hyped garbage

Absolutely the worst movie.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I'm a big Gary Cooper fan, but even the Coop's by this time ageing skills can't rescue this comedy-western from mediocrity.The plot is contrived, scenes are too long, characters and situations are poorly drawn - in truth, as a movie it just drags and sags to its predictable happy-ending finish.The problem for me is that the older Cooper got, the less believable his country bumpkin persona convinces. Here familiarity really does breed contempt, and while his Melody Jones character gets into some heated clinches with the alluring but otherwise out of place Loretta Young, in truth there's little other chemistry between them and you can't imagine her really throwing over the at least mildly dangerous desperado Dan Duryea, whose abilities are wasted here on an underwritten part, for slow-walking, slow talking Jones.The action sequences are pretty inactive, to be frank, the laughs are few and far between (Jones' hat falling off every time he enters a room is about the height of the humour), conveyed by pretty lumpen direction and by the end you realise that the film is something of an epitaph for the comedy-western genre. Tougher, more realistic westerns were just around the corner (Ford's "My Darling Clementine", Gregory Peck's "The Gunfighter" and James Stewart's collaborations with Anthony Mann, to name but a few examples) and Cooper was to find his last great role when he eschewed the overdone country hick in favour of the dignified seriousness of the marshal in the classic "High Noon".I love the Coasters' hit song of the same name as this film, penned by the great Leiber and Stoller partnership from a few years later than this and before watching, had hoped it had been inspired by a rollickingly funny and richly entertaining movie.I was wrong.

Along Came Jones (1945) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Gary Cooper plays a shy and timid cowboy who gets mistaken for a notorious murderer after getting involved with the man's girlfriend (Loretta Young). This film is a spoof of the Western genre and it comes off cute and charming but I must admit that I didn't laugh very much. The film tries to be funny but it never really worked with me because I thought the laughs were too slow and in fact I thought they were pretty lazy. The film tries going for wilder laughs but this goes against the type of acting Cooper is doing so I think this is the main reason the laughs didn't work. However, as I said, the movie is very charming with Cooper and Young turning in fine performances and the two work very well together. William Demarest steals the film as Cooper's silly sidekick. The most memorable thing about this film are the various kisses between Cooper and Young, which are certainly a lot different than what was being done at the time. The best one has to be the very first where Cooper, acting like a touch guy, just grabs her behind the neck and pulls her to him.'

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.

Poor Melody Jones, a simple soul, a good cowboy who has never really developed skill with firearms, gets himself mistaken for notorious western badman Monty Jarrad. Same general build, same initials and both are known to hang around with a cantankerous old timer. A recipe for trouble?For Melody yes, but for the viewer it's a recipe for one of the best comic westerns ever made. Gary Cooper who produced as well as starred in this film, seems to be having a grand old time spoofing all the western heroes that people like he have played for years.Quite a few stock western types are here. Loretta Young is the killer's girlfriend, a Calamity Jane type who's pretty accurate with a rifle fortunately. William Demarest is the cantankerous old timer sidekick, he could have had a great career portraying those had he stuck to westerns. And Dan Duryea is just fine as the real Monty Jarrad who's coming back to his hometown to get the loot he's stashed there.Cooper as Melody gets in one fix after another at almost a dizzying pace. His final showdown with Dan Duryea must have influenced John Ford when he made The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Though this is a comedy and Ford's film was deadly serious, the showdown between Cooper and Duryea is quite serious.I'm also sure that Mel Brooks was influenced by Along Came Jones when he created his classic Blazing Saddles. Thank you to director Stuart Heisler and writer Nunnally Johnson for creating a fabulously funny film.