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.

You should know before I go further that I have a strong prejudice against movies about the James Brothers and other 'heroic' criminals of the old west. Much of it is because they are bad history--making very minor characters far more important and heroic than they really were. Second, the studios almost always play fast and loose with the facts--something that makes history teachers like me have migraines.

Why, then did I bother to see this film if I assumed I'd hate it? Well, it was directed by Fritz Lang--that's enough reason to see it. But it also stars Henry Fonda--and I'd watch him in anything.

This film begins around the same time Jesse James was killed. It concerns his brother, Frank, and his actions following this death. Unfortunately, most of what you see never actually occurred--and Frank played no part in the deaths of the Ford Brothers--none. In fact, Frank gave himself up, was tried for some of his crimes (and acquitted) and retired to a relatively normal life. 'Frankly', I'd love to see a film about this--about the many odd jobs he did and the things he did after retirement--but I also doubt if the public would really care! I guess the truth just isn't very interesting in most cases.

So, it's obvious that the plot was almost complete crap. What did I think about the film otherwise? Well, it was pretty to see--being in Technicolor. And Fonda's performance was nice--as usual. In fact the entire film is competent--just nearly all wrong! This actually makes one scene in the movie VERY ironic--and funny. Frank is enjoying a play when suddenly out come two actors pretending to be him and Jesse--and, naturally, the two actors are doing things the James' never did! I'm pretty sure the studio didn't see this as ironic or funny.

By the way, at the 41 minute mark you see a couple horses make some horrifically bad falls. Sadly, to get this wonderful effect, the studios would actually use trip wires (like piano wire) to make the horses fall--and often the horses would break their legs and need to be euthanized! Fortunately this practice was later abandoned when bad publicity for this cruel thing brought this to light.

This was an adequate sequel to the 1939 film "Jesse James", but not nearly as good as the original. To keep continuity intact, Henry Fonda returns as the title character, and other actors reprise their roles from the earlier picture as well. Particularly good was Henry Hull as the bombastic Major Rufus Cobb, along with John Carradine as outlaw Bob Ford.

Except for the embarrassing fabrication of Western history, the film stands as an entertaining story and a nice showcase for the film debut of Gene Tierney portraying Eleanor Stone, a reporter for the Denver Star newspaper run by her father (Lloyd Corrigan). However I couldn't warm up to the casting of Jackie Cooper as Jesse James' grown up son Clem. I guess I'd seen him in just enough 'Our Gang' shorts to make him seem less credible as an outlaw here. One thing is certain, his death scene in the picture is one of the corniest I've ever seen, virtually throwing his head aside as he expires. It just didn't seem believable to me.

One other comment I would make has to deal with the horses Frank and Clem rode during their getaway ride. They were lathered to such a degree that it made me wonder if that was really possible after a hard ride. But at least these steeds stayed on their feet, as opposed to the wild spills taken by the horses in "Jesse James". In that one, Henry Fonda's mount went over a cliff in a virtual somersault, and I would venture to guess, a stunt like that could never be duplicated again.