Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good movie but grossly overrated

Getting set for a friends birthday, I decided to look in a local store for some movies/music he would like. After picking up the debut Grime album by Dizzee Rascal (as you do!) I spotted a fun- looking Western starring Gary Cooper,which led to me and a pal getting set to welcome Jones.The plot:Going on their own lonely path, Melody Jones and his pal ride into a quiet town.Unknown to Jones,an outlaw (who hardly anyone has seen) called Monte Jarrad is wanted in town. As Jones ties his horse up,the locals spot "MJ" on his saddle. Seeing everyone get itchy trigger fingers, Cherry de Longpre rushes over to keep Jones safe and away from the aiming for Jarrad bullets. View on the film:Shining as the lone star produced by him, Gary Cooper gives a very good performance as Melody Jones,whose dry wit Cooper subtly uses to poke fun at his own Western image,whilst remaining a chiselled outlaw who always has Longpre's safety as the first thing on his mind. Filmed whilst she was pregnant, Loretta Young gives a wonderful performance as Longpre,who is given a surprisingly modern feisty attitude by Young,as Young joyfully outguns all of the cowboys in sight. Balancing the slingshots of Comedy and Western,director Stuart Heisler & cinematographer Milton R. Krasner (who was also the cinematographer on How The West Was Won) give the outdoor scenes a breezy lightness,as the baking hot sun covers the land,that causes Jones to have to run to the nearest building for cover. Keeping the real Jones hidden under his hat,Heisler counters the relaxed mood of the outdoor scenes with sweaty Film Noir tension,dripping from Jones and Longpre stylishly hiding in the shadows of houses from the bullets of the outlaws. Saddling up to Alan Le May's book,the screenplay by Nunnally Johnson takes clever,underhanded shots at the genre,from the "Wanted" sign being of a half- remembered name,to Jones thinking women can't shoot,whilst being unable to hold a gun straight himself! Centred round Jones mistaken identity,Johnson sadly never quite gets a perfect shot at all the excitement the scenario offers,as Jones comes along.

After robbing a stagecoach, the gunman Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) is wounded and hunted with a one thousand-dollar reward. Meanwhile, the clumsy cowboy Melody Jones (Gary Cooper) and his old partner George Fury (William Demaresi) ride through the wrong road and reach Payneville. When the locals see the initials MJ on Melody's saddle and his appearance, he is mistaken by the dangerous criminal. Melody believes that the respectful behavior is because he is an unsmiling man. Melody is saved from a shot by Cherry de Longpre (Loretta Young), who is Monte's girlfriend, and they head to her ranch where the hideout of the wounded Monte is. Cherry plots a plan sending Melody with Monte's saddle to the North to lure the posse while Monte heads to South. But the naive cowboy is in love with Cherry and decides to return to the ranch instead against the will of his friend George."Along Came Jones" is an entertaining satire of western movie. The naive story is silly in many moments, but the sweet Loretta Young is wonderful, showing a magnificent chemistry with the hilarious Gary Cooper. Dan Duryea is the perfect villain in this enjoyable amusement. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Pistoleiro do Destino" ("Gunman of the Destiny")

