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The Return of Frank James

The Return of Frank James

  • Status: Released
  • 10-08-1940
  • Runtime: 92 min
  • Score: 6.252
  • Vote count: 129

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

Henry Fonda

Frank James

Jackie Cooper

Clem

Gene Tierney

Eleanor Stone

Henry Hull

Major Rufus Cobb

John Carradine

Bob Ford

J. Edward Bromberg

George Runyan

Donald Meek

McCoy

Eddie Collins

Station Agent

George Barbier

Judge

Russell Hicks

Prosecutor

Ernest Whitman

Pinky

Charles Tannen

Charlie Ford

Lloyd Corrigan

Randolph Stone

Victor Kilian

Preacher

Edward McWade

Colonel Jackson

George Chandler

Roy

Irving Bacon

Bystander

Frank Shannon

Sheriff

Barbara Pepper

Nellie Blane

Louis Mason

Watchman

Matthew Beard

Mose

William Pawley

Actor

Frank Sully

Actor

Davison Clark

Officer

Bob Battier

Frank James in Play (uncredited)

A.S. Byron

Train Engineer (uncredited)

Kernan Cripps

Deputy (uncredited)

Rube Dalroy

Juror (uncredited)

Lester Dorr

Reporter (uncredited)

Tex Driscoll

Play Spectator (uncredited)

Edmund Elton

Jury Foreman (uncredited)

Budd Fine

Deputy (uncredited)

Almeda Fowler

Mrs. Edna Stone (uncredited)

Slim Gaut

Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)

Sherry Hall

Court Clerk (uncredited)

Shep Houghton

Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)

Milton Kibbee

Reporter (uncredited)

Kermit Maynard

Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)

Eric Mayne

Saloon Patron (uncredited)

Nelson McDowell

Confederate Veteran Juror (uncredited)

Robert McKenzie

Old Man on Rocker (uncredited)

Lew Meehan

Bailiff (uncredited)

Frank Melton

Reporter (uncredited)

Adrian Morris

Denver Detective (uncredited)

James C. Morton

Liberty Bartender (uncredited)

Hattie Noel

Denver House Chambermaid (uncredited)

Lee Phelps

Denver House Bartender (uncredited)

Tex Phelps

Front-Row Play Spectator (uncredited)

Russ Powell

Juror (uncredited)

Allen D. Sewall

Old Timer (uncredited)

Cap Somers

Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)

Dale Van Sickel

Reporter (uncredited)

Lillian Yarbo

Eleanor's Maid (uncredited)

CinemaSerf

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".