Forgetting the history books and the film's title, "Jesse James vs. The Daltons" and the fact that there are no recognizable actors in the leads, the film actually winds up being watchable.

Joe Branch believes that he is the son of the notorious Jesse James. He also believes that Jesse is still alive and hatches a plan to find him. First though, he saves Kate Manning (Barbara Lawrence) from a lynching. Kate you see, is the daughter of a former James gang member and Branch wants her to help him find Jesse..

In order to find Jesse, Branch needs to find the Daltons whom he believes will lead him to Jesse. To flush out the Daltons, he robs a train that the Daltons had planned to rob. Branch later meets the Daltons: Bob (James Griffith), Grat (John Cliff), Bill (William Phipps), and Emmett (William Tannen) and shares the loot with them. They then go to James' former hideout where they believe $100,000 was hidden by Jesse. Grat Dalton makes moves on Kate and he and Branch fight over her.

Bob Dalton sends gang member Gilke (Richard Garland) to see Frank James and learn of Jesse's location and if indeed he really is alive. Gilke returns with the news that a mysterious rider is approaching. The rider turns out to be Bob Ford (Rory Mallinson) who has some startling news. The Daltons bind Branch and Ford and take Kate on their planned holdups of the two banks in Coffeyville and..............................................................................

This film was originally released in 3-D which gave director William Castle his first taste of an audience gimmick, a method he would employ in his future horror films.

The movie has few recognizable faces probably due to the fact that the bulk of the small budget was devoted to the 3-D effects. However veteran Bud Osborne puts in an appearance as the Coffeyville sheriff and Nelson Leigh plays the priest.

Useless but worth, rare but forgettable, this western from Bill castle, in his Columbia Pictures years, between his Universal period and before his best years as the poor man's Alfred Hitchcock and greatest little master of horror movies from the early sixties. This excellent B pictures director had several eras in his career, and for his Columbia years, under the rule of the infamous Sam Karzman, and with Robert Kent as screenwriter - the same who worked for Edward L Cahn ( n't ) - you could not expect to find masterpieces: westerns, adventures, even crime. This one makes no exception but the overall movie is quite cute after all, it could have been far worse. But if you watch a B movie, that's precisely its obsolete side that makes its charm. Mainly for western buffs.