Al Jennings of Oklahoma

After killing Marsden, Jennings leaves the house and holsters his pistol, however in the next shot he has his pistol in his hand again.

Done in a semi documentary-style complete with narrator, this Western crime drama features Dan Duryea as a title character who comes from a family of attorneys but because of his hot-blooded temper is constantly in trouble, making lots of enemies. This puts him up against the legal procession, and soon he is committing crimes when he fails to get any justice.

Al Jennings of Oklahoma is directed by Ray Nazaro and adapted to screenplay by George Bricker from the book co-written by Al Jennings and Will Irwin. It stars Dan Duryea, Gale Storm, Dick Foran, Gloria Henry, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams and Raymond Greenleaf.

The subject of much folk lore and legend in the beginnings of Oklahoma statehood. Al Jennings brings shame and disappointment to his family by becoming an angry bank robber.

I first became interested in this film after seeing a photo of the real Al Jennings in a magazine in the late 60s.

Al Jennings is an unusual interesting western. Jennings was a lawyer, but a hot tempered one who would not think twice of a fistfight in a courtroom when he felt he or his family was insulted.

For 1951, not a bad little Western, with some bright colour photography, but after it was over I thought there was little substance to it. A quick Google confirms that Jennings wasn't much success as a crook and that the film took lots of liberties with his story, though I couldn't determine whether the reward for his capture every topped $20,000, as shown in the film.

This film is inspired by the real life attorney turned criminal Al Jennings although from what I can tell many liberties were taken to make the story more appealing. The story begins during the dying days of the civil war when Al Jennings, son of a Confederate major, is born; the action then jumps forward and we see the father is now a judge and Al is a hot-headed lawyer.

Lawyer Al Jennings discovers he likes robbing better than lawyering, but then tries to straighten out. Yet the past has a way of catching up, especially if there's a relapse back into robbing.