RHONDA FLEMING), who is fed up with Jesse and ready for a new beau.The laughs are steady as Hope fumbles his way through one laughable but impossibly silly situation after another, ready with the one-liners and getting the most out of a zany script. A chase toward the end is full of sight gags that work and the final shootout shows him shooting at the town villains while others do the actual killing shots--including GARY COOPER, JAMES ARNESS, WARD BOND, ROY ROGERS, GAIL DAVIS and, no surprise, BING CROSBY.It's a lightweight romp for Hope and Fleming, with WENDELL COREY surprisingly good as Jesse James and MARY YOUNG doing a nice job as his gun-toting ma.Briskly directed by Norman Z. McLeod, it's simple minded fun played in broad farcical style by a pleasant cast and one of Hope's better films during the '50s.

I don't know much about Bob Hope except that he was a famous comedian in a time when the majority of TV shows and movies were westerns. Although "Alias Jesse James" was produced 15 years before Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles , it is still an equally enjoyable western-comedy.Mel Brooks plays Milford Farnsworth, an insurance salesman from New York whose career is failing. Farnsworth unknowingly sells a life-insurance policy to Jesse James (Wendell Corey) at a bar. When his employer finds out that Jesse James is a policy holder in the company, he sends Farnsworth to the west to try and get Jesse James to cancel his policy and if he won't, he wants Farnsworth to protect his life. There is an ironic scene on a train where Jesse James robs Farnsworth of his own premium return. Farnsworth is then left to protect Jesse James at all costs.Farnsworth meets Cora Lee Collins (Rhonda Fleming), Jesse James love interest and mistakingly falls in love with her. Throughout the rest of the movie Farnsworth fears for his own life while protecting the life of Jesse James. The best scene in the movie is the shootout at the end, where Farnsworth never hits anyone but thinks that he does because there are citizens hiding in doorways and windows, doing Farnsworth's job for him.If you are in the mood for a clean comedy with an enjoyable plot, this is the movie for you. It is a nice break from the comedies today that rely on sexual jokes and pure stupidity. I saw it on AMC but I definitely plan on buying it and adding it to my library.