Basically, this is an entertaining western that sports a combination of suspense, action, romance and comedy. It also features an interesting cast, with names like Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest and Dan Duryea.Cooper, as "Melody Jones," plays his normal low-key hero role and Demarest provides most of the laughs. Young is attractive and plays an intriguing character and Duyea does what he does best: play the villain. However, the latter has a smaller role than usual.This is corny in spots, but it was meant to be since this is supposed to be a spoof of westerns. The only thing that didn't come off well was the special-specials, but they weren't much back in the days of this film but they are very dated now.A nice, lightweight enjoyable satire.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT was produced in 1943 to critical acclaim as a scathing look at vigilante justice, with well delineated characters. Two years later Gary Cooper produced (for the only time in his career) and starred in this film, ALONG CAME JONES, which dealt with some situations and themes that were remarkably similar to THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, albeit in a lighter mood. Instead of seeing how vigilante justice was not justice but widely organized murder, here we found ourselves looking at the various vigilantes and parties as frightened non-entities or short-sighted boobs.As in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, we have two "saddle bums" riding into a town following a crime. There Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan, despite a brawl in Victor Killian's saloon, are accepted by the vigilantes as members of their posse (Morgan volunteers them, as he figures Fonda and he may be suspected as the murderers if they don't go along). They do try what they can to stop the lynchings of Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and Francis Ford, but fail because they are outnumbered (and out-gunned). In ALONG CAME JONES, Melody Jones and George Fury (Gary Cooper and William Demerest) are two "saddle bums" riding into a town following a crime. But everyone reacts strangely to them (the sharper Demerest realizes this when they constantly call him "Uncle Roscoe", and when the townspeople keep swallowing downright insulting behavior from Cooper). It is only later that they learn from Cherry De Longpre (Loretta Young) that the initials on Melody's belongings "M.J." are the same as the wanted man Monte Jarrad, who is a notoriously nasty customer and killer. The references to "Uncle Roscoe" is to a half-wit uncle who accompanies Jarrad (whom the town folk think is Demerest - something that almost drives him up a wall). It doesn't help that both Jarrad and Jones are of similar heights and builds, and that the locals have not seen Jarrad for five years. The willingness of the locals to shoot first and ask questions later is shown by the number of times people get a bead on Cooper (who, ironically, is not only pacifistic but relatively inept with a gun). But each time they do that somebody intervenes in some way that prevents them from completing their desired objective - ridding the world of the man they think is Monte Jarrad. This is not like the situation in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, where (unfortunately) the lynch mob is well run by the local deputy and a former Confederate major. Here the conflicting reasons for people to go after Jarrad helps prevent them time after time from doing in Jones.We also are brought up short on one point that Walter Clarke's novel THE OX-BOW INCIDENT dismissed to heighten it's irony. There the victims of the vigilantes were innocent (although one, Anthony Quinn, had a "colorful career including a knifing incident). In ALONG CAME JONES, Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) is being searched for by not one but four vigilante groups. He has killed men in a stagecoach robbery, so he is sought by the stagecoach company for its money, the sheriff for murder, and the federal Marshall (some mail was stolen too). He has killed people from a large, powerful family in the territory too, so they are searching for him. As you can see Monte is not a nice guy. He's not like Dana Andrews in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT. In Duryea's superb performance, he is a nervous, suspicious, mean tempered s.o.b. That he was wounded in the robbery (and cannot get to a doctor yet) has increased his worst habits. But one senses that he was never far (in his personality) from his currently lousy personality. Which leads to the one flaw in the film. Cherry's character is connected to Monte. Her brother and dad are members of his gang. She is his girl. At one point she tells Melody that Monte and she grew up together. To an extent this explains how she might have some loyalty to her childhood companion, but Cherry can't help seeing Monte's basically rotten disposition and his murderous temper. Yet she is loyal enough to him to try to use an unaware Melody as a bait to draw away these various vigilante groups so that Monte can get away. She says (later to Melody) that she knew it was the only chance Monte would have. But why did she feel Monte deserved this chance? In the end, as the number of dead increase (mostly due to Monte's temper), and as she gets to know the sweet tempered Melody better, Cherry changes to be more critical of her old childhood acquaintance. In the end she has to resolve the crisis of the film over who will win out, Monte or Melody. But why it took her so long to realize the truth just is not settled.Nevertheless, the film is a funny horse opera. Melody and George are as funny as traveling companions as Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda in THE CHEYENNE SOCIAL CLUB. There, Fonda spends the first three and a half minutes chattering away while the two are just aimlessly riding their horses. At the end of that time, Stewart pointedly asks Fonda if he realizes that he has been talking for nearly 1000 miles! Here Demerest (clearly the wiser of the two in the film) tries to talk sense to Cooper, only to find the latter dreaming of becoming a greater man by capturing the fearsome Duryea, or of doing all sorts of dangerous things for Young (even though Young admits they are foolhardy and dangerous). And all Demerest gets in return are additional choruses of Cooper's favorite song, "Old Joe Clark". But Cooper does show a real loyalty to his friend in the end. It is when Duryea (for typically mean reasons) critically wounds Demerest that Cooper decides to do what he can to bring the desperado down.