Product Details

• Actors: Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Hope Lange, Agnes Moorehead, Alan Hale Jr.
• Directors: Nicholas Ray
• Writers: Nunnally Johnson, Walter Newman
• Producers: Herbert B. Swope Jr.
• Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: March 6, 2007
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000G6BLEW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,924 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The True Story of Jesse James" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very compelling, March 20, 2007

By 

R. Gale (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The True Story of Jesse James (DVD)

Although this version of the Jesse James story is more factual than most, it's at the expense of entertainment. Robert Wagner simply does not have the charisma that the character needs for us to believe that so many men, older than he was, were willing to follow him. Nor are any of the characters particularly well drawn, which doesn't give the actors much to do. The story is told in flashback form, starting with Northfield, but this does not seem to be to the film's advantage. The first 10 or more minutes are spent with the Northfield posse trying to track and find the gang, and because there are no characters to be invested in, it's rather dull. Later, when the flashbacks catch up to the present, we see some of the same material again. Interestingly, the screenplay credit says it's based on Nunnally Johnson's screenplay for the 1939 version with Tyrone Power. That version took a lot of liberties with the history, but is far more entertaining.

Technically, the DVD looks fine. It's a clean print, nice transfer with decent color. A trailer and a newsreel clip comprise the extras.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars True Story of Jesse James, February 24, 2008

By 

Benny Crow (Nacogdoches Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The True Story of Jesse James (DVD)

In the movie "The true Story of Jesse James, the plot is certainly following the traditions of Jesse and Frank being Robin Hoods, when in effect they may have just been Hoods Robbin for Frank and Jesse and no one else. Still it is a good movie for the time and tells much of the story about the ill fated attempt to rob the bank at Northfield Minnesota. They should have never gone into that area in the first place as it took them totally out of their land of sympathizers and into the jowls of Northern veterans and citizens, Be that as it may, I have for years tried to find out who the blind balladeer who sings at the last. The choreagraphy of that final scene with the balladeer and his aid is very story telling and a fitting end to this episode. I wish i could find this song by him in its entirety. You cannot take anything from this movie but good thoughts about all the direction and acting that went ito it. Definitely a classic and worth the money.

4.0 out of 5 stars Another look at the James legend, May 31, 2011

By 

Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The True Story of Jesse James (DVD)

There's more than a passing resemblance between this version of the life of America's most famous outlaw and that given almost 20 years earlier in Tyrone Power's Jesse James; in fact this screenplay is said to be "from [one] by Nunnally Johnson," who was responsible for the Power incarnation. Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter, who had teamed two years earlier for White Feather, join forces again to play Jesse and Frank, who as in most retellings of the story are more sinned against than sinning, though certainly not without stain. Walter Newman's script mends some of the earlier version's omissions (the Jameses' service with Quantrill is included, as is the existence of their stepfather, Dr. Samuel (Barney Phillips), the death of Jesse's half-brother Archie in a Pinkerton raid on the James/Samuel farmhouse late in the gang's career and the loss of their mother's (Agnes Moorehead) arm (not her life) therein, and the important role of Zerelda Sims (Hope Lange), Jesse's cousin and later wife, in restoring his health after he was seriously wounded in the latest days of the war), and also includes a lively recreation of the great Northfield, Minn., bank robbery which did indeed result in the capture of the Younger brothers and the virtual destruction of the original gang (although it's placed in 1878, not 1876 as was really the case). But it also perpetuates some of the first movie's errors, most notably by giving the impression that Jesse's death followed closely on the Northfield raid (it was really almost six years later) and that he was planning to give up outlawry at the time, as well as by locating his marriage at an earlier date than was the case. Wagner, too, is a bit pretty for the role, though he does manage to make his Jesse sympathetic--almost more so than Power did. Alan Hale, Jr., has a small but important and nicely done part as Cole Younger.