Along Came Jones

             
Stuart Heisler's Along Came Jones, from 1945, is an unfunny Western parody, produced by its star, Gary Cooper. Actually, the title of the film reads "Nunnally Johnson's" Along Came Jones, crediting the film's screenwriter who was riding high after the success of his scripts for The Grapes of Wrath, Roxie Hart, and The Woman in the Window. Johnson had just collaborated with Cooper on Casanova Brown. Along Came Jones' script was based on the novel Useless Cowboy by Alan Le May. Le May had been writing novels for twenty years at that point and had helped concoct a few scripts for Cecil B. DeMille. Numerous books of his were turned into movies including John Ford's The Searchers and John Huston's The Unforgiven. 

The film's plot is moronic, hinging on mistaken identity. Cooper's character is mistook for outlaw Dan Duryea, but neither hilarity or even mild amusement ensues. The film is predicated on Cooper's charm, the twist is that his character lacks basic gunfighting skills, but he offers a lazy, apathetic performance. Director Heisler, returning to Hollywood after wartime service, had had a promising start to his career at Paramount with The Biscuit Eater and The Glass Key, but his direction here lacks any satiric bite. The film is ludicrously set bound, employing inferior matte painting and rear projection. Every time Cooper and his sidekick, played by William Demarest, trot on down the trail, the rear projection footage is so jarring that the artificiality of the scenes leap off the screen. An indication of the film's scant value is that Loretta Young, who was pregnant during the shoot, gives the best performance. The best scene in the picture is Young rolling a cigarette for a wounded Duryea, a sign of the paucity of its entertainment value. Along Came Jones had some moderate critical and commercial success, but Cooper never produced another picture.