Adventures of Frank and Jesse James

The story picks up with Jesse returning from Tennessee (the sight of"JesseJames Rides Again"), in the same black hat, waistcoat costume, to Missourito join up with brother Frank. There, without explanation, he changes intoaridiculous looking costume consisting of a really, really wide brimmed hatand chaps that are usually associated with cattlemen. There’s nary a cowtobe seen in this film. Actually it was the practice of the "B" studios todress their characters in costumes that would match stock footage liftedfrom earlier productions. Frank James is garbed in buckskins for goodnesssake.

The story involves the James boys , under assumed names of course, comingto the aid of helpless heroine Noel Neill as partners in her father’s (whohas been murdered by the villains) gold mine. The boys hope to reimbursevictims of crimes that were committed in their name for which they areinnocent. Trying to foil their efforts are "respectable" mining engineerJohn Crawford and his gang lead by George J. Lewis and the usual endlesssupply of henchmen.

I guess seeing Yakima Canutt’s name as co-director (with Fred C.Brannon),I expected more. But the stunts although well done by the Republic stuntcrew, are no different from any of 100 other serials. There are the usualfights, gunfights, and chases but really none of the spectacular stuntsforwhich Canutt was famous.

Rounding out the cast are Stanley Andrews as the heroine’s father, SamFlint as Thatcher the banker who bankrolls the boys, House Peters Jr. asthesheriff, Gene Roth as the Marshal and George Cheseboro as the owner of theGeneral Store. On the other side of the law we have I. Stanford Jolley asacrooked lawyer and Lane Bradford in his first serial as a henchman. In aninspired bit of casting veteran stunt men Dale Van Sickel and Tom Steeleplay characters named "Dale" and "Steele". Steele also appears as twootherhenchmen as well.

Clayton Moore who was about to become TV’s The Lone Ranger plays Jesseforthe second and last time. Boy, no one ever lost so many fights or couldrollout of harms way faster than he. Noel Neill was also about to realize her15minutes of fame as Lois Lane in the Superman serials and later in the TVseries.

2) Adventures of Frank and Jesse James was released in 1948, the same yearas the celebrated hoax of Jesse returning from the dead. Seems some oldcodger out in Missouri, obviously a JJ fan, turned up saying that hewas the real Jesse James and another man was buried in his place.Clayton Moore wears the same outfit as he did in the 1947 JJ RidesAgain, a black frock coat and a flat brim hat. In the 1948 serial, hewears a floppy brim Stetson and bat wing chaps to match the footage ofDon "Red" Barry in the Red Ryder serial. Steve Darrell (Frank James)wore the buckskin outfit of Hal Taliferro, Barry's sidekick in theserial. While Moore may have extricated himself from on screen perilsby rolling aside, his athletic ability in JJ Rides Again saved his lifewhen a burning wagon tipped over too close for comfort. The JJ serialswere not meant to be taken for historical accuracy, just a way to takea familiar Western historical character and change him for Hollywood.Just like the Buster Crabbe Billy the Kid features.