Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launch an attack on his mother's house, Jesse plans one more great raid -- on a Minnesota bank.
Direction
Ray's subversive touches undermining the heroic myth.
Cinematography
Technicolor landscapes that romanticize even the violence.
Acting
Robert Wagner's pretty-boy Jesse: rebellion as pose.
Director
Nicholas Ray
Robert Wagner
Jesse James
Jeffrey Hunter
Frank James
Hope Lange
Zee James
Agnes Moorehead
Mrs. Samuel
Alan Hale Jr.
Cole Younger
Alan Baxter
Barney Remington
John Carradine
Rev. Jethro Bailey
Rachel Stephens
Anne James
Barney Phillips
Dr. Samuel
Biff Elliot
Jim Younger
Frank Overton
Maj. Rufus Cobb
Barry Atwater
Attorney Walker
Marian Seldes
Rowena Cobb
Chubby Johnson
Arkew
Frank Gorshin
Charley Ford
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
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