The Return of Frank James

Freed from any kind of fealty to reality, Fritz Lang’s sequel to Henry King’s original Jesse James is a huge improvement, that is, until it becomes a shockingly dull courtroom drama in its third act. I’ve read that courtroom finales often end up because of budget issues. Instead of multiple locations or sets, you have one, enclosed set where you collect your actors to fill dozens of minutes of screentime. I wonder if that’s what happened here, the studio wanted a sequel to their unexpected s...