The Return of Frank James
(1940) dir. Fritz Lang
viewed: 12/03/07
Hollywood has been in the sequel business for a long time. If it works once, it can work again. Take for instance, The Return of Frank James, the sequel to the excellent Henry King film, Jesse James (1939), bringing back most of the principal actors and sets, even. I queued this out of curiosity, since I had seen that it was directed by cinema maestro Fritz Lang, whose Metropolis (1927) and M (1931) are two of cinema’s great films. Actually, I’ve always meant to but have never followed Lang’s work in Hollywood. So, this seemed like a good starting place.
The narrative of this film diverges significantly from the reality of the post-Jesse story, recounted many a time with many a variation as I have been noting. In this one, Henry Fonda, reprising his role as Frank, seeks to hunt down and kill the Ford brothers when they escape execution with the governor’s pardon for Jesse’s murder. Frank has settled down to be a farmer, living a life as he had before the railroad had railroaded them into becoming vengeful outlaws. And again, Frank only seeks to kill the Fords and get revenge when the system of justice fails. This is a strong theme in the film. Frank is a straight-shooter and has never killed anyone (except perhaps in the Civil War).
And through the machinations of the plot, Frank never ends up having to kill anyone either. His sidekick, a teenage boy who has taken up with him, Clem (played by Jackie Cooper), is a rambunctious kid who wants to make a name for himself. Frank, on the other hand, wants to settle down. The law picks up Pinky, his negro pal, and plans to hang him for the crimes that he had nothing to do with, Frank decides to forgo the revenge and put himself at risk to save Pinky. And it all works out in the end, of course.
The film has an odd attitude toward racism. The narrative is quite pro-South in that both Frank, the judge, Frank’s lawyer Major Rufus Cobb (the irrascible Henry Hull reprising his role), and even the jury are all Southerners whose perspective on the War was the it was a fight for the Confederacy,…and while not outright politicized, it’s got a subtext of support. And while the heroic deed that Frank does, of turning himself in to save his negro friend, the African Americans in the film are far more stereotypical in their roles, especially this one scene of an African American maid being scared out of a hotel room when she hears some mysterious “bumping” noises. There are also a few references to them as “darkies”, which may have still been a commonality at the time, but still does ring on the negative side. It’s a weird issue with the film.
As for Lang, the film has a few moments of striking shadows and dark compositions (I understand that this was his first color film), but for the most part, and maybe this is due to the goofy script, but this is a pretty standard Western in many respects, featuring characteristics of the genre, while not really lifting above it greatly. I suspect this is not the best of his American films, and perhaps not his best genre in which to work.
