Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

fredcdobbs5 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.

bkoganbing If Jesse James had not been shot by Bob Ford according to Jesse James' Women some enraged husband might have done the deed. This film is an account of a fictional hiatus that Jesse James and his gang have in the state of Mississippi. Jesse is using his middle name of Woodson and traveling incognito as it were.The rest of the gang including brother Frank played here by Jack Beutel just want Jesse either go home to Missouri or start doing what outlaws do. But Jesse who is presented here as a love 'em and leave 'em Lothario is just having too much fun.Actually in real life the one thing you can say about Jesse James was that he was a good husband and father to his family. Star Don Barry who also produced this film created his Jesse James totally out of whole cloth. This one is total fiction.But what fiction when you have women like Peggie Castle, Lita Baron, and Judith Barrett fighting over you. Castle and Baron having a gunfight like they do in Dodge City is a great old hoot.Don Barry and Bob Steele had similar career paths. Both were short guys who were both B picture heroes and villains and both played good roles in mainstream films as well. With the right breaks they could have had careers like James Cagney.Jesse James' Women could use some restoration, but it's a fun film.

Gary R. Peterson What a fun film this turned out to be! I stumbled on it hidden away on Platinum's Great American Western DVD Volume 36. JESSE JAMES' WOMEN was Dan "Red" Barry's magnum opus, the one film that he wrote, produced, directed and starred in.I'll admit up front that I'm weak on the real story of Jesse James and the Youngers, so can't say how much of this is fact or fiction. One point of history does come up when someone asks about the train robbery in "Adair, Ioway." This hold-up on July 21, 1873 was indeed the first train robbery west of the Mississippi River and there's a monument to it along Highway 6 just southwest of Adair (about 50 miles west of Des Moines).Barry's is the white-washed Jesse James of legend; in fact I was reminded of the BRADY BUNCH episode where Bobby idolizes Jesse and learns the hard way that he is not the stuff of heroes. Barry's Jesse knows that and anticipates that sitcom's message here when he meets the young girl Angel, who's hero is Jesse James. Little does she know she has befriended him in his incognito guise of Jay Woodsen (Woodson being Jesse's real life middle name). But despite his telling Angel to find another hero, Red Barry's Jesse James is one you could almost idolize in good conscience. He's a lovable rogue who charms multiple beautiful women and who like Robin Hood shares his spoils with those oppressed by the town plutocrat Banker Clark, who berates the hapless sheriff and who is too stingy to give the church he attends a loan for needed repairs. James' beneficence will allow the Sheriff to live his dream of retiring on a ranch and on his way out of town he even stops by the church to give the poor parson a bag of money.The film seems to end with the James Gang riding off to new exploits, but there's suddenly splashed on the screen an 1882 newspaper front-page announcing that Jesse James was shot in the back by Bob Ford. Then we see Angel and her siblings heading into church (I guess she took her hero's advice to seek the parson's counsel on establishing a new hero). I wondered if this ending was tacked on to get the film approved. After all, the James Gang did get away with an awful lot of loot here with no comeuppance, which could leave impressionable young moviegoers with the notion that crime does pay (and that being a baddie is a babe magnet).Red Barry had a big ego, was difficult to work with and thus he saw his star fall in the fifties to where he was doing low-budget films. JESSE JAMES' WOMEN was a low budget picture, but I think it holds its own against the bigger budget pictures of its time, like the Warner Bros. westerns Randolph Scott was churning out in the mid-fifties. Yes, most of the cast were unknowns and in clicking on their names I see that for many this film was their only acting credit. It was disappointing, because I would have liked to have seen more work from Betty Brueck (Cattle Kate Kennedy), Al Hillman (Sheriff Botts) and especially Jimmy Hammons (Champ O'Toole) who really brought an infectious enthusiasm to his role.Another film that came to mind watching JESSE JAMES' WOMEN was TERROR IN A Texas TOWN, which is known for featuring an unorthodox gunfight. Barry's film was the first time I've ever seen two women square off for a gunfight, and it was very well done (even if ultimately anticlimactic). Waco Gans and Cattle Kate had already treated the audience to a rousing catfight earlier in the picture.What a fun movie and one well worth the five or six bucks these Platinum Great American Western packages cost. The color is bright, the picture crisp; the only detractions being the occasional missing frames and minor print damage. Dan Barry's JESSE JAMES' WOMEN is clearly a labor of love and dare I say more fun to watch than my hero John Wayne's similar labor THE ALAMO? A few closing thoughts as a P.S.: (1) It was interesting to see the dawn of photography and how James rightly saw it as a potential threat to outlaws like himself. (2) James' eventual killer Bob Ford is featured here as the disgruntled Judas of the gang. I wondered if he eventually teamed up with Delta, whose face after Jesse gave her a swift kick in the rear implied she was going to seek vengeance; and finally, (3) I suspect the naming of the bumbling but lovable Sheriff Clem Botts was inspired by the similarly bumbling but lovable Alexander Botts, the tractor salesman of many a fun Saturday Evening Post story.

bux 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.