The Return of Frank James (1940) - film review

Living under an assumed name, Frank James leads a quiet, reclusive life on his farm, hoping to forget his recent past as an outlaw.  Unfortunately, his past has not forgotten him.  When he learns that his brother, Jesse, has been shot dead by the Ford brothers, he resolves to take his revenge.  First, he raids the offices of the railroad company that paid the Fords their reward money for killing Jesse, then he heads after the Fords, determined that they will be paid in kind for their crime.  To put his enemies off the scent, Frank initiates a rumour that he was shot in a bar brawl in Mexico.  One of the Ford brothers falls to his death during a chase through the mountains.  Before Frank can run the other brother to ground, he learns that his negro farmhand has been arrested and sentenced to death.  What should Frank do, go after the man who killed his brother or save an innocent man from the hangman’s noose?

Four films into his stint in Hollywood, Fritz Lang finally got to realise his lifelong dream, to direct a western.   Darryl F. Zanuck had originally engaged Lang to work on an epic superproduction about the Old West, but this came to nothing.  The Return of Frank James was the direct sequel to Henry King’s Jesse James (1939), and, in common with that film, it proved to be a huge commercial success, in spite of its shameless historical inaccuracies.  

By this stage in his career, Fritz Lang was a master craftsman and he directs this film with the characteristic flair and meticulous attention to detail that he shows throughout his oeuvre.  Note in particular his skilful use of lighting and camera angles to emphasise the vulnerability and interior conflict in the main protagonist, much as he would do in his subsequent film noir thrillers.  There is also a great deal of comedy, something that is hard to find in Lang’s work; presumably this was added to offset the dramatic tension and make Frank James appear a more sympathetic character.

Returning to play the part of Frank James, Henry Fonda turns in another of his sombre introspective performances that made him a particularly suitable casting choice for the part of the taciturn yet sympathetic lone gunman.  Making an impressive film debut is the twenty-year old Gene Tierney, an actress who would enjoy a high profile career in the following two decades, being best remembered for her leading role in Otto Preminger’s classic film noir Laura (1944).

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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