People were shocked with Henry Fonda portrayed a bad guy in 1968’s Once Upon A Time In The West. It was, however, not his first turn as a villain. In 1939’s Jesse James Henry Fonda portrayed Frank James, brother and coconspirator to outlaw Jesse James, here portrayed by Tyrone Power. The film was so successful there was even a sequel – directed by Fritz Lang where Fonda reprised his role.
Alright, so most of the facts are wrong. The love interest for Jesse, for example, isn’t his cousin as it was in real life, but the niece of a newspaper man from the next town over. In this film we get the duo portrayed as victims of unscrupulous railroad executives attempting to buy up the land for much less than it is worth. When things turn sour the brothers start taking out their revenge on the railroad and of course things escalate from there.
Randolph Scott is the lawman after Jesse and Frank, Lon Chaney Jr. is a member of the gang, and there’s Henry Hull, J. Edward Bromburg, and more. This was a big film for the studio and they weren’t going to let little things like historical accuracy get in the way of solid entertainment.
Now on Blu-ray we get the film with just a short MovieTone news item for the special features. I would have preferred to have the sequel The Return Of Frank James tacked on as a double bill at the very least. No audio commentary, no featurette, no interviews, nothing else.