After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.
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Reviews
DanDare
5
By DanDare
The film looks good in Technicolor but also becomes increasingly sluggish as it goes on.
Nunnally Johnson's screenplay ignores the truth and presents us with the legend. Jesse James (Tyrone Power) and Frank James (Henry Fonda) are just simple country folks. The railroad crooked agents have come round to buy up land on the cheap by using force.
Jesse and Frank become outlaws by robbing trains and banks only because the greedy railroad bosses were responsible for the death of their mother.
Jesse tries to settle down to a life of domestic bliss but his old friends keep calling to try to get him back to do a quick and easy job, only to be shot in the back by a cowardly Bob Ford.
CinemaSerf
6
By CinemaSerf
The all conquering railroad marches across the West dispossessing all that get in it's way. When Jesse and Frank James' mother falls foul of land-grabber "Barshee" (Brian Donlevy) the two brothers declare war on the railway. In best Robin Hood tradition, Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda hit the trains big style. Never with the aim of harming anyone, nor of stealing anything of sentimental value. They just take cash that Donald Meek ("McCoy") and his railroad will have to pay back. Fuelled by enthusiastic local newspaper man "Maj. Cobb" (Henry Hull) who tries to portray them as more heroes than bandits, they have quite a degree of success before the army are called in to preside over matters. That irks the decent marshal "Wright" (Randolph Scott) who wants a fair trial. Power looks every inch the star in this film, but Fonda is far from his best and, personally, I'd sooner have had Walter Brennan or Arthur Hunnicutt as "Cobb". Meek, though, is good as the odious little empire builder who manages, almost singe handedly, to ensure that everyone (including me) takes the side of the James brothers. It's too heavy on the dialogue, indeed there is a real paucity of action for the most part as the colour photography seems to work against any grittiness of the story. It is fine to look at, the costumes etc. all top notch, but the ending sort of sums the whole thing up: the stuff of legend really only superficially dealt with in lieu of box office success.
