Movie: Alias Jesse James
Apr. 29th, 2008 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaThis wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be, but it was cute. I think I've been spoiled lately by seeing funnier Westerns (like Blazing Saddles) and better Bob Hope movies (like Seven Little Foys, which I guess we watched right before I started keeping track). I liked the way Frank and Jesse James' mother was played, even if that counter-stereotype has become a stereotype in itself; she was a sweet gray-haired lady who was just as cold-blooded as her boys. I liked the Indian princess saving Bob Hope at the request of his sweetheart (it's nice to see a movie in which women can be friends instead of rivals), but when he told her, "I'm telling the truth, honest Injun," I really had to remind myself that this was a long time ago!
The series of cameos near the end of famous Western actors playing their well-known characters was fun - totally speed-bumped us out of the narrative but it's not like we thought Bob Hope's character was going to lose, anyway. James Arness as Matt Dillon, Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, Jay Silverheels as Tonto, Ward Bond as the guy from Wagon Train, etc., etc. And of course Bing had to turn up. There was a nice song in the middle, but it wasn't as good as "Buttons and Bows" from Paleface.
The series of cameos near the end of famous Western actors playing their well-known characters was fun - totally speed-bumped us out of the narrative but it's not like we thought Bob Hope's character was going to lose, anyway. James Arness as Matt Dillon, Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, Jay Silverheels as Tonto, Ward Bond as the guy from Wagon Train, etc., etc. And of course Bing had to turn up. There was a nice song in the middle, but it wasn't as good as "Buttons and Bows" from Paleface.
