This is Samuel Fuller's first effort;it is a western and it's got something bizarre,something unusual which we find in every work of this director,whatever he films :films noirs ("underworld USA" ),melodramas ("the naked kiss" ) ,thrillers verging on horror ("shock corridor" ) or westerns ("run of the arrow" and "forty guns").

They say that Fuller approved of Robert Ford's attitude.But his movie is not so simple.It seems that Jesse really WANTS to be killed ;we might take the lines "what are you waiting for?here's my back " literally.

Once Robert Ford has taken the plunge ,his fate is sealed;there's no coming back,no hope for the life he dreams of with his gorgeous girl.Anyway,Cynthy's love has turned to despise at worst ,pity at best.

The scene on the stage is some kind of mirror ,where Ford fully realizes what he has done -a scene which contains an unusual inventive use of the flashback-,as is the folk singer who performs his "ballad of Robert Ford": when he sings his last verse ,he may be frightened,but it's Cain's eye all over again.

I do not have to kill you,Jesse's brother says ,you're already dead.

I think this movie is more about Robert Ford than say Jesse James. John Ireland does a great job as the cowardly Bob Ford.. the James gang just having finished another robbery is on the run hiding out somewhere in Missouri,, Jesse is living under an alias. One thing that this movie presented to me was that the James' somehow are related to the Younger's and the Dalton's interesting fact if its' true. With that price of 10,000 on Jesse's head it becomes almost impossible for Bob Ford to resist it,, he plans on getting a house in the country and marrying his sweetheart Cynthy,, so he figures to cash in on his friend Jesse's head dead or alive,, what he doesn't count on is 2 things,, first being the public outcry of Jesse's death,, also the shrinking of the reward money,, and secondly how Cynthy would react,, he figures she'd be happy so that they could get married and so on.. wrong ,,, she has a conscious, and starts to despise Bob,, and at best pity him. this is a pretty good telling of the story of Jesse getting shot by Bob.

After seeing The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, one realizes just how dated this film is as compared to the one that Casey Affleck won an Academy Award nomination for. That more recent film is far closer to the truth. It certainly has the right age for Robert Ford in real life was barely out of his teens, not an adult as John Ireland was in this film, nor a host of others who've played Ford in various Jesse James movies.

Still this western made by Samuel Fuller, his first as a director, does have a landmark status of sorts with a fine performance by John Ireland in the title role. According to this version he did this one for love and that huge amnesty money promised by the Governor of Missouri which he never got, that part is true. It was love of Barbara Britton who plays the object of Ireland's affections.

The real Robert Ford and John Ireland in this film must have thought he'd be a hero. His celebrity such as it was was akin to what O.J. Simpson got after his acquittal. People who kill for a bounty were regarded then as now as a necessary evil, but not folks you invite to your dinner table.

Samuel Fuller got good performances out of Ireland, Britton and the rest of a fine cast. It's not a bad Jesse James film, a man who has never ceased to fascinate Hollywood.

It's one of the oldest Western stories: Jesse James was a big-time outlaw, robbing banks left and right, alongside his gang, including Robert Ford. One day, upon hearing of the huge bounty (and possibility of amnesty for anyone in the gang) for Jesse's murder, Ford took it upon himself to kill him so that he could be free and clear to mary his would-be wife. But things didn't quite turn out right afterwords, and Ford was considered more-so a coward, a traitor for doing this act, and any gunslinger who could gun Ford down would then be seen as the baddest dude in the west. At least, that's the legend anyway that comes out of the main plot. But there's more to it, at least under the surface, that Samuel Fuller gets to in his take on the legend of one man's existential downfall from killing his best friend, who happened to be the most feared- and yet most admired- bank robber in America for a short while. Fuller might be asking why he was admired, when he didn't do anything that really merited praise only in hindsight. There's a sense of pure melodrama, brimming with acting that is typical for the budget, but somehow Fuller brings out the best in what might be a little limited in the character actors.

