I did not enjoy watching The Return of Frank James and I suspect you won’t either. The colors look good, Fonda’s not bad and the courtroom stuff is a great change of pace, but the filmmaking is only competent.

As a snapshot of what mindless popcorn cinema looked like in 1940, it's a flattering example, still watchable and breezy even if it's not remotely challenging on any level.

The abstruse stylization of Rancho Notorious is still a decade away, though the frontier is already a severe plain enlivened by intimations of hellfire

Fine Fritz Lang telling of Frank James (Fonda) in sequel to Jesse James.