Le retour de Frank James

The first western directed by Fritz Lang and it wouldn't be his last. Henry Fonda returns as Frank James and so do several other cast members like John Carradine and Henry Hull. There is a new cast member played by Jackie Cooper who is playing Jesse James grown up kid. This one starts out with Frank wanting to give up bank robbing until he hears about Jesse getting killed and then going after the Ford brothers who killed him. The Ford brothers, by the way, are putting on a show about how they killed Jesse.

Frank doesn't have that much money so he decides to rob a bank and a man is killed by the posse but they think Frank did it. There's more to the plot by you can find that out for yourself. This is Gene Tierney's first film and in this movie Frank had to avenge Jesse's murder without actually killing anyone himself, do to the strictures of the censors.

"The Return of Frank James" has a nice script, beautiful costumes, an accurate photography in gorgeous technicolor. Perhaps a further pair of gun-fights would be desirable: gun-fights in a western movie are like salt in the food. The film has a peculiar interest for cinephiles, since here the great director Fritz Lang confronts himself with the western genre for the first time. I think he makes a good job, even if does not seem completely at his home. Moreover we have the usual Henry Fonda's charisma and... OK... the main reason why I am interested in the movie is the presence of Gene Tierney at the very beginning of her career. I must confess that here her legendary beauty is still a bit unripe... let's say that Venus has just come out of the shell. No fear: within one year or two our eyes will rest on the highest beauty in movie history (in history at all, I dare say).

Thanks to the terrific cast and photography, this story makes a terrific western. Henry Hull is terrific as major Cobb, who expresses justified Southern outrage over the depradations of the carpetbaggers and the railroads. Despite the ignorant comments of some who dare to make a ludicrous comparison to fascism, what we get here is an honest expression of southern feelings. Yes, there was a condesencion toward blacks then, but let film show it as it was, let's not try to rewrite history or create a pleasing fiction as all too many modern films do. 'Shoot em down like dogs??!' I would dearly love to see Major Cobb in a modern day courtroom, giving fire and damnation to the lawyers and other parasites that hide behind suits and ties! This is a real satisfying film and Gene Tierney never looked better.

The sequel to the immensely popular "Jesse James" (1939) as helmed by director Fritz Lang, finds Henry Fonda reprising his performance as Frank James in an entertaining,but routine revenge western.Also from the earlier cast we have Henry Hull,J.Edward Bromberg,John Carradine and Donald Meek.Jackie Cooper as Fonda's sidekick and the beautiful Gene Tierney are nice additions to the cast.Shot in subdued Technicolor,the movie has some nice outdoor visuals.Although not as good as the previous movie,it has its memorable moments:Frank James catching up with his brother's murderers performing a highly theatrical reenactment of Jesse's killing and the final shootout in the stable are the movie's highlights for me.

Don't allow the fact that this film is pure fiction (aside from the murder of Jesse by Robert Ford) to mar your enjoyment of it as a bang-up good revenge western. Just as in JESSE JAMES, the writers here preferred to stick to the things that never happened! There is plenty of truth in the background, though, depicting the rapaciousness of the burgeoning railroad industry and the yankee carpetbaggers. As to what really happened to Frank and Bob, the facts about Bob are just as dramatic as the fiction of this film. Frank did retire from crime, surrendered to the law after Jesse's murder and was either never charged, or was acquitted of complicity in Jesse's many crimes. He tried various things, including farming, and a short stint as a "floor walker" in Sanger Brothers department store in Dallas, Texas. Apparently he died with his boots "off". "Little Robert Ford" did go into show business, dramatizing how he shot down the dangerous outlaw bravely in a showdown gunfight(!). Eventually, he wound up as the owner of a saloon in Creed, Colorado. Here he was murdered much the same way he had murdered Jesse (in the back) by a man who held a grudge against him. Some say the man did it in revenge for Jesse's murder, but that is likely just speculation. Gene Tierney and the scenery are beautifully photographed in gorgeous technicolor throughout.