An outlaw folk hero. A villain hiding behind the law. A "slimy railroad detective." It's no wonder Fritz Lang was drawn to the James-Ford saga. His interest in the darkness of lawmen and the humanity of criminals served him well in other films, but his foray into the Western genre is disappointingly straightforward.
Frank James (Henry Fonda), in hiding after the legally-permitted murder of his brother Jesse by Robert Ford, is forced to leave his peaceful retirement when he's identified. Igniting a feud between himself and Robert Ford (John Carradine) - as well as the passions of reporter Eleanor Stone (Gene Tierney) - Frank is forced to contend with both Ford and corrupt lawmen while attempting to clear his name. The film's premise is an interesting one, portraying Frank James to be a victim of circumstance rather than a violent criminal, but it ends up over-adjusting the roles to the point where Frank is almost completely good (albeit stubborn/pragmatic) and Robert Ford is purely evil. Frank's crimes - including the robbery of a railroad company that funded Jesse's demise - are rationalized as the James boys were "brought up to right [their] own wrongs." With this repositioning and lack of nuance, it loses the fascinating shading that Lang usually brings to his characters.