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Wonderful character development!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Spectacular as well as exciting Western talks the lives of Jesse and Frank James ; featuring notorious interpretations by a popular group of known stars . This is a slight and intelligent biopic about Jesse James who ranks with Billy the Kid as the most famous of Western outlaws . Legend and folklore have cast him as a Robin Hood , a good boy forced by circumstances to follow a criminal life . The picture provides a good portrait of Jesse and his band , as they move from Civil War to there territory becoming into semi-legends . As showing his home life in Missouri, his experiences with Quantrill's raiders and his career of banditry . As Jesse (Tyrone Power) and Frank (Henry Fonda) along with cousins Cole , Bob and Jim Younger return from War to find their mommy (Jane Darwell) and family threatened by railway people . As Barshee (Brian Donlevy) was hired by the railroad company run by Mc Coy (Donald Meek) to hunt down Jesse and Frank . So James Brothers commence to robbin' banks and trains to help out the poor folks who been done wrong . In the course of their revenge , they will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West . Along the way , Jesse courts attractive young , Zerelda (Nancy Kelly) . As their fame grows, so will the legend of their leader, a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James . At the end , he is betrayed by the Ford brothers , Charlie and Bob (John Carradine) . This is a sprawling and glamorous Western with excellent performances from Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda . The film gets spectacular shoot em'up , thrills , exciting horse pursuits . A glimmer Western with a wild bunch look-alike that ends up into a fateful final . Packs colorful scenarios, moving pace and slick edition . This is a decent look about the known story of the West's greatest bandit , Jesse James , along with Frank , Cole Younger and brothers with acceptable performances and compelling direction creating some good action scenes . The picture shows nice as well as spectacular frames , as when both Jesse and Frank going off the cliff on horseback , in reality the stunt was performed once and shot with two cameras. After the two horses that were blindfolded and forced to go over a cliff were killed, a new rule was enforced and later endorsed by The Humane Society of America in which strict standards were created to protect Animal Actors in which at the end of the movie and added to the credits listed as "No Animals Were Harmed or Injured in the Production of this Film" ; now all films involving any Animal Actors must have present a member representing The Humane Society of America to insure that all animals are treated humanly and given a safe environment in which to work. As originally conceived by screen writer Nunnally Johnson along with contributing writers as Curtis Kenyon , Long and Gene Fowler . Taut excitement throughout , beautifully photographed by George Barnes and W. Howard Greene . The motion picture was well realized by Henry King . It was followed by a sequel : ¨The return of Frank James¨ (1950) by Fritz Lang with Henry Fonda . Other films about this legendary outlaw are : ¨I shot Jesse James¨ by Samuel Fuller with John Ireland as Bob Ford ; ¨Jesse James vs the Dalton (1954)¨ by William Castle with John Ireland . ¨The true story of Jesse James¨ (1957) by Nicholas Ray with Robert Wagner , Jeffrey Hunter , Hope Lange , Agnes Moorehead ; in which footage from the original 1939 production was used when Frank and Jesse go over a cliff on horseback into a river and when they crashed , on horseback, through a store window during the "Northfield Minnesota Raid" . And contemporary-style Western such as ¨Frank and Jesse¨ by Robert Boris with Rob Lowe as Jesse James , Bill Paxton as Frank James and Randy Travis as Younger ; ¨American outlaws¨ by Les Mayfield with Colin Farrell , Gabriel Macht , Terry O'Quinn , Harris Yulin and Ali Larter ; and ¨The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford¨ (2007) by Andrew Dominik with Brad Pitt , Sam Shepard , Mary Louise Parker , Casey Affleck and Sam Rockwell. The picture lavishly produced by Darryl F Zanuck was based on actual events , these are the followings : At the war's end in 1865 , Jesse rode in to surrender and was shot and seriously wounded by a Union soldier . Jesse and his brother joined the Confederate guerrillas of Quantrill and learned to kill in ruthless company . It is believed that Jesse took part in his first robbery in 1866 when a dozen men held up the bank in Liberty , Missouri . A bank cashier was killed in the raid and a reward was offered for each of the James brothers . In 1873 Jesse and his band derailed and robbed a train on the Rock Island line . Jesse married his cousin Zerelda , who bore him two children . Pinkerton detectives were contracted to chase Jesse and Frank , the agents surrounded the home , believing they to be there , tossed a bomb and the explosion killed Jesse's young half-brother . This outrage brought much sympathy for the brothers . On 1876 Jesse and Frank in company the three Younger Brothers , attempted a bank robbery at Northfield , Minnnesota , and walked in disaster . The alerted citizens opened fire on the raiders , of the eight bandits involved , three were killed and three Younger brothers were captured .

This brilliant movie illustrates eminently a brutal chapter in Western socio-economic history: the creation of the iron horse, the transcontinental railroad. One of America's greatest novelists called it 'The Octopus'. It strangled without mercy the farmers with its multiple sucker-bearing arms. In Frank Norris' novel, the strangulation happened through highly exaggerated prices for the transportation of farm products; in other words, an extortion by a monopoly. In this movie, the railroad owners try to force the farmers to sell their land for a pittance by lying ('the government will give you nothing') or by naked violence. They need new land for extensions of their railroad grid. One of the families which resist the violent extortion is the James household (Frank, Jesse and their mother). When their house is destroyed by arson and their mother is killed, the brothers take the law in their own hands and seek revenge by robbing the railroad clients, the passengers.This movie shows a lawless and corrupt country, where the power lies in the hands of the money men, who have friends in high places and who control the decision makers (the lawmakers and the judges). On the other hand, at the end of the 19th century, the press (the media), here the 'Liberty Weekly Gazette', was still independent, and supported the farmers against blatant arbitrariness.This is a superb movie, not only for its perfect depiction of a not so distant past, but also, for its still highly relevant themes, like social and economic power, corrupt politics and freedom (of speech). Excellent direction by Henry King with an outstanding cast (T. Power, H. Fonda, R. Scott). A must see.

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

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!