John Ireland says a lot in the understated expressions on his face, the tense feeling of rejection from the only one he can get close to- once Jesse is out of the picture- and likewise Cynthy (Barbara Britton) is very good at doing the 'acting-concerned' woman that is reluctant to be on Ford's sleeve. It's all the more compelling because Fuller could easily make the direction more into a black and white category, that Ford is bad like Jesse was, and Cynthy is more than in her reasoning for not wanting to marry him. But even in the pulpy world of Jesse James and Robert Ford, there is room for compromise. I liked seeing the scenes where Ford goes through the humiliating act of doing a theater re-enactment of the killing scene, but suddenly seeing in a vision the actual act he performed superimposed over the pantomime. And, immediately after, as one of the very best scenes in the film, a traveling singer who sings a song terrified in Ford's face about how much of a traitor he was for killing such a man like Jesse James.

It's a sharp script considering what Fuller would have to work with, but it's also the simplicity of his craft (it might be one of those genre films where the style is so stripped down to bare essentials with necessary close-ups, consistent medium shots, that when something 'stylistic' happens like in the last shootout between Kelly and Ford that it is shocking), how Fuller pushes it into looking like a tale that on the surface as a conventional feature. But watch how the suddenness of violence sparks up interest in the craft, how the opening bank robbery is timed and shot with the same level- or even more- tension than your average heist thriller. Or in the actual infamous scene itself, which is preceded by Ford getting a chance beforehand when James was in the bath, and the cut-aways to the POV at the back. It's bold-faced type through a crisp full-frame lens.

And while Fuller would still go on to make greater films, I Shot Jesse James is a fantastic prototype for a great career, where history merges with the human process of change, and how love, however a typical thing in a triangle situation, complicates even the strongest of men.

Bob Ford(Ireland)kills the famous outlaw for love and money;then must live (and eventually die)with the knowledge that he has committed a cowardly act. Early effort of director Fuller, this is a dark and brooding melodrama. Ireland emotes well as the disturbed assassin, supporting cast is first-rate. The next year(1950)Lippert productions released the lesser effort"The Return of Jesse James" which also starred Ireland.

Sam Fuller's first film direction is a version of what happened to Robert Ford (John Ireland), the man who famously killed his friend - Jesse James (Reed Hadley).

Taking up the basic elements of the real life story, Fuller keeps the narrative tight whilst ensuring the complexities of the main characters come to the fore. All the quirks and peccadilloes of the human condition are explored (the detail of Ford's torments and troubles superbly told), which is something of a rarity for a late 1940s "B" standard Western. The use of close-ups are to purposely highlight the psychological discord on show, marking this out as a good pointer to the later work of its maverick director. Ernest Hiller photographs the exteriors out of Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth and support to Ireland comes from Preston Foster, Barbara Britton and J. Edward Bromberg. 7/10

A film which uses a lot of medium close ups. Fuller's medium close-ups of John Ireland are wonderful and stress the emotions of Robert Ford "the Coward," the character Mr Ireland plays. So also the Fuller brings out the best in another actress Barbara Britton in this film. I am once again convinced that Fuller brought out great performances with almost all the actresses he chose to direct.

The high point of the film was the innocent balladeer singing his popular ballad which paints Bob Ford as an evil coward to Bob Ford himself without realizing his identity.

A very engaging and intelligent script with notable performances by both Ireland and Britton. Arguably one of the best performances of Ireland along side his performance in the spaghetti western "Hate for Hate."

Sam Fuller's writer/ director debut foreshadows much of the quirky originality one would come to expect from his pictures in the decades to follow. Leave it to Sam to have a protagonist that cowardly shoots an infamous icon in the back as opposed to making another oater featuring Jesse James. I Shot Jesse James is a fresh approach to the western canon and from this angle makes for a more than satisfying ride for a B western with something extra.

Jesse James is living incognito in St. Joe MO with his family as well as providing shelter for the Ford brothers. When Bob Ford (John Ireland) learns he can receive amnesty as well as a fat reward for Jess dead or alive he plans his future to run off with his entertainer girl friend and start anew. After performing the dastardly act he fails to get the full reward so he agrees to go on tour re-creating the scene on stage as well as avoid a similar fate.

