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Wanted bank robber Roy Bean (Paul Newman) arrives in a dusty Texas town. He is quickly robbed by the locals and dragged behind a horse with a noose. After being saved by Maria Elena (Victoria Principal), he returns to take his revenge by shooting the whole lot of them. He appoints himself the new judge as he lays out his own brand of law and punishment. He is a dedicated fan of Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner) and later makes an enemy of Frank Gass (Roddy McDowall).

This movie doesn't have a narrative flow. It's one incident after another. He hangs one person after another. It needs to build tension over time. It needs to build up a villain. In this case, it's Frank Gass. This needs to be a battle between Roy Bean and Frank Gass. Instead, Frank is almost a side character and the climatic battle is nothing more than a physical bombast. The most emotional moment comes at the end. It's telling that Roy Bean isn't there. All in all, this is fascinating for some of the performance, the great cast, and the idea within the premise.

An odd, uneven and off-beat western from '71-72 that most downbeat of hippie years - incidentally coinciding with the year the modern-western, 'Pocket Money' also starring good-looking blue-eyed American superstar, Paul Newman was released. Bleak but playful and full of quirky scenarios and cameos with a cine-literate script although without the surrealism of the Italian western genre. The night-time scene when Bean travels to the theatre by train dressed in a top-hat and tails and is subsequently mugged is lyrical and timeless; while the scene when Bean accompanied by his Mexican wife Maria-Elena, played by Victoria Principal surveys the mellow golden-brown Arizonan prairieland vistas has a compelling purity of vision. The early-'70s were pioneering years and stood often for intelligent cinema. It reveals just how multi-faceted Newman's acting style was.

If you're looking for a factual account of Judge Roy Bean, this is not the film. One has still to be made for veracity. You won't find it in the old television series that starred Edgar Buchanan as the judge nor will you find it in the old William Wyler western, The Westerner, that got Walter Brennan an Academy Award for playing Roy Bean.

But if you're looking for good rollicking entertainment than this is the film for you. I have to believe that Paul Newman must have loved making this film, because it allowed him to be colorful, outrageous, and overact like a ripe Virginia ham. John Huston as director doesn't hold him in check in any way and the results are grand.

In fact the real Roy Bean (1825-1903) lived a good deal longer and had a longer career than what is shown here. He was probably more of a hell raiser than what Huston and Newman give us. He had more children than the one daughter played by Jacqueline Bisset towards the end of the film. Huston did incorporate some of the legend, it is true that he had a stiff neck as a result of a hanging attempt.

Please note that the real Bean did die in 1903 so the whole last 20 minutes or so of the film is pure fabrication. But it's great stuff.

His obsession with fabled actress Lillie Langtry is also part of the Bean legend and it is true. They never did meet, but it is a fact that Lillie as played here by Ava Gardner did visit Bean's town now named Langtry, Texas after Bean's death here and in real life.

Victoria Principal made her screen debut in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean as the woman who nurses him back to health after some unfriendly bandits nearly lynch him and who becomes his wife. It's hard to believe that this is the same woman who played a much different Texas female in Pamela Barnes Ewing on Dallas.

Huston assembled a good supporting cast for Newman besides those I've mentioned, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, Ned Beatty, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney are some of them. My favorite is Stacy Keach as the crazed Albino killer who challenges Bean. His demise at Newman's hands is the image I carry most from this film.

I think when you see The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean it will be the same for you.

The real-life Judge Roy Bean, the law west of the Pecos, was a legendary figure who pulled off numerous publicity stunts for "his" town of Langtry, meanwhile administering a little justice along the way. If you'ver ever watched Northern Exposure, a good comparison might be Barry Corbin's Maurice Minnifield. That being said, the real Judge Bean pales in comparison to the legend that has built up over the years. That legend is what Huston concerns himself with, and it serves him well. The film is very episodic in nature, and for the first half, it does not disappoint. Paul Newman's first scene, where he's beaten, left for dead, and returns to wreck vengeance on every last one of his attackers sets the tone for the rest of the film. This is high mythology, tall tales at their best; you get the impression that this is how we Texans really wish our history read--colorful, eclectic, ruthless at times, and occasionally downright bizarre. From beer drinking bears to albino bandits, it's certainly interesting.

That being said, the film definitely takes a melancholy tone as civilization comes to Langtry. With it comes the disdain for such colorful characters as Bean, who seemingly has no place in the new, modern world. It's sad, but makes for an especially poignant ending. Newman's Judge is a blustering wonder; other standouts include Anthony Perkins, Ned Beatty, Roddy McDowell, and a very young and fetching Victoria Principal. Also making cameos are Jacqueline Bissett, Stacy Keach, Ava Gardner, and even the director himself.

All in all, a funny, touching film.

