The Return of Frank James

The Return of Frank James

10/8/1940 1h 32m 6.3/10

Overview

Farmer Frank and his ward hunt brother Jesse's killers, the back-shooting Fords.

Director

Fritz Lang

Top Billed Cast

Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Frank James

John Carradine

John Carradine

Bob Ford

Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Clem

Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Eleanor Stone

Henry Hull

Henry Hull

Major Rufus Cobb

J. Edward Bromberg

J. Edward Bromberg

George Runyan

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

4/4/2022

6/10

Henry Hull's "Maj. Cobb" steals this rather unremarkable follow up to the previous year's much superior "Jesse James". This time, surviving brother Frank (Henry Fonda) hears that assassins Bob (John Carradine) and Charlie Ford (Charles Tannen) have been convicted of his brother's murder - but that they have been pardoned. He sets off to avenge this travesty but along the way finds himself and the young "Clem" (Jackie Cooper) involved in a bank robbery that sees his old retainer "Pinky" (Ernest Whitman) set to swing after the watchman is accidentally killed. Determined to avert that he engages "Cobb" as his lawyer and turns himself in. The twenty minutes or so in the courtroom are a bit of an amusing tour-de-force for the old newspaper man; he plays the jury like a fiddle and the judge (George Barbier) seems pretty complicit as railroad man "McCoy" (Donald Meek) finds he has few friends in them thar parts. The ending is a bit weak, indeed the whole thing is rather an unnecessary sequel, but it's still worth it for the entertaining antics of "Maj. Cobb".

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