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.
Review of Jesse James
