Signed 1956 “Jesse James” Screenplay. This is from the remake of the 1939 film "Jesse James." Dated September 14th, 1956. Includes entire bound script (marked FINAL on the front page, despite a later name change to "The True Story of Jesse James"), as well as some notes on the Dalton Brothers and the provenance. Signed on the cover in the upper right by Tyrone Power (1914-1958), the star of the original film, and signed in center by Ray Kellogg (1905-1976), an American special effects artist who got his start with John Ford during World War II, eventually becoming head of the effects unit for 20th Century Fox. 

Size: 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. 

#4765 . 

In 1939 an American Western film titled “Jesse James” was released by Twentieth Century Fox, directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly and Randolph Scott. Written by Nunnally Johnson, the film is loosely based on the life of Jesse James, the outlaw from whom the film derives its name. The supporting cast includes Henry Hull, John Carradine, Brian Donlevy, Jane Darwell and Lon Chaney, Jr. Much of the filming for Jesse James took place around the town of Pineville in McDonald County, Missouri, because at the time the town and surrounding area looked much as it would have in the 1880s and 1890s. The town's historic Old McDonald County Courthouse, a National Register of Historic Places site, was featured in the film serving as a stand-in for the Liberty, Missouri courthouse. Pineville still celebrates Jesse James Days annually in homage to the film crew and the movie stars who descended on their small town to make it. Jesse James was the third highest-grossing film of 1939, behind Gone with the Wind and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The film was on continuous release in the United States for more than 15 years, and by May of 1954 it had played over 52,000 bookings in the United States and Canada. A sequel, “The Return of Frank James,” directed by Fritz Lang with Henry Fonda reprising his role as Frank James, was released in 1940. A remake was directed by Nicholas Ray in 1957, “The True Story of Jesse James.” One of the unfortunate legacies of the original movie is that the American Humane Association began to oversee filmmaking after a horse appeared to die when it was driven off a cliff on set, although according to several biographies and interviews with those involved in the production no animals were harmed in the making of the film.