This was Paul Newman’s third of four films about legendary figures of the American West – the others being William “Billy The Kid” Bonney in THE LEFT HANDED GUN (1958), Butch Cassidy in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody in BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR SITTING BULL’S HISTORY LESSON (1976) – and his first of two in a row with director Huston – the other being the espionage thriller THE MACKINTOSH MAN (1973; which, incidentally, was partly filmed in Malta).

The last three Westerns all came at the tail-end of the genre and, apart from being in a decidedly comedic vein, can also be dubbed “Revisionist”. Newman essays the titular figure as a character part, with his handsome features hidden behind a scruffy beard (his hair has all gone white by the end) and little display of his trademark ruggedness and mischievous charm. Ironically, despite the phenomenal box-office success of movies like THE STING (1973) and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974), the Seventies weren’t particularly distinguished for Newman as an actor and his performance here is arguably his best work of the decade!

The film is generally elegiac in mood (especially during its last act when the Old West is all but vanquished in the name of progress) and episodic in nature, with a plethora of stars turning up for just one sequence or scene: Anthony Perkins as a preacher, Tab Hunter as a convicted murderer, Stacy Keach as an albino badman who terrorizes the town, John Huston himself as the owner of a sideshow attraction (an amiable beer-guzzling bear which eventually comes in handy to the Judge), Roddy MacDowall – who has the largest role of all is an ambitious lawyer (he’s subsequently appointed mayor and eventually becomes an oil tycoon), Anthony Zerbe as a mugger, and Michael Sarrazin – whose “participation” extends merely to sharing a photo with Jacqueline Bisset (as the Judge’s daughter)! The latter, then, provides undeniable eye-candy along with Victoria Principal (radiant in her film debut) as Bean’s Mexican lover and Bisset’s own mother – while Ava Gardner’s Lilly Langtry only shows up at the very end after Bean himself, who worshiped the celebrated actress, has died; Ned Beatty is also quietly impressive as the most loyal of Bean’s gang (who actually prefers tending bar to performing his duties of deputy!).

The best/funniest bits are: Bean assuming control of the town after a near-lynching, Principal shooting repeatedly at a whore (a potential rival for Bean’s affections) and being thrown to the ground with the force of each blast, Bean’s entire gang shooting in unison at a drunkard who dared take a potshot at Lilly Langtry’s portrait, Keach’s cartoonish demise, and Bean and Gang’s epic Last Stand. As had been the case with BUTCH CASSIDY’s Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”, the film features a recurring song motif in “Marmalade, Molasses And Honey” (music by Maurice Jarre, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman) – which also ended up nominated, but is nowhere near as memorable as that Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic (though Jarre’s score, in itself, is quite good). For that matter, neither is Huston’s film up to the George Roy Hill masterpiece – though it’s certainly better than the talky Robert Altman-directed Buffalo Bill pic.

By the way, William Wyler’s THE WESTERNER (1940) had been another film which centered around Judge Roy Bean: played as a semi-villain by Walter Brennan, that characterization had led to his third Oscar. I own it on VHS but, since this month’s schedule is absolutely crammed with movies I need to watch in tribute to someone or other (including JUDGE ROY BEAN itself to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Huston’s passing!), I couldn’t possibly fit it in...

The late 60's and early 70's produced several great comedic westerns i.e. Cheyenne Social Club, Dirty Dingus McGee, Great Scout, The Rounders, Evil Roy Slade, Support Your Local etc. The list goes on and on. Those movies were all great, but pretty much one dimensional and set the tone for some collective disappointment over the content of Judge Roy Bean. There are some great hilarious moments in this film and I never really got it until recently. It's actually a love story, and a comedy as well as John Huston's own statement about the retreating old west. If you view it in that context you'll be very impressed. If you're looking for pure comedy you may find that it drags in moments. However, this is the last time you'll get to see Paul Newman with that devilish Eddie Felson/Ben Quick light in his eyes, he was made for the part as a self-appointed and self-styled Judge/philosopher that dispenses justice to just about everyone that wanders through his town whether they deserve it or not. And Judge Bean also showcases IMO the best villian of all time in Bad Bob, a murderous long haired psychotic albino come to lay ole' Beano to rest. Victoria Principal is so cute you just want to, well you'll see. Anyway, it's very funny but it is a love story. I found that rather distraction 30 years ago but I didn't get it. Well worth a watch. 9/10

This is an outdoor epic Western in which director John Huston offers us an exciting , dramatic and amusing film . The Life and Times of Roy Bean (1972) is an intense , weird and rewarding western , which is filmed on location in Arizona with Paul Newman as the fabled hanging judge . It focuses on judge Roy Bean and his peculiar working methods , struggles and different visions of the country and world . Judge Roy Bean known as ¨The law west of the Pecos ¨ sentences outlaws by hanging them . And with varied group of misfit characters , the film explores the misery and the greatness of the human condition . Paul Newman was 47 years old when he played this movie and he was a very prestigious actor . The film gave Newman one of the best roles , playing a strong but sympathetic character , giving an attractive role as a cruel judge who'll stop at nothing to get his purports . As Newman/Bean is nice , likeable and capable , but at the same time , being a brutal person , that's why he relentlessly judges , condemns and sentences by 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 expeditive justice by sentencing against unscrupulous and dishonest people . The narrative is vivid and vibrant . The story is well 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 iconographic amalgam of the vintage westerns with romantic references characteristic of modern western .