Fuller presents James as a decent man while Ford displays a loutish personality filled with jealousy and paranoia. Ireland does a fine job of managing to evoke sympathy for a an execrable character looking for a way out as he displays just enough sensitivity to temper his surly ways. Eventually you find yourself rooting for him and perhaps identifying with him since he is not only an assassin but a dreamer as well.

If you have not seen Samuel Fuller's White Dog, you need to get it quick to see what a great director he was. This is his first film. He wrote and directed this, and his promise shows throughout.

Jesse (Reed Hadley) doesn't have the young look that I have come to expect. He almost looks like Abe Lincoln with his beard and mustache.

John Ireland, who received an Oscar nomination for All the King's Men the same year as this film, was Bob Ford, whose love for Cynthy Waters (Barbara Britton) caused him to kill Jesse.

Of course, everything goes wrong as people likes Jesse, and he was shunned. He also suffered remorse for killing his friend, but you know the story.

It was a good tale of the killing of Jesse James, and the aftermath for Ford.

The bar scene with the traveling troubadour (Robin Short) singing about the "coward Robert Ford" was hilarious.

Six days after seeing Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it's still the film at the forefront of my mind. I saw this as a followup to that. Like most Hollywood films of the era (and most of today), I Shot Jesse James plays fast and loose with the facts. In this film, Ford (John Ireland) shoots James for the reward money so he can marry his sweetheart (Barbara Britton). Unfortunately, that cowardly act turns her off of him, and she gravitates toward a man named John Kelley (Preston Foster). Kelley is a fictionalized version of Ed O'Kelley, the man who ultimately shot Robert Ford for nothing more than fame. It's pretty hilarious that he's more or less made into the hero of this picture. Jesse James is ludicrously depicted as an avuncular Abe Lincoln figure. Besides all of this hoo-ha, Sam Fuller, whose debut this was, does a decent job characterizing Ford. Too bad Ireland, an actor I immediately recognized but couldn't say for the life of me where I know him from (I looked it up – he also played the reporter, and pretty much the lead character, in the Best Picture of that year, All the King's Men), is a pretty boring actor. I usually associate Fuller with fast pacing and good plotting, but this one plods along lamely with its romantic triangle melodrama. It does have a couple of good scenes, though, like one where a goofy looking teen (Gene Collins) tries to assassinate Ford, and another where Ford encounters a folk singer performing the Jesse James ballad, a scene which is echoed in Dominik's film.

Director: Samuel Fuller Writers: Samuel Fuller, Homer Croy Stars: Preston Foster, Barbara Britton, John Ireland

Shot Jesse James - After years of crime reporting, screenwriting, and authoring pulp novels, Samuel Fuller made his directorial debut with the lonesome ballad of Robert Ford (played by Red River's John Ireland), who fatally betrayed his friend, the notorious Jesse James. At once modest and intense, I Shot Jesse James is an engrossing pocket portrait of guilt and psychological torment, and an auspicious beginning for the maverick filmmaker.

The film isn't bad although they changed some historical facts. But they did mostly stick to what is known and they didn't portray Jesse James as some sort of good guy. The murderous Jesse James often got portrayed as some type of Robin Hood in the era and after. However, the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a brilliant film about the same events with more historical accuracy, better acting and amazing cinematography.

There's nothing in I SHOT JESSE JAMES to raise it above the level of a B-western. JOHN IRELAND has given some good performances in certain roles but he approaches this one in an almost zombie-like mode, especially during the first half of the movie where he ponders thinking about killing Jesse James (REED HADLEY). The film is a fictionalized version of the events surrounding the killing of Jesse James by the coward Bob Ford.

BARBARA BRITTON is attractive as the worried miss who is afraid to tell Bob Ford (Ireland) that she no longer loves him after the James killing. PRESTON FOSTER is the rugged man she tales a shine to after realizing that Bob Ford is jealous of their relationship.

There are obvious signs that the film was made quickly and on the cheap, making good use of small sets and big close-ups of the actors. None of the acting is inspired, so there's little that can be said about the performances in stock roles.

It's a strictly by-the-numbers sort of script that tells what ought to be a taut tale in a slow and cumbersome way with occasional bursts of dramatic music on the soundtrack to make up for the lack of compelling drama in the script.

Nothing distinctive about this one.