Diagonaldi Very well executed

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

classicsoncall In another weird coincidence that manages to catch me by surprise with my movie viewing pastime, this is the second film in a row I've watched to feature a character with the name Cherry. Yesterday it was "Road to Singapore" in which actress Judith Barrett portrayed a character with that nickname. Here it was Loretta Young, not exactly a Western movie mainstay, going by the name of Cherry de Longpre.Well I didn't quite know what to make of this picture until some way in as Coop's Melody Jones never broke character as a bumbling cowpoke. His sidekick George (William Demarest) managed to show more gumption most of the time, and after a while I wondered if Cooper might not have made the better sidekick in a different picture. Bottom line is he's no Will Kane here, with an approach diametrically opposed to the portrayal he gives in that classic of the genre, "High Noon".What was constantly distracting for me was the frequent use of rear projection photography for the most mundane of riding scenes whenever Melody, George and/or Cherry took to horseback. I can't imagine why it wouldn't have been easier to simply shoot those scenes in some available countryside instead of a sound stage. It just didn't make sense to me, and because it was so blatantly apparent, whenever a scene like that occurred I had to chuckle.But maybe that was intended to be part of the whole Western movie spoof that seemed to be going on here. Melody kept bumping his head into things and dropped his gun every time he tried to use it; it's surprising he didn't hurt himself. So one had to wonder how Coop would have fared if it ever came to a showdown with the desperado everyone else thought he was in the first place. With the genre already turned upside down, it made perfect sense that the real Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea) would get taken out by his long time gal pal Cherry. Doesn't that just sink the duck?

Claudio Carvalho 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")

zardoz-13 Everybody mistakes a fumble-fingered, song-warbling, saddle tramp for a dastardly desperado in director Stuart Heisler's satirical horse opera "Along Came Jones," toplining "Virginian" star Gary Cooper as the eponymous protagonist, Loretta Young as his sharp-shooting love interest, and Dan Duryea as the notorious bandit. "Jesse James" scenarist Nunnally Johnson derived this send-up of sagebrushers from "The Searchers" author Alan Le May's novel, and "Along Came Jones" was Cooper's first and only independent production. This easy-going, sentimental oater features several low-key but heartfelt performances, especially from Cooper as the incompetent cowpoke who couldn't hit the side of a barn with his six-shooter even if he threw it at it. William Demarest plays his comical sidekick who has more sense than the hero. The production values of this modest Independent Pictures production reflect the restrictions imposed by the government on Hollywood during World War II. No movie could boast more than $5-thousand dollars worth of new production materials. Consequently, everything appears just as plain and generic as you can imagine. Nobody has more than a couple of costume changes, and the performers often act in front of back projected landscapes when they hit the trail. This is one of those westerns where you never see a train, the U.S. Calvary, a nation of war whooping Native Americans, or scenic Monument Valley landscapes. In other words, white Anglo-Saxon American Protestants swap bullets with each other over the course of its unhurried 90 minutes. Nevertheless, Cooper's amiable performance and Heisler's restrained helming make "Along Came Jones" a pleasure to watch. Interesting, "Along Came Jones" anticipated John Ford's last great western "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Loretta Young does for Cooper in "Along Came Jones" what John Wayne did for James Stewart in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.""Along Came Jones" opens with a one-of-its-kind stagecoach hold-up. Monty Jarrad (Dan Duryea of "Ball of Fire") waits in ambush with his Winchester rifle as a six-horse stagecoach trundles along the river road and shoots the coach tongue that holds the horses in harness. The coachman loses control of the vehicle, and the rear wheel smashes into the rocks at the side of the trail. Monty wounds the guard, armed with a Winchester instead of a shotgun, and the guy plunges off the swiftly-moving vehicle and falls into a tree. The Wells Fargo coach careens to a halt into the side of the mountain, and Monty rides up to it, snatches the money bag from the driver, Ira Waggoner (Walter Sand), and hightails it off down the trail. The guard recovers himself sufficiently to hit the fleeing outlaw, and Monty drops his rifle on the road. In a close-up, we can see his name: Monty Jarrad etched onto the long gun. The next shot shows a lawman posting a $1-thousand dollar reward dodger for Jarrad.Song-warbling Melody Jones (Gary Cooper of "Sergeant York") and his sidekick George Fury (William Demarest of "All Through the Night") are riding along when they spot the town of Payneville in the distance (bogus looking back projection again), and Melody realizes that they took a wrong turn at the fork in the road some 400 to 500 miles back. George shakes his head. "Well, it don't surprise me none, I can you tell you that a cowhand that goes in for breaking horses by the time he's your size, he's been hit in the seat of the pants so many times he ain't got any brains anymore-just a kind of yellow oatmeal in his head." Our heroes mosey into Payneville, and the First Chance Saloon barkeeper notices the initials MJ on Melody's chaps and assumes Melody is Monty Jarrad. Melody spots pretty looking Cherry de Longpre (Loretta Young of "Ladies Courageous") prancing down the board. He follows her while George enters a saloon. George doesn't understand why everybody refers to him as Uncle Roscoe. Meanwhile, Melody eavesdrops on Ira who observes how "very nice" Cherry walks, and Melody slugs him. Before Ira can pull his six-gun, another citizen points to the chaps on Melody's horse with the M.J. initials. Everybody thinks Melody is actually Monty. Melody has never commanded such respect from anybody. All the time this is happening, Melody has no clue why the citizenry are treating him with such latitude. George is infuriated his reception in the saloon. He hates being called Uncle Roscoe, Monty's sidekick. When he rejoins Melody, he complains about the town. Melody explains how to cast a big shadow. "You got to look like you're somebody and act like you're somebody, like you can take care of yourself no matter what happens, and then pretty soon you're somebody."Eventually, Cherry saves Melody from getting ambushed in town, and they ride out to her ranch. The real Monty Jarrad isn't so sure about Cherry's plan to make everybody believe that Melody is him. She explains that she has fixed them up, so that the posse will be riding south after Melody while Monty can ride north. In the course of events, Cherry changes her mind about mean-spirited Monty, to the extent that she helps Melody out of several tight scrapes. She leads him to the shack where Monty has stashed the stolen loot, and they find themselves up to their necks in one perilous predicament after another. Heisler keeps the action moving along fast enough so this hokum never stalls out. "Along Came Jones" turned out to be a genuine crowd pleaser. Everybody who made it seems like they were having a ball. Nunnally Johnson provides some choice lines for everybody, and the final shoot-out is a blast. More than enough twists and turns make "Along Came Jones" more than just an ordinary western.

fsb_mc Has anyone considered that the cheesy "back projection" in the riding scenes may have been on purpose ? And another thing... could it be that Cooper's melodious "Melody Jones" (who sang his own songs) was a jab at John Wayne's "Singing Sandy" (all dubbed, all the time, and badly too). I liked the inclusion of a top-break revolver, also... there was lots of interesting weaponry back then, not all of it made by Colt. The graphic gore was unusual for a time when the newly departed would either throw their hands up, or clutch their clean shirts, and flop over. Did you notice that when Cherry aimed and fired at Melody's hat, she had such control that the bullet went in the front and STAYED IN THE HAT ! An intelligent side-kick, a powerful woman, and a humorous script. I liked it.