An unwitting travelling balladeer sings his song about "the dirty coward Robert Ford" to Ford himself (John Ireland) in "I Shot Jesse James."
I've seen a number of movies since I last checked in--I didn't keep track of all of them, and don't remember them all, but it stands to reason that the ones I remember are the best.
A friend lent me a set of just released on video noirs, and I recommend them all:
The Long Night (1947) - Henry Fonda at his complicated best in a story of a man unjustly accused. A remake of a French movie starring Jean Gabin, it has a complex structure that must have stood out at the time. Also starring Ann Dvorak, Vincent Price, and Barbara Bel Geddes.
Sudden Fear (1950) - Joan Crawford is a successful playwright/heiress who gets involved with Jack Palance, a handsome younger actor. Unfortunately, the saying, "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is" applies here. Great final shot of Crawford. The always entertaining Gloria Grahame also stars.
Railroaded (1947) - Another tale of the unjustly accused, in a stripped down to nothing Anthony Mann movie. Hugh Beaumont is fine as the good guy cop, but John Ireland knocked me out as the bad guy gangster.
Behind Locked Doors (1948) - A noir that not only features a hardboiled detective and an icy dame (Lucille Bremer, trying to escape her previous title as one of Fred Astaire's worst dance partners), but also the world of psychiatry and mental institutions, a topic of endless fascination to Hollywood in the 1940s. Really fun. A Budd Boetticher movie.
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - Fritz Lang directed this wartime drama set in occupied Prague. Based on a true story, the brave Czechs fight back against the evil Nazis. The bad guys get what's coming to them in immensely satisfying ways. For once, Brian Donlevy plays a good guy. Also featuring Anna Lee and Walter Brennan.
I liked John Ireland so much in Railroaded that I decided to look up some of his other movies (seemingly not many, or least not available on Netflix). I found I Shot Jesse James, Samuel Fuller's first directorial effort, and fell hard for it. In this version of the story, Robert Ford shoots Jesse James for the reward money and governmental pardon for his past crimes so he can buy a farm, marry the girl he loves, and settle down with a clean name. Instead he finds himself the object of scorn, disdained as a traitor by everyone from his brother to the girl who he did it all for. Some haunting scenes, such as the one with the traveling singer pictured above, and the part where Ford, needing money, takes a job in a show where he re-enacts the murder of Jesse James for audiences who boo him. Frank James passes on the opportunity to kill him and avenge his brother because he says that Ford is dead already. Indeed he is. You can die inside long before your body is killed.
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