Roughly, the story of Jesse James' career as a post-war bandit or, more accurately, the story of Frank James, as the less impulsive older brother, because Wendell Corey has more screen time than MacDonald Carey.
I use the term "roughly" because some of what we see is historical fact. Jesse's mother, the chiseled Ann Revere, does have her arm amputated because of an attack on the house by agents of social control. The Pinkerton Agency is never mentioned. Instead we have an enduring hatred of the James boys by Major Trowbridge, Ward Bond, who will stop at nothing to capture and kill them. Of course the dialog is the offspring of some screenwriter's imagination.
Except for the fact that this is supposed to be about the James gang, and apart from the list of players that includes almost every reliable character on the lot (check out that cast list), this is pretty routine stuff with lots of shooting. You could change the names of the leads, leave the story as is, and you have a 1950s western -- not bad, not memorable.
Director Gorden Douglas has nary a surprise up his sleeve. Compare this with the more fake but far more colorful story of the gang in Henry King's "Jesse James" with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda.
I use the term "roughly" because some of what we see is historical fact. Jesse's mother, the chiseled Ann Revere, does have her arm amputated because of an attack on the house by agents of social control. The Pinkerton Agency is never mentioned. Instead we have an enduring hatred of the James boys by Major Trowbridge, Ward Bond, who will stop at nothing to capture and kill them. Of course the dialog is the offspring of some screenwriter's imagination.
Except for the fact that this is supposed to be about the James gang, and apart from the list of players that includes almost every reliable character on the lot (check out that cast list), this is pretty routine stuff with lots of shooting. You could change the names of the leads, leave the story as is, and you have a 1950s western -- not bad, not memorable.
Director Gorden Douglas has nary a surprise up his sleeve. Compare this with the more fake but far more colorful story of the gang in Henry King's "Jesse James" with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda.