The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

Paul Newman plays the title role in John Huston’s surreal, revisionist western as the infamous Texas hanging judge. Upon arriving in the tiny West Texas town of Vinegaroon, Roy Bean draws a moustache on a wanted poster of himself, marches into a saloon, and declares his presence. He is immediately robbed, beaten within an inch of his life, tied to a horse and dragged out into the prairie, then left to die. Rescued by a young Mexican girl, Maria Elena (Victoria Principal), Roy Bean heads back into town and murders everyone in the local saloon, declaring that he’ll kill anyone of the same sort who turns up. He also sets himself up as the sole arbiter of law and order and renames the town Langtry, in honor of the legendary actress Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner). The community prospers as Judge Bean dispenses his own brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by, robbing or killing anyone who tries to make their way through the town. But when Maria dies, Bean’s old associates begin to turn on him, one at a time (in response to his constant harping on their wives, many of whom were former prostitutes) and Bean is forced to leave. Years later, Bean rides back into town, called back to the place to save his daughter from trouble – and finds that the community has been taken over by a shady character called Frank Gass (Roddy McDowall) – a circumstance that requires Bean to dispense his own unique brand of justice once again. Stacy Keach lends a neat comic turn to the film as Bad Bob, an albino gunslinger whose dining habits consist of chowing down on raw onion, drinking hot coffee from a pot, and demanding that an entire horse be cooked for his supper. John Milius (Red Dawn) scripted., Based on the life of the famed Texas ‘hanging judge’, the film features Newman as the legendary bean who dispenses frontier justice in the days of the Wild West. Filled with gallows humor. Ava Gardner sparkles as actress Lily Langtry., Comic Western about the infamous ‘hanging judge’ of the 1870s. Paul Newman plays Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed Texas lawman who made his name by liberally dispensing his brand of frontier justice., A stern judge turns life upside down in a lawless frontier town. The locals then run him out of town, but when he returns to help his daughter, he discovers the town is worse than when he first arrived., Tongue-in-cheek western about a self-appointed hanging judge. Saved from near death by a young Mexican girl, a former outlaw sets himself up as sole arbiter of the law in a small town. The town prospers as Judge Bean robs and hangs anyone with money that comes through it, but his haven becomes less secure when his Mexican companion dies and the townsfolk begin to turn against him.