Television spots of the time promoting the series "The Legend of Jesse James" shamelessly pointed out the similarity in physical appearance between Chris Jones and James Dean. It was pretty obvious early on in the series that Chris Jones was being packaged as a gun tooting western version of Jim Stark. The series portrayed Jesse James as an idealistic, sensitive youth who was driven to rob banks and trains by the corrupt society in which he lived. Chris Jones also portrayed the bandit as a charismatic Robin Hood figure. The first year of the series was in black and white. The second year was in color. But the by the second season, it was pretty obvious that the producers of the show didn't know where they were going with this vehicle and the character of Jesse really did become a rebel without a cause.
Review of The Legend of Jesse James
