Jesse James (1939)

Special cast, special movie, just don't expect a history lesson.

We are at the time of the Iron Horse birth, the railroads are buying out the farm land at ridiculously low prices, even resorting to bully tactics to get the signature rights. When one particularly nasty railroad agent tries his strong arm tactics on the mother of the James brothers, he gets more than he bargained for. In an act of almost vengeful negligence, the agent causes the death of Mrs James and thus sets the wheels in motion for what was to become folklore notoriety, Jesse James, his brother Frank, and a gang of seemingly loyal thieves, went on to etch their names in outlaw history.

There is no getting away from the fact that history tells us that this is a highly fictionalised account of Jesse James and his exploits. What we are given here by director Henry King and his screenwriter Nunally Johnson, is a more romanticised look at the legend of the man himself; which sure as heck fire makes for one dandy and enjoyable watch. The cast is one to savour, Tyrone Power (Jesse James), Henry Fonda (Frank James), Randolph Scott (Will Wright), Brian Donlevy (Barshee) and John Carradine (Bob Ford) all line up to entertain the masses with fine results, with Fonda possibly owing his subsequent career to his appearance here. He would return a year later in the successful sequel The Return Of Frank James and subsequently go on to greater and more rewarding projects. Power of course would go on and pick up the trusty blade and start swishing away, a career beckoned for this matinée idol for sure, but it's nice to revisit this particular picture to see that Power could indeed be an actor of note, capable of some emotional depth instead of making Jesse just another outlawish thug. If the makers have made the character too "heroic" then that's for debate, it's one of the many historical "itches" that have irked historians over the years. But Power plays it as such and it works very well.

One of the film's main strengths is the pairing of Power and Fonda, very believable as a kinship united in ideals, with both men expertly handled by the reliable Henry King. The Technicolor from Howard Greene and George Barnes is wonderfully put to good use here, splendidly capturing the essence of the time with eye catching results. While the film itself has a fine action quota, gun play and galloping horses all feature throughout, and the characterisations of the main players lend themselves to pulse raising sequences. To leave us with what? A highly accomplished Western picture that ends in the way that history has showed it should, whilst the rest of the film is flimsy history at best... Yes. But ultimately it really doesn't matter if one is after some Western entertainment, because for sure this picture scores high in that regard. 8/10

The film looks good in Technicolor but also becomes increasingly sluggish as it goes on.

Nunnally Johnson's screenplay ignores the truth and presents us with the legend. Jesse James (Tyrone Power) and Frank James (Henry Fonda) are just simple country folks. The railroad crooked agents have come round to buy up land on the cheap by using force.

Jesse and Frank become outlaws by robbing trains and banks only because the greedy railroad bosses were responsible for the death of their mother.

Jesse tries to settle down to a life of domestic bliss but his old friends keep calling to try to get him back to do a quick and easy job, only to be shot in the back by a cowardly Bob Ford.

The all conquering railroad marches across the West dispossessing all that get in it's way. When Jesse and Frank James' mother falls foul of land-grabber "Barshee" (Brian Donlevy) the two brothers declare war on the railway. In best Robin Hood tradition, Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda hit the trains big style. Never with the aim of harming anyone, nor of stealing anything of sentimental value. They just take cash that Donald Meek ("McCoy") and his railroad will have to pay back. Fuelled by enthusiastic local newspaper man "Maj. Cobb" (Henry Hull) who tries to portray them as more heroes than bandits, they have quite a degree of success before the army are called in to preside over matters. That irks the decent marshal "Wright" (Randolph Scott) who wants a fair trial. Power looks every inch the star in this film, but Fonda is far from his best and, personally, I'd sooner have had Walter Brennan or Arthur Hunnicutt as "Cobb". Meek, though, is good as the odious little empire builder who manages, almost singe handedly, to ensure that everyone (including me) takes the side of the James brothers. It's too heavy on the dialogue, indeed there is a real paucity of action for the most part as the colour photography seems to work against any grittiness of the story. It is fine to look at, the costumes etc. all top notch, but the ending sort of sums the whole thing up: the stuff of legend really only superficially dealt with in lieu of box office success.