Along Came Jones movie storyline. After robbing a stagecoach, the gunman Monte Jarrad is wounded and hunted with a one thousand-dollar reward. Meanwhile, the clumsy cowboy Melody Jones and his old partner George Fury 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, 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 a 1945 American Western comedy film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, and Dan Duryea. The film was adapted by Nunnally Johnson from the novel Useless Cowboy by Alan Le May. It was the only feature film produced by Cooper during his long film career.
Much of the film was shot at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California. Cooper had previously worked at the movie ranch in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) and other productions. Cooper had a Western town built at the movie ranch for Along Came Jones; this Western set was subsequently used in many other productions over the next 20 years and became a fixture in B-Westerns in particular.
Along Came Jones was produced under the working title American Cowboy. It was Cooper’s first Western since The Westerner in 1940. It was also Cooper’s first film as an independent producer under his International Pictures, Inc., with Cinema Artists Corp. co-producing, and the only film in which he both acted and produced. Cooper also selected Young as his co-star.
Much of the film was shot at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, where Cooper built the town of Payneville for the script. This Western set was used in many other productions over the next 20 years. Other outdoor filming locations included Sasabe, Tucson, and Nogales, Arizona. A number of exterior scenes were filmed in indoor sound stages backed by giant cycloramas. Scenes of the actors riding horses and exchanging dialogue were filmed with rear-projection screens.
The film’s ironic title probably inspired the popular 1959 Coasters song “Along Came Jones” written by Leiber and Stoller; songwriter Mike Stoller had studied orchestration under Arthur Lange, the composer of the film’s score. In the film Cooper sings the song “I’m a Poor Lonesome Cowboy”, which would later become the signature song of Lucky Luke in the eponymous comics series by René Goscinny and Morris.
Along Came Jones (1945)
Directed by: Stuart Heisler
Starring: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, Dan Duryea, William Demarest, Walter Sande, Frank Sully, Don Costello, Russell Simpson, Arthur Loft, Willard Robertson, Lane Chandler, Ray Teal, Erville Alderson, Silver Tip Baker
Screenplay by: Nunnally Johnson
Cinematography by: Milton R. Krasner
Film Editing by: Thomas Neff
Costume Design by: Walter Plunkett
Set Decoration by: Julia Heron
Art Direction by: Wiard Ihnen
Music by: Arthur Lange, Hugo Friedhofer, Charles Maxwell
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Release Date: July 15, 1945 (United States)
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