User Reviews

Henry Hull, as a newspaper publisher and Jesse's friend, is giving the speech at Jesse James' burial. "We're PROUD of Jesse around here," he shouts. "I reckon all America's a little proud of him. I dunno why. Maybe it's because he was bold -- and lawless -- the way we all like to be, once in a while." Nothing like being bold and lawless. The middle-class James family in Clay County, Missouri, were slave owners and Jesse fought on the side of guerrillas who were sometimes lawless even by Civil War standards. After the war, Jesse was wounded while trying to surrender, and thereafter lawlessness became a career. He was more or less turned into a Robin Hood by a newspaper editor in Kansas who had fantasies of restoring the Confederacy.

But that's all history and history is all conjecture. Any pretense towards factuality in this movie can be easily shrugged off and a viewer can sit back and enjoy a bang-pow Western full of well-crafted scenes of shooting and galloping horses and drama about loyalty and love.

Some scenes are positively comic. During the hold up of a train, Bob Ford (John Carradine) walks down the aisle collecting cash from the terrified passengers. "Thank you! Thank you kindly, sir. Hurry, please. That's a fine pocket watch, sir." And there is an engaging meeting between Randolph Scott as the lawman in Liberty, Missouri, and Tyrone Power as the skedaddling Jesse, in which Scott intuits Jesse's real identity but pretends not to know it.

Some of the shots are spectacular -- twice, a horse and its rider slide off a cliff into a river, tumbling over every which way, a distance like unto that dropped by Paul Newman and Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Tyrone Power is as handsome as Newman or Redford. Randolph Scott is manly, honest, and wise. Henry Fonda, as Jesse's brother Frank, is taciturn, spits tobacco, and acts like The Man With No Name. Henry Hull, as the cantankerous newspaper editor, paraphrases Shakespeare to amusing effect, "If we are ever going' to have law and order in this town, the first thing we got to do is take all the lawyers and shoot 'em down like dogs." The movie was shot in splendid Technicolor on location in Jesse James' country.

The sentiment with which the film ends is stupid. We all want to be like Jesse James. Right -- we all want to carry guns and shoot people we don't like, or just strangers who get in our way. But the protagonist of this story isn't Jesse James. It's Tyrone Power acting out a revenge motive and he's fundamentally a good guy, so we can afford to applaud him because the character doesn't exist. Let's cheer for Robin Hood too, while we're at it.

It was the luck of Tyrone Power that he became the pet male star of Producer Genius Daryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox. He was constantly finding decent adventure film properties for Power to use, resulting in a huge public following for the star.

Unfortunately in 1938 Power was lent to MGM to appear in the extravaganza historical film MARIE ANTOINETTE with Norma Shearer. He gave a fine performance as her friend/probable lover Count Axel Fersen, but his fans were puzzled, and some critics had a field day. It was like a problem a decade and a half earlier suffered by silent idol Rudolf Valentino, when he made some costume films like MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE. Then Valentino suggested the choice of these rolls proved Valentino was a "powder puff" (i.e. homosexual). Now they suggested the same (after one film only!) for Power.

To recoup meant taking Power into a particular historical film - a western. Long before the idea of a homosexual cowboy found any open acceptance on the screen, most actors found that the most masculine American role was as a cowboy. And if Power was going to play a westerner, he should play one who did not take nonsense - indeed was downright dangerous to people he disliked. Such a person was Jesse Woodson James (1848 - 1882). Zanuck's genius at picking the right properties showed up here to such great affect, that a year later MGM copied the idea for their resident star with a huge female following, Robert Taylor, with the film BILLY THE KID.

In first rate Technicolor, we watch a screen-writer's version of Jesse's complicated and violent life, in the last days of the Civil War (for the South), fighting carpetbaggers, banks, and railroads from the North, turning bandit against these aggressors, and then controlling the best bank and train robbing gang from 1868 - 1876 in the Mississippi/Missouri Valley. It also follows the love and marriage and tribulations of Jesse and his wife Zee Cobb (Nancy Kelly), and the events leading to his assassination (which more of below) by Robert Ford (John Carridine) a member of his gang. His brother and gang partner Frank is played by Henry Fonda. His love rival but occasional ally, the Marshall is Randolph Scott. Besides Carridine, the villains are a half-way comic banker/railroad owner played by Donald Meek, and his agent played by J. Edward Bromberg (possibly his best known role). And as for that "great" editor, Col. Rufus Cobb (Henry Hull) anyone who does not think him a great character should be taken outside and hanged like a dog!

