Alias Jesse James (1959) Reviews

• Funny film with dated cameos.

  bkoganbing2004-05-27

  Bob Hope plays his usual dimwitted cluck who in this film happens to be an insurance salesman. Only Hope, one step from being given the boot and desperate to sell a policy, would sell one to Jesse James. Jesse being the smart guy he is decides this has potentiality. He can fake his own death and lay low for a while with a nice nest egg. Bank robbery, train robbery, his usual line of work does have some risk attached to it. Now guess who the schnook he figures he'll bump off to be the dead Jesse James? Why its Hope come west to protect Jesse until the home office figures a way to cancel the policy. I saw this in the movies way back when I was 12 years old and it first came out. As such I appreciated fully the significance of the cameo appearances of all those TV western stars. TV westerns were at their height at that time so anyone who saw this knew for instance that Ward Bond was Major Seth Adams of Wagon Train. Today, I wager, that viewers will recognize Bond as Bert the Cop from It's A Wonderful Life unless Wagon Train is being run on Hallmark at the time. Similarly Gail Davis as Annie Oakley or Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp (a show I wish some cable channel would pick up). Nice gag, but dated now. Nevertheless its a very funny picture with the lovely Rhonda Fleming as Jesse's girl and beneficiary until she falls for Hope. So many smart women keep falling for Hope the schnook in his films. Wendell Corey is a crafty Jesse James with Jim (Dallas) Davis as brother Frank. And of course the obligatory appearance by Bing Crosby.

• Great sight gags!

  johnericketts2002-12-03

  This movie was tied up for years due to royalty rights since 11 cowboy stars of the late '50s appear in cameos helping Bob Hope in the final shootout. Note that Gene Autry and James Garner do not appear in the current product, though they were in the original. Then there is an owl-eyed kid named Harry Truman playing the piano. Bob clubs a gila monster ("The mice sure grow big around here"), then realizes he used a rattlesnake. I've shown this tape to many people, and all agree it's the best Bob Hope movie and one of the funniest movies they've ever seen.

• Paleface 3? Not quite, but a very enjoyable Hope picture it be.

  Spikeopath2008-07-27

  Bumbling buffoon insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells notorious outlaw Jesse James a $100,000 policy. When his boss finds out who the customer is, he dispatches Farnsworth after James in the hope of buying back the policy, he also gives strict orders that Farnsworth must ensure that James comes to no harm. Bob Hope sells Jesse James an insurance policy! that alone should prepare you for what type of picture this is. There is nothing out of the ordinary here that we haven't seen before in most other Hope vehicles, and as a huge fan of The Paleface and the even better Son Of Paleface, I would point readers to those pictures by way of them being far better. However, "Alias" has some fine moments that keep it way above average, in fact for visual gags alone this picture scores higher than most of Hope's better known comedies. Be it a steaming alcohol fuelled hat or a magic mushroomed fed horse, there is still much fun to be had as Hope plays out his winning formula. Along for the ride is the supremely sexy Rhonda Fleming as Jesse James' gal, Cora Lee Collins, and as James himself we get Wendell Corey looking as though he is enjoying himself. The final reel of this film is now something of legend as we get to play spot the genre star during a protracted shoot out, stars such as Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers & Gail Davis join Bing Crosby to close the picture on a mightily high point. 6.5/10

• Amusing Hope comedy as another cowardly hero out west...

  Doylenf2008-01-25

  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.

• hope you like bob...

  meatpuppet2001-06-07

  If you don't like bob hope, you might want to pass on this one. It is funny, but it's not as quick as the "Road" movies. Hope plays a life insurance salesman in the old west, who sells a huge policy to Jesse James! Bob is then sent to protect his policy holder and his job. In order to keep jesse safe, Hope risks life and limb by acting and dressing as the real gunslinger would. In his "alias" will Bob steal the trainrobber's girl to boot? Western fans might want to watch the Paleface, or Son of Paleface, before judging Hope on this one though. Basically the same movie made three times. "Alias" does have some cameo appearances from early television and movies i think western fans will find fun. Worth a watch.