Rating: NR
Genre:
Western
Release Date: 03/06/2007
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox
The real
Frank and
Jesse James were murderous thugs, light years away from the
Robin Hood image imposed on them by revisionist dime novelists. But in 1939,
20th Century-Fox wasn't about to build an expensive Technicolor feature around the exploits of a couple of low-lives, thus
Jesse James upholds the mythos, offering us the standard whitewashed version of the
James boys. According to
Nunally Johnson's irresistibly entertaining screenplay,
Jesse (
Tyrone Power) and Frank (
Henry Fonda) become train and bank robbers to avenge the death of their mother (
Jane Darwell), killed at the behest of greedy railroad interests. Once he feels his work is done,
Jesse settles down to a life of marital domesticity--only to be shot in the back by cowardly
Bob Ford (
John Carradine).
Frank James is left alive at film's end, paving the way for the 1941 sequel
The Return of Frank James. Director
Henry King stages the action sequences in glorious outsized fashion, notably the famous bank-robbery scene in which
Jesse rides his horse through a plate glass window. The scenes involving both
James brothers are stolen hands-down by
Henry Fonda, not so much because he was a better actor than
Tyrone Power but because his character had all the best lines.
Jesse James was filmed largely on location in Missouri, resulting in crowd-control nightmares for the picture's beleaguered assistant directors.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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