Henry King, a good journeyman director used by Power and Zanauck in several films, turned in a first rate job, even as the screenplay really improves Jesse's record. It is questionable if he was in the Confederate army or even served with Quantrill (as Frank and the missing Cole Younger, his cousin, did). But he was thoroughly tied to the lost cause, and the post war poverty that hit his part of Missouri did not endear the victors to him. Given the way money ruled the Gilded Age millionaires, one can see that the avariciousness's of the banks and railroads would have worsened the situation. But did that give Jesse and Frank and their gang the right to kill any former Union foe they encountered in what was technically peacetime?

The Northfield Bank Raid is rightly seen as the destruction of the James - Younger Gang, and as a model of overreaching. Unlike the fictional version in the story (the plan is betrayed, so the bank becomes a trap), Jesse and the gang tried to rob two banks in Northfield, Minnesota, and thought the locals there would be as indifferent as Missourians or Kansas on-lookers (they weren't). Many were shot and killed on both sides, but worse Cole and his brothers were captured and sent to prison. Jesse and Frank and several others escaped - but regrouped in Missouri. It lasted for six more years with bank and railroad robberies before Jesse was killed by Ford.

There is no denying (as Hull says at the end) that James was a criminal. But to be fair, the Federal Government and the Pinkertons did not behave well either. Keep in mind, in 1870 Federal intervention in the states was limited to the Reconstruction policies, not to policing action. But Ulysses Grant, although from Ohio, had lived in Missouri for years, and took a personal interest in the James Gang. He was willing to use the Pinkertons as his agents, including one incident where a bomb-like device was used against Jesse's mother's family, injuring several (his mother lost her arm), and killing his half-brother. So furious was Jesse about this, for a couple of months he was in Chicago seeking a chance to attack and kill Allan Pinkerton!

And then there is that final killing - Governor Crittenden of Missouri, from a distinguished Kentucky family, smashed his career in setting up a "hit" by Ford, in which Jesse was shot in the back in his parlor! I don't think any other criminal of the top rank in American History (maybe Dillinger in his demise at the Biograph Theater in Chicago) ever came across as having had his bad list of actions cleaned by the manner his death was caused. In 1881 Crittenden was considered a possible future Democratic Presidential candidate. After 1882 his career was finished. As for Ford, he was shot down years later - his killer given a judicial slap on the hand.

JESSE JAMES cuts down the negative issues a bit too much, and builds up his good characteristics too much. Yet it works splendidly as film. Other "James" films like I SHOT JESSE JAMES or THE GREAT NORTHFIELD RAID may be truer somehow, but this is the JAMES we like to recall - and the JAMES that will live.

The good news is that this film is a cut above the average Western. The bad news is that it's "notoriously inaccurate", painting the James' as good, misunderstood boys...which they were not by a long shot (pun intended). The further bad news is that the film is also notorious for cruelty to horses.

Knowing the overwhelming inaccuracy of the movie, why would one watch it. 4 words -- Tyrone Power / Henry Fonda. And that pairing is one of the things that makes this film a cut above the average Western. Superb acting. The film also shows the destruction of relationships when good men (?) go bad. Another admirable feature of the movie is the relative respect the Black "sidekick" (for wont of a better term) gets here. Atypical of Hollywood in that era.

Aside from the inaccuracies in the plot, there is a point in the film where, suddenly, Jesse goes from being a basically good boy (even though he's an outlaw) to becoming surly and a bad man. It just seems to happen overnight...no moving toward that point gradually. A serious flaw in the movie. On the other hand, the nearly last scene with his son is quite touching...well done.

Tyrone Power is, as always, terrific in this part. It's not his fault the movie is a lie. Likewise, Henry Fonda is excellent, although he really only has one particularly strong scene, where he tells Jesse he has become bad. Nancy Kelly is very good as the love interest, and shows well the angst of someone whose life is being ruined by an outlaw. Randolph Scott is good as the sheriff, although his role sort of disappears later in the film. Henry Hull is a hoot as the newspaper editor, although just maybe it's a bit overplayed. Slim Summerville is funny as the jailer...and I enjoyed his memorable performance in a Shirley Temple film. Brian Donlevy is his typical menacing self early in the movie, but is shot to death by Jesse, so you don't see him much past the opening scenes. John Carradine, as the man who shoots Jesse, is...well, John Carradine. Donald Meek is welcome character actor in any film...and does nicely here. Jane Darwell is another magnificent character actor, though her pivotal role (Jesse's mother) only lives through the opening scenes. Special attention should be paid to Ernest Whitman, who plays Pinkie, the Black sidekick. There's respect shown in the script, although his billing was very low.

I recommend this film because it is good film-making...despite gross historical inaccuracies. Interesting to compare it to the recent Brad Pitt film about Jesse James.

