"IT'S THE WEST AT ITS BEST! WITH ROOTIN'...TOOTIN'...SHOOTIN' COOPER!"
An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.
Gary Cooper
Melody Jones
Loretta Young
Cherry de Longpre
William Demarest
George Fury
Dan Duryea
Monte Jarrad
Frank Sully
Avery de Longpre
Don Costello
Leo Gledhill
Walter Sande
Ira Waggoner
Russell Simpson
Pop de Longpre
Arthur Loft
Sheriff
An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.
Like I told your friend, never turn your back on anything... especially a girl! Along Came Jones is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted to screenplay by Nunnally Johnson from the Alan Le May novel The Useless Cowboy. It stars Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, Dan Duryea and William Demarest. Music is by Arthur Lange and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner. Mild mannered Melody Jones (Cooper) and his friend George Fury (Demarest) wander into the town of Payneville. Because of the saddle on his horse having the initials M J, Jones is mistaken for being wanted outlaw Monte Jarrad (Duryea), something which brings him into conflict with the townsfolk - and Jarrad himself! Monte Jarrad. Tall and skinny, mean tempered and extra fast with a gun - travels with half-wit uncle called Uncle Roscoe something. Cooper for the first time enters the realm of producer and delivers a sly spoof of the Western genre that served him so well. Cooper as Jones is happy to laugh at himself, portraying him as an amiable buffoon. Initially it's not easy to accept such a laconic and mighty presence as being such a character, but Cooper quickly draws you in. Cooper is aided by professional turns from Young, Duryea and Demarest, who in turn get a sprightly script of fun dialogue to work from - which in a film of much chatter is crucial to make it work. Elsewhere, what action scenes are forthcoming are moderately staged and Krasner's black and white photography is gorgeous in print form, but the locales and set designs just sort of sit there waiting to be elevated. The budget restriction in place is annoying, where we should have sweep and out of studio airiness, we instead have cheap tricks and crude back projection, this cast deserves better production value. Plotting is also thin and formulaic, the screenplay and Heisler's direction playing safe and not doing justice to the satirical beats trying to be heard. It's fun and charming enough to be worth time spent on viewing, and Cooper and co are good company, but it should have been better and had better care afforded it from a technical standpoint. 6/10
A gunfighter and a cowboy help a Mexican girl avenge the land-related murder of her parents.
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.
A con man heading west to search for gold teams up with a pair of scheming brothers along the way. The trio soon find themselves in the middle of a feud between two rival families and two underhanded land developers.
Ross Bodine and Frank Post are cowhands on Walt Buckman's R-Bar-R ranch. Bodine is older and broods a bit about how he will get along when he's too old to cowboy. Post is young and rambunctious and ambitious for a better life than wrangling cows. When one of their fellow cowboys is killed in a corral accident, Post suggests a way into a better life for himself and his friend: robbing a bank. Bodine reluctantly joins in the plan and the two contrive to rob the local bank. They make good their escape initially, but Walt Buckman and his two sons, John and Paul, are incensed at this betrayal by their own trusted employees. John and Paul set out to bring Bodine and Post to justice.
A woman seeking revenge for her murdered father hires a famous gunman, but he's very different from what she expects.
A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.
A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.
Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.
Two cowboys inherit a "social club" specializing in satisfying men.
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his new-found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.