utgard14 Laid-back cowboy Melody Jones (Gary Cooper) rides into town with his partner George Fury (William Demarest). The men are surprised by how everybody seems to be especially nice to Melody, almost as if they're afraid of him. After being saved from a shot in the back by a woman named Cherry (Loretta Young), Melody finds out the townspeople think he is a notorious outlaw named Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) and that was the reason for their deference. Melody quickly falls in love with the pretty Cherry but he doesn't know that she is actually Monte Jarrad's girlfriend and has him hid out on her farm.Delightfully pleasant western satire with a terrific cast. Cooper doesn't always get the respect he deserves as an actor but movies like this remind you of how talented he was. Loretta Young is great as well. It was interesting to see a movie made in 1945 where the hero had to be saved by a woman and that was treated as OK. Dan Duryea makes for a great villain, as he always did. But the man who steals the show is the great William Demarest. Every line that comes out of his mouth is better just for him having said it. This actor was a highlight of many a Preston Sturges film and here he plays his comedic sidekick role just right. He never overplays it or hams it up. Check this one out if you get the chance. A fun, likable western with lots of comedy and some romance too.

vincentlynch-moonoi Right off the bat, you have to accept that Gary Cooper and Dan Duryea look alike, which of course they don't, but supposedly almost everyone in the film who knows the bad guy (Duryea) hasn't seen him in several years, and they mistake Cooper for him. I might have given the film a rating of 8 or even 9, had it not been for that. But, okay, get past that, and you have an entertaining and very different western...and I say that as a person who has grown so tired of westerns. But this plot is very different than most any western you've seen before, and it will hold your attention. Cooper and Loretta Young are very engaging in this film...downright delightful. But I kept thinking what a wonderful character actor William Demarest was; I've often underrated his versatility. The other notable thing about this film is the quality of the cinematography. Stunning -- or as they sometimes say -- glorious in black and white. However, the few scenes where they are filming with a backdrop screen sort of ruin that effect...the one aspect that was done on the cheap. I highly recommend this film if you like westerns, or Gary Cooper, or Loretta Young, or William Demarest, or quirky plots. Hey, I guess you can't go wrong here!

theowinthrop 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.

cynkat The Bob hope/Jane Russell "Paleface" and "Son of Paleface" parodies were obviously based on this film, which made it all the more enjoyable for me. The hapless cowboy mistaken for a killer is not as stupid as the Hope character, of course, who is a "Easterner" dentist. In fact I did not find Melody Jones a "dimwit" at all, just an easy-going cowpoke who gets involved with people out of his element through no fault of his own, and does what he has to do to get himself and his friend out of it. Loretta Young is excellent as the female sharpshooter love interest, and Coop is playing, well, Coop. I recommend watching these three movies consecutively, it makes all of them all the more humorous.