The American Humane Association, which is the source of the familiar disclaimer "No animals were harmed..." (the registered trademark of the AHA), began to monitor the use of animals in film production more than 60 years ago, after a blindfolded horse was forced to leap to its death from the top of a cliff for a shot in the film Jesse James (1939). Needless to say, the atrocious act kills the whole entertainment aspect of this film for me. I suppose one could say that at least the horse didn't die in vain, since it was the beginning of the public waking up to the callous and horrendous pain caused animals for the glory of movie making, but I can't help but feel that if the poor animal had a choice, this sure wouldn't have been the path he would have taken!

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!

The day after the latest cinematic retelling of the Jesse James story opened in London - and is, by all accounts, a fairly turgid affair - the BBC screened this popular version from 1939, shot in the old three-strip Technicolor and starring Tyrone power and a cast of Hollywood stalwarts - Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell would play mother and son again the following year in The Grapes Of Wrath, Donald Meek appeared in Stagecoach (another John Ford film) the same year, whilst the likes of Henry Hull and Randolph Scott made up the numbers. My own knowledge of the facts is too scanty for me to comment yeah or nay on a screenplay which paints the James brothers as home-steaders minding their own business until a nasty villain in the shape of Brian Donlevy tries to con them out of their land - as he has done to several of their neighbors - which is needed for the railroad, and inadvertently kills their mother. Naturally such behaviour is enough to send any God-fearing farmer to the edge so all those trains subsequently robbed by the brothers are just their way of getting even. It's probably fair to say that in 1939 no one was analysing these things too closely and provided a film delivered a fair slice of entertainment audiences were happy. This still delivers entertainment if you think of the standards of the time; Power is a great hero and he plays with passion and zeal, his cause is seen to be just and he really was a hero to the people. Judged by its own lights this is a fine movie.

Everyone should have somebody like Henry Hull deliver an epitaph.

The story of Jesse W. James, America's most notorious outlaw, the American Dick Turpin or Ned Kelly, was especially popular in the Depression era Thirties. With people having very little disposable income and losing homes to banks out there in the same country where less than a century before Jesse James rode, why wouldn't he be popular.

The basic outlines of the Jesse James saga in this film are true. After he and brother Frank had done Civil War service with Quantrill's Raiders, he settled down to be a farmer. And it's true that Jesse and Frank's mother, played here by Jane Darwell, was a victim of a firebomb from the railroad that was trying to evict them from their land. After that the James boys became outlaws, the most notorious our wild west ever saw.

Tyrone Power gives a classic interpretation of Jesse James in what turned out to be his first western and first color film. And it was also the first trip to the cinematic wild west for Henry Fonda as Frank James. Fonda got the best reviews for his laconic, understated interpretation of Frank James and it was so popular that he did a sequel film, The Return of Frank James two years later.

Randolph Scott as the honest marshal has never been given proper recognition for his role. He's got a sense of decency and fair play and some of his best moments come during Power's jailbreak after he's been tricked into surrendering himself. Scott leaves railroad President Donald Meek to his own devices. Of course Power turns the table on president Donald Meek and humiliates him. Of course Meek exacts a terrible revenge.

J. Edward Bromberg as the detective/hit-man that Meek hires has some of his best screen moments. He's a jovial, but ruthless character and your sympathies aren't with him. To be fair though by this time Jesse James was not a Robin Hood crusader, but a full blown outlaw.

The only other portrayals of note are Nancy Kelly as Jesse's wife and her uncle, town newspaper editor Henry Hull, author of some flaming editorials and John Carradine as the Judas of Jesse's gang.

Remember that the Jameses are post Civil War white southerners with the racial attitudes of same. The portrayal of Ernest Whitman as Pinky has come in for criticism. But probably the portrayal rings true, because Whitman would have had to bow low and shuffle for survival's sake. And 1939 was the year of Gone With the Wind.

Still Jesse James is good entertainment though not exactly the real story of our most notorious buckaroo.

When I was a kid, back in 1949, this movie was already 10 years old. One Sunday, my brother comes inside and tells my Dad that "Jesse James" and "The Return of Frank James" were playing downtown at the Pix. My father dropped his newspaper, told my Mom to "hold dinner" and put us in the car to see these two gems. The extremely popular "Jesse James" quickly spawned a sequel; both made by A-list director (Henry King & Fritz Lang). The movies meld together to perfection.

Beginning with a great screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, top flight performances, and the exceptional beauty of original 3-strip Technicolor, these movies are often imitated, never equaled. 1972's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was obviously an imitation of "Jesse James" in mind, in spirit.

We no longer have top stars like Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda, but at least they live on in videos.

Wonderfully committed to the Confederate cause, these movies take a few liberties with history, are accurate in many details; but most important in casting "the railroad" as the bad guys. I remember my history, and while many like to bellyache about slavery, the real slave-masters of the era were the railroads -- who stole the earnings and impoverished the lives of the ordinary Americans living in their path. As with slavery, with the full blessing of the government.

Once hard to see, I now watch this double feature every year. They never grow old.