Prismark10 William Wyler directs a fictionalised account of the story of Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), a small town saloon public official with a penchant for hanging and corrupt as well as he sides with the cattlemen against the homesteaders. Cole Harden (Gary Cooper) is sentenced by the Judge to hang after he is falsely accused of horse stealing. Cole noticing that the Judge is infatuated by the English actress Lily Langtry claims to have met her and even having a lock of her hair.The Judge suspends his sentence and both become unusual friends, Cole even rescues the Judge from some irate homesteaders. However the aggression by the cattlemen leads to one local homesteader Jane Ellen Mathews (Doris Davenport) farms being burned down and her father being killed. She had a tentative romance with Cole and he goes looking for the Judge who does little to protect the homesteaders in the lawless frontier.The film is nicely photographed by the legendary Gregg Toland, it is also overlong, too episodic with too many lulls in the story. It is an offbeat movie but vacillates too often between being a comedy, romance and a drama.

morrison-dylan-fan Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best films of 1940,I got the chance to once again watch John Ford's superb The Long Voyage Home. Reminded of Gregg Toland distinctive cinematography,I took a look at his credits,and found a 1940 Western that I've been meaning to watch for years,which led to me finally getting set to meet the outlaw westerner.The plot:Taking over a small-town saloon,"Judge" Roy Bean hands out sentences to anyone who does not give him a backhander. Drifting into town, Cole Harden is sent to court over claims he stole a horse from a pal of Bean's. Sensing Bean getting set to send him to the gallows,Harden notices that Bean has covered the saloon with posters of actress Lily Langtry,that gives Harden the idea to lie and say that he knows Langtry. Just before sentence is to be handed down,Bean holds it by a hair,in exchange for Harden getting a lock of Langtry's hair.View on the film:Hammering his "swift justice" to any unlucky fellow, Walter Brennan gives a sizzling,deep-fried performance as Bean. Cooking up the threatening power in Bean's hands,Brennan balances Bean's blunt orders of justice with a sweet comedic touch which makes Bean's head turn at the mere mention of Langtry (played by a powerfully alluring Lilian Bond.) Getting within a hair of being killed, Gary Cooper gives a striking performance as Harden,whose quick-witted exchanges with Brennan are hit with a Screwball Comedy curve-ball,which Cooper smartly makes sure never overshadows the outsider status of Harden.Riding into town just before setting sail on The Long Voyage Home, cinematographer Gregg Toland fearlessly cracks the "clean Western" image,via ultra-stylised clouds of smoke and fire giving the wilderness world Bean rules a burning pit appearance. Briefly glimpsing at the pure beauty of Langtry,director William Wyler gives the movie a glowing elegance, shimming from the earthy,outdoor fight scenes between Bean and Harden,to the whisky drenched walls of Bean's smoke-filled "court" saloon,as the Wersterner cowboy Harden enters the Wild West.

GManfred I always enjoy a good western, and this was a good one. It is different from most westerns in that it is not a big, sprawling epic with various groups trekking across Monument Valley, no Indians, no sense of the vastness of the American west. This is not "The Searchers", or "Stagecoach". It is a small epic, shot mostly indoors on sound stages and with more character development than is found in most westerns.And what character development. Walter Brennan gives what is certainly his best Hollywood performance as Judge Roy Bean. It is as nuanced a performance as you will find in a western picture as he acts circles around Gary Cooper, a screen hero with a wooden style who does not do nuance. The sure hand of director Wyler is evident throughout; not an action director per se, the picture contains a well-done, realistic fist fight between Cooper and Forrest Tucker and a must-see ranch fire towards the end of the picture.Whether or not you are a fan of western movies, this is one of Hollywood's best offerings. For another slant on "The Westerner", read the review by futures@exis.net on a previous review page. It is an excellent observation.P.S. Memo to screenwriters; Bean died in his sleep!

