Jesse James (1939)

“I ain't aimin' to do nuthin'. I'm doin' it. I'm holdin' up this train.”

 “The whole train?”

            Jesse James is a character from American history that has turned into a myth. I have not ever really researched the man but just from the films that have been made over the decades about him it is obvious that America has mythologized this Midwestern outlaw hero. Twentieth Century Fox took a turn at portraying the outlaw starring Tyrone Power as the titular character, Henry Fonda as his brother, and Randolph Scott as the friendly US Marshal.

            A railroad company has sent men out to buy land from families so they can build their new rail line through them. The men that have been sent out are bullies they tell the people they want land from that if they do not buy the land from them they will get the sheriff to settle the matter and just take the land away without payment. They get to the home of Jesse and Frank James. The one man Marsh begins to bully the mother. Her sons are not taking any of his bullying especially against their mother. Frank starts to fight Marsh, Marsh goes to grab a scythe. Jesse shoots Marsh in the hand before he can hurt Frank. Marsh is furious and rides away into town with his posse. He has the sheriff of the town swear him in as a deputy so he can go and arrest the brothers. Frank and Jesse have fled leaving their mother alone in the house. Marsh comes back looking to bomb the brothers to come out of their home. He sees the mother moving around inside. Thinking the movement is coming from Jesse and Frank he throws the bomb. The poor mother dies.

            Jesse and Frank hear of their mother’s death. They find Marsh in a saloon and Jesse shoots him dead. No one is upset with the shooting except for the rail line. To get back at the rail company even more the brothers and a posse begin robbing trains on the line. US Marshal Will Wright has been assigned to find the James brothers. Jesse likes a woman named Zee. Her uncle is the town’s newspaper editor and one of his supporters. He goes to see Zee one night. Will comes over. They pretend not to realize who the other is. When Will leaves he waits outside to see if Jesse will do something. When he does not Will leaves him and Zee alone.

            Jesse and Zee eventually get married. She begs Jesse to turn himself in since Will has gained a pardon from the governor. He does turn himself in but the head of the railroad wants a full trial and Jesse hanged and gets his way when he has Jesse arrested. Frank has a letter sent to the jail that if his brother is not released by midnight he is coming to get him. An old man in the jail tells the head of the railroad that he has known Frank since he was young and that Frank means what he says. Frank gets himself caught. The two men that bring him in are friends of his that were sworn in as deputies that day by Will. The brothers pretty much walk out of the prison.

            Jesse and Zee live out in a cabin in the woods. He is barely home anymore he is always out robbing trains and banks. She gets very upset at her husband when he is not there for the birth of their son. Zee realizes that Jesse will always be an outlaw they will always be on the run and afraid. She does not want to live like that anymore she wants her uncle to take her back to town. When Jesse comes home his wife and child are gone. His servant Pinky tells him that it is better that he does not come back Zee could be happy. Jesse does not want his son to know about him.

            Years later Jesse is a wreck. He is making his men take riskier chances they do not want to take. He plans on robbing a bank in a small town during the day. The men have talked and they do not want to do the job. Jesse is furious with them. Frank has a talk with his brother about what he is doing to his men making them chances that could get them killed. The job winds up going wrong and some of the men are caught.

            Jesse somehow returns to his old home. He crawls up to his bedroom. Zee comes in to take care of him. She brings their son upstairs. Jesse swears he is done with what he is doing. He does not want to be on the run anymore. The Ford brothers from the posse have become double crossers. They go to see Jesse saying that Frank wants to see him in the hills for one more job. Jesse is tempted but he has promised Zee they would go to California to start a new life. The brothers leave but Bob Ford sneaks back into the house and shoots Jesse in the back killing him.

            I am not a huge fan of Tyrone Power but he was excellent in this film. I am so used to seeing him as sweet romantic good guy characters. It was nice to see him roughed up a bit and being bad guy. Henry Fonda was not in the film very much. I think out the entire 106 minute run he was in it for probably a combined twenty minutes if that. He was good though Fonda was just good in anything he was cast in. Randolph Scott I love more and more with each film I see him in. He always played a nice gentleman with this perfect tough side that was totally believable. The actress who played Zee was horrible. I hated seeing her in scenes and could not stand when she opened her mouth. The studio could have gotten someone ten times better for the role.

            Jesse James was a good film. There were some scenes that dragged but for the most part the story moved along nicely. 

Coast Guard (1939)

            As I have mentioned in other posts about films made in 1939 I am on a mission to watch as many films from that year as I can possibly find. I am also on a mission to watch as many Frances Dee films as I can find because her films are damn hard to find! (if anyone would like to be kind if you have some of her films somewhere or where I can find more let me or just send them my way please). Coast Guard partly fulfilled both my missions. It is a film that was made in 1939 and Frances Dee is one of its stars.

