Another movie from Hollywood's wonder year 1939, but this time not of the first rank, being a watchable but slightly underpowered western on the life and times of legendary bandit figure Jesse James. The premise is set up from the off, those gol-darned railroad company men hornswoggling the innocent farmers of their land to make way for the Iron Horse and making the mistake of being responsible for the death of old Ma James, whose two sons Frank and Jesse immediately take up the cudgels on behalf of the little people. Herein lies the problem, there's very little light and shade in the film, the bad guys, railway owner McCoy, chasing lawman Runyan and mostly of course the treacherous Ford brothers (assassin Robert suitably nervous in the act of murder, replete with Judas Iscariot beard) are painted in broad strokes against which Jesse and Frank James can't help but look whiter than white, when in truth, matters were much greyer, I would imagine. Even nice guy marshal Randolph Scott turns near the end with his designs on Jesse's missus. Naturally 30's Hollywood runs with the legend but it does reduce the film to a fairly predictable good guys versus bad guys plot with only the downbeat ending (Jesse shot in the back by Robert Ford) adding some depth and gravitas to proceedings, ending as it does with the famous epitaph on James' tombstone. Action sequences are few and rarely thrilling. Tyrone Power is suitably handsome if somewhat slight in the lead part but he's well backed up by the more down to earth conviction acting of Henry Fonda. The remainder of the cast are adequate and while Henry Hull gets some mileage out of a good running gag on his editorials against everybody who upsets him at a given moment, he, like many others, frequently slips into caricature. The colour photography is lovely to behold and the direction stolid rather than spectacular. There are a couple of unwitting racial slur terms I could have done without too but there's probably more of that to rail against in "Gone with the Wind", so I'll let them pass. Spawned a sequel in the Fritz Lang directed "Return of Frank James", again to mixed results, but at least therein the double-crossing Ford brothers get theirs in the end!
Review of Jesse James