ma-cortes This is an outdoor epic about land war in which director William Wyler offers us a solid, absorbent and entertaining film . "The Westerner" is an intense and rewarding western , which is filmed on location in Arizona. Nominated for 3 Oscars (actor cast, art direction and original screenplay), won one (for Walter Brennan who sparkles as judge who dispenses frontier justice in the days of wild west). The film explores the tensions and fights faced by the old farmers and new settlers landowners engaged in the operation of small farms, erected through the efforts of their work . It focuses on the conflicting interests of the two groups, their diverse working methods , struggles and different visions of the country and world . Within this scenario is the showdown among two two antagonists , a drifter addicted to freedom named "Cole Harden¨ (featured by an unforgettable Cooper), a sly , soft spoken cowboy who champions Texas border homesteaders in a range war , Cole is a former outlaw and become socially integrated while legendary Judge Roy Bean (Brennan's Academy Award was his third playing a shrew piece of villainy) known as ¨The law west of the Pecos ¨ sentences Hardin hang as a horse thief . Cole then falls for damsel Jane Ellen (Doris Davenport) and stays in the area advocating for the rights of homesteaders ; Cole has to have an ending confrontation with the judge . With these characters, the film explores the misery and the greatness of the human condition. Gary Cooper was 39 years when he played in this movie and he was a very famous player . The film gave Cooper one of the best of his laconic , strong characters as the cowboy caught among opposing factions ; in other hand Walter Brennan composing the reply and gives a role of cruel judge but that is nice , capable at the same time, being brutal and relentlessly hanging whatever suspect . The film describes the institutional and administrative instability that prevails in wide zones of western border, underscores the friendship, companionship, honesty, sense of adventure, enterprise and justice sentence drills by unscrupulous and dishonest people.The narrative is vivid and vibrant. The story is presented polished, stylish and free of nonessential items. The dialogues are sharp and funny, peppered with humor. The film includes spectacular scenes, fast-paced and iconography amalgam of the old silent westerns with romantic references characteristic of modern western.It's also a comedy, Brennan and Cooper have a fun relationship during the first half hour of the movie, you think we will soon lead to a happy ending, which ultimately will result but one of the two dead. Furthermore, movie debuts of actors Dana Andrews and Forrest Tucker. William Wyler exceed film genres and built an excellent film from the first minutes the feeling of coherence and emphasis that produces the majority of which went over his career.Amazing cinematography by Cregg Toland (citizen Kane) places an emphasis on the realism of the action and splendid frames , which is one of the best things of the movie, with spectacular scenes as the fire. Emotive and stirring musical score by the classic Dimitri Tiomkin . Wyler looking camera concealed positions that sees without being seen observed with curiosity and interest and look for the pleasure of seeing. The film, made by a young Wyler (37 years) is solid, absorbing and entertaining.There are moments, like burning down crops that technically is wonderful . Some rides from Cooper or fighting in the middle of the country , so are scenes impossible to forget.The Bean 's role is based on actual events as Roy Bean (1825-1903) was a near-illiterate frontier justice of the peace who ran a combined court-saloon in the tiny railroad hamlet of Langtry in the West Texas desert between the River Pecos and the Rio Grande . He was known as the ¨Lay west of the Pecos¨ . He was running a saloon in a tent-town for railroad builders called Vinegaroon . Ben , backed by the Texas Rangers and the railroad , was appointed Justice of the peace , although he had never studied law . He managed to keep the peace with a strange brand of common and rough sense , often basing his ruling on a single law book . The stories about him are legion, most apocryphal . The fines usually stayed in his pocket and he acquitted accused on condition that he buy a round of drinks for the boys . The law of the Pecos was a law unto himself . He got himself elected Langtry's justice of the peace , holding court in his crude saloon called the ¨Jersey Lily¨ where he lived till his death in 1903 . In 1896 he brought fame to Langtry by staging the Fitzsmmons-Peter Maher heavyweight-boxing championship. He also performed marriages , ending the short ceremony with the worlds ¨I Roy Bean , justice of the peace , hereby pronounce man and wife . May God have mercy on your souls¨. Bean's ¨Jersey Lily¨ has been preserved by the Texas Highway Department and is now a tourist attraction.