             A ship manned by a Captain Bliss is being battered by the high winds and tall waves of a bad storm. It is nearing rocks on a shore. An SOS goes out to the Coast Guard to comes and rescue them. Lt. Ray Dower (Ralph Bellamy) is sent out to the ship. Dower and his men are able to rescue all the crew. Unfortunately Bliss is hit in the head by something on his ship as he was climbing down to Dower. The Coast Guard doctor tells Ray that Bliss needs to get to a hospital immediate. The cutter signals out to Ray’s pilot friend Speed Bradshaw (Randolph Scott) flies out to cutter to take Bliss to the hospital.

            The following morning Speed and Ray go to the hospital to check on Bliss. They have never done so before with anyone else they saved but Ray feels he should with this guy. Speed, ever the ladies man, does not even make it to Bliss’s room when he sees a couple of nurses he the hallway that he must go flirt with. When Ray walks in the room he sees Bliss’s granddaughter Nancy (Dee) is there. Bliss falls asleep and for the rest of the afternoon Nancy and Ray talk and eat an entire box of candy.

            Ray and Nancy start seeing each other. Ray brings her to a dance held on the base. He is nervous about having her meet Speed. The poor man fumbles all over the place the whole night. Speed tries to give his best friend a piece of advice. He tells Ray to bite Nancy in the neck. Thank God that scene does not happen. At the moment Ray goes to take his vampire bite an announcement comes through that all Coast Guard crews are to report immediately to duty.

            While Ray is away Speed and Nancy become close. Speed does everything in his power to sell his best friend to Nancy but it is no use. Nancy is now in love with Speed. He tries to tell her that Ray is the safe one he is not he is no good for her. Nancy being a silly woman does not care she is completely in love. When Ray comes home he sees Nancy come to pick Speed up from the base and they kiss.

            Soon Nancy and Speed are married. He desperately wants to settle down in a house with his wife. One night Ray does not come home like he promised. Nancy waits and waits for him. On the request of Bliss, Ray goes to visit Nancy since they have not seen each other seen the wedding. He can see that Nancy is upset and the mood is a bit awkward. Finally in the early morning Speed comes home. Nancy was lying awake on their bed. To make up for his night away he has brought her a bottle of perfume. Soon the whole dresser top is filled with bottles of perfume.

            Nancy has had enough of Speed staying out late and leaving her home alone. She tells him she is leaving before she begins to hate him. For months Speed is on the rock he is so upset. Nancy moves back in with her grandfather. Ray comes by the house every now and then to see them. One day he tells Nancy he is leaving for Alaska and will not be back for some time. At the same moment Speed is flying in the area of the house. He gets close to the house and begins to fly his plane recklessly to get Nancy’s attention. He puts the plane into a dive too close to the water and he cracks one of the wings. The head of Coast Guard is furious with Speed and puts him a suspension.

            In Alaska, Ray gets lost after he tried to run after a stray dog from the sled. The only man that knows Alaska well and would be able to save Ray is Speed. Speed keeps refusing to go. Finally he gives in once Nancy comes to him and pleads with him to rescue their friend.

            Ray is thankfully saved by his best friend. When Speed arrives home Nancy is waiting for him.

            I liked the cast a lot. Frances Dee was such a good actress. I do not think, in the few films I have seen her, she is ever cast poorly with a leading man. Dee worked so well with both Randolph Scott and Ralph Bellamy. I liked Dee so much with Bellamy I wish their characters had wound up together. Bellamy always gets the girl stolen from him in his later films. Scott was just charming and beautiful I honestly do not blame Dee for wanting him! All three actors were perfect in their parts. And so were all the supporting and extra characters.

            There was an incredibly adorable scene I must write about. Speed and Nancy come back to their apartment after their wedding. Nancy is a little upset that they cannot go on a honeymoon anywhere since Speed always has to be on call. Speed sees his new wife is upset. He takes a hand truck the porter was going to use to put the luggage on to bring into the apartment and puts Nancy on it. Speed then pretends he is taking his wife all around the world and both of them point out different cities and what they would see in each one. You would have to see it because both Randolph Scott and Frances Dee were beyond adorable. The whole scene was really creative and very, very well done.

            I also laughed a bit in one scene. Speed and his copilot are about to take off. The copilot takes out his chewed up gum and sticks it on the plane. Speed sees what his friend did and asks why he did it. The copilot says “I saw Spencer Tracy do it in a picture.” He was talking about Tracy’s 1938 film Test Pilot with Myrna Loy and Clark Gale. Test Pilot is one of my all time favorite classic films so I thought the small mention was awesome.

            Coast Guard aired on TCM some time ago. If the channel ever airs Coast Guard it is worth seeing.

 

Supernatural (1933)

“Treat all supernatural beings with respect- but keep aloof from them!”

