BAD MEN OF MISSOURI

US, 1941, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, Wayne Morris, Arthur Kennedy, Victor Jory, Alan Baxter, Walter Catlett, Howard Da Silva.
Directed by Ray Enright.

While 20th Century Fox was making films about Jesse James and Frank James with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda around 1940, Warner Bros decided to film a story about the Younger brothers. However, it is a support feature, running only 71 minutes. Dennis Morgan was a rising star at Warner Bros, best known for drama and for musicals (and he does sing in this film). Jane Wyman was also emerging as a leading lady. Wayne Morris had established himself as a character actor and Arthur Kennedy was at the beginning of his career. Victor Jory had been a villain in many films. Howard Da Silva, later blacklisted, is the evil sheriff. There is bumbling comedy from Walter Catlett which adds a farcical tone to the story.

The film is set at the end of the Civil War, farmers returning to Missouri, the role of the carpetbaggers and their taxing the farmers out of their properties. Victor Jory represents this exploitation – and also creating laws, appointing their own sheriffs, which led to the revolt by the Jameses and the Younger brothers, the kind of Robin Hood robbing of the rich to give the money to the farmers to pay their taxes.

Whether this is myth or reality, or a mixture of both, the film offers the Younger brothers as heroes.

The film is directed by Ray Enright, a veteran of many westerns.

1. An entertaining western? The outlaws of the 19th century? Post-Civil? War period?

2. The black and white photography, the musical score, Cole Younger’s song? The atmosphere of Missouri, the farms, the towns?

3. The Civil War, the collage at the beginning? The headlines? The farmers returning, the loss of land, the carpetbaggers from the north? Confederate money worthless? The taking over of the properties? The resistance of the farmers? The rise of the outlaws?

4. The Robin Hood attitude of the outlaws? Robbing the rich, the exploiters, giving money back to the farmers? The whole story or not? How much personal intervention, greed, violence?

5. The Younger brothers, their fighting the Civil War, the return home? Meeting the wagons? Cole and Martha’s death? Returning home, the father shooting? The truth about what had happened?

6. Mary Hathaway, working for William Merrick? Mr Pettibone? Greg Bilson? The pressure on the farmers, going to the Younger farm, the shootout, the death of the father? Bilson shooting the sheriff and accusing the Younger brothers?

7. The funeral of the father, the warning to the brothers, their escape, the pursuit by Bilson?

8. Mr Pettibone, Merrick’s money, on the stagecoach, the changing of the horses, the brothers getting in the coach, Mr Pettibone realising what had happened, the crash, their taking the money? Redistributing it? Merrick and his reaction? Appointing Bilson as sheriff?

9. Jim Younger, the romance with Mary Hathaway, the escape from her house, her asking him to give the money back? His staying with his brothers? Mary, strong character?

10. The train robbery, Mr Pettibone again? The encounter with Jesse James? Joining with the James gang? The robberies, the headlines, the outlaws, the rewards? The leaving of the James brothers?

11. Cole Younger as a personality, as a leader? Bob, his being wounded, the comic touches? Jim and his love for Mary?

12. The aftermath of the Northfield, Minnesota raid? In hospital, being cared for? The further career of the Younger brothers?

13. The background characters, the children, Wash and his being the handyman? The negotiator with Merrick?

14. The final confrontation with Bilson, his death?

15. The continued mythology of the American outlaws – and the range of their appearances in American films over many decades?