"He Was the goldingest, dadblastedest, dadgummest buckaroo there ever was"
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.
score 8/10
bkoganbing 24 February 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1299443/35517
Pages:
[1]