            I have been looking to watch Supernatural starring Carole Lombard for the longest time. I do not know what made me do it but I went onto YouTube and found it. I have tried to find it on the site for a long time I did once and then they took it down. I am so used to seeing Carole Lombard in her comedy roles that as soon as I heard about Supernatural and how it was darker than her more well known films I had to see it. I was very happy that my expectations for this film did not fall flat it was very good.

            Ruth Rogen has been arrested and sentenced to death after killing three of her lovers. She shows no emotion for having taken three lives. A psychologist deems her sane she knew perfectly well what she was doing. In court she laughs at the judge and laughs at what she did. In jail days before she is about to be executed Ruth begins to panic and demands to see a person who will not come to her.

            A Dr. Hudson asks the warden if he could perform an experiment on Ruth. He thinks that Ruth’s spirit can escape her body and travel into another woman and carry out her evil deed of killing her lovers. He wants to use ultraviolet light to see if he can trap the soul. Ruth agrees but she swears she will have her vengeance no matter what happens.

            A man breaks into a home where a young man, John Courtney, has been laid out before he is to be buried. He makes a plaster cast of John’s face. The trespasser is a spiritualist named Paul Bavian. He is the man who keeps getting letters from Ruth urging him to come see her but he refuses. Paul’s landlord is an annoying old drunk lady who keeps nudging him about what she knows. She says she knows about something that happened between him and Ruth but if she pays him they can still be friends and he will not tell anyone. Paul’s ring hides poison in his ring and pricks the old woman killing her.

            Paul writes a letter to Roma Courtney (Lombard), John’s twin sister. He writes that John has come to him and he needs to see her urgently. Roma asks her boyfriend Grant (Randolph Scott), Dr. Hudson, and her lawyer Hammond. All three tell her not to go they think it is a scam. Roma cannot help her grief and curiosity. With Grant by her side, Roma goes to see Paul at his apartment. Before the couple gets to his apartment, Paul has rigged up his death mask of John along with a few other tricks. One of Paul’s tricks is having John say that Hammond was the one who murdered him. Roma falls for this out of confusion and grief but Grant can see through the phony spiritualists.

            After the séance Roma and Grant go to see Dr. Hudson at his apartment. They are told Dr. Hudson is not to be disturbed but they do not listen. When Roma and Grant find the doctor they see him with the body of Ruth Rogen. Dr. Hudson says they must leave immediately because there is a danger of a contagion but not in the normal sense. As Grant and Roma begin to tell the doctor about their visit to Paul’s an ice cold wind blows through the room even though the doors are closed. Roma faints and when they bring her to a chair they find fingerprints on her throat. Ruth Rogen tried to get into Roma’s body but failed.

            Dr. Hudson convinces Roma to have Paul over the house for another séance. Paul once again puts poison in his ring this time poisoning Hammond. A cold wind comes through the room and Roma grabs her throat. Grant lays Roma on the couch and at that moment Ruth goes into Roma’s body. When she wakes up and stands up she immediately walks over to Paul.

            Roma possessed by Ruth takes Paul to Ruth’s place. Paul does not realize that Roma is possessed by Ruth and is dumbfounded about why they are at the dead woman’s place. This is part of Ruth’s plan to get Paul to confess that he gave her up to the police Paul says they cannot stay in the apartment so he proposes going to Roma’s yacht. After they leave the apartment, Grant and Dr. Hudson come by. They speak to the owner of the apartment building asking if he saw a woman and a man come by. At this time Dr. Hudson realizes that Roma has been possessed by Ruth. They try to think of where Roma and Paul could have gone. The wind blows, an image of John comes before Grant, and a wooden toy boat falls to the ground. Grant sees this as a sign and rushes to the yacht.

            On the yacht Roma/Ruth feeds Paul champagne and tries to seduce him. She tries to strangle him and almost succeeds. Grant and Dr. Hudson come just in time. Paul runs out of the room trying to get to the small boat to take him back to land. Roma walks over to the window and begins to laugh a wicked laugh. Ruth leaves Roma’s body and gets her revenge on Paul.

            Some reviewers have said that the acting is not that great but honestly I have no complaints. Carole Lombard was fantastic. As I said I am so used to seeing Lombard in her comedies that when I found out this film was a darker film of hers I had to see. I did not know what to expect. Lombard was a great actress she had so much talent and this film just proves how great of an actress she was. She had range as an actress she pulled of being this nice girl who was grieving for her brother to this seductive evil woman. Lombard was perfection I give her so much praise. Vivienne Osbourne who played Ruth Rogen was unbelievable. I found myself feeling a little tense in her scenes. Randolph Scott was good but his character was dull.

            Supernatural is a really good film. It is a bit cheesy but I liked the story a lot. Supernatural is short but in that short amount of time the story gets right to the point and keeps you on your toes the entire time. You can watch Supernatural on Youtube.