It's also a comedy , with a top-notch Newman and his special relationship with a familiar plethora of notorious secondaries , such as : Stacy Keach who's oustanding as Bad Boy , Anthony Perkins as a rare priest , Jacqueline Bisset as Bean's daughter , John Huston himself , Jack Colvin , Roddy McDowall , Anthony Zerbe, Ned Beatty , Matt Clark , Richard Farnsworth , Tab Hunter , Bill McKinney , Steve Kanaly, and of course , Ava Gardner as the famous Lilie Langtry . Furthermore, movie debut of the extremely gorgeous and very young Victoria Principal . It contains brilliant and amazing cinematography by Richard Moore that places an emphasis on the realism of the action and splendid frames , which is one of the best things of the movie . Emotive and stirring musical score by Maurice Jarre . The film was well made by John Huston , being a solid, absorbing and entertaining oater , while providing some interesting set-pieces among the strangeness . Huston exceeded making all kinds of genres , realizing here an excellent flick with a great feeling of coherence and emphasis as the majority of which went over his career.

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.

This underrated/underseen Huston film is definitely worth a look. Newman is wonderful as Roy Bean, and the large supporting cast is amazing, especially Anthony Perkins as a travelling padre, Stacy Keach as Bad Bob, Roddy McDowell as a wormy lawyer, Ned Beatty as the outlaw who'd rather be a bartender, and John Huston himself as Grizzly Adams. This is not a perfect picture at all. It falls apart by the last third or so, has a terrible day-for-night process shot that doesn't really work, and a unnecessary and embarrassing "raindrops keep falling on my head"-type musical montage, but the rest of it is great fun. This is the crazy kind of script Milius used to write in the 70s, like Apocalypse Now and especially 1941. The tone is very odd, but if you like your comedy dark and your westerns satirical you'll find lots to like about this one. A very broad and dark performance by Newman, who manages to find the pathos and integrity of this western charicature. It's a nice companion/contrast to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Kind of what Rami must have been going for in The Quick and the Dead (minus the Spaghetti Western style), and the examination of the mythic hero that Roderiguez tried for in Desperado, but much better achieved by Huston (duh). Fun stuff.

I enjoyed very much this tale of the judge Roy Bean.A story about law and justice near the Pecos River: a former outlaw who decides to build a town where the bads guys and the outlaws will be punished.But also a romantic man who has fallen in love with an actress Lily Langtry. who is writing her letters and once tried to meet her in San Antonio. A great Paul Newman who plays very well the role of Judge Roy Bean and in this cast we have goods actors such as Anthony Perkins, Ned Beatty,Matt Clark , Jim Burk and Jim McKinney, and good actresses such as Victoria Principal, Jacqueline Bisset and Ava Gardner.

This whimsical western is a mixed bag, though I was slightly distracted throughout waiting for the appearance of a young Victoria Principal. Only knowing her "work" from FANTASY ISLAND, DALLAS and EARTHQUAKE, I expected her to be hopelessly flat in the company of higher echelon performers like Paul Newman. Well, was I ever shocked and humbled to note in the closing credits that our Miss P. had slipped right past my poised-to-be-nasty laser vision by slipping seamlessly into the role of Judge Roy Bean's young Mexican mistress. Principal is mellow, charming and realistic in the part, coming across like a more talented Claudia Cardinale. After making a debut like this in a John Huston film....WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED???

• Script: 7/10 - Alert, quick, witty, funny, some good lines and funny scenes. It is original and fantasist although it misses characterization for at least the main character: Even if the movie is a pleasure to watch, the viewer cannot fully comprehend and experience the reality of those characters for they stay shallow and schematic.

The first 2 acts are very good, interesting and very fun to watch. The 3rd act, like in most movies, is a little disappointing and predictable. It leaves you with the usual feeling that something is missing to make the whole story complete and focused. But still, a very original and sympathetic script by the great John Milius whose whole carrier has somehow been a misfire.

• Direction: 8/10 - John Huston's direction is beautiful, never boring, technically sound, and often purely brilliant. It pastiches the western genre and you can see that the old dinosaur director John Huston has carefully and enthusiastically watched Sergio Leone's movies, and is capable of renewing his own game.

• Music: 7/10 - Maurice Jarre's score is not as worked out as in "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Dr Jivago", but still, simple, touching, personal, sweet and nostalgic: a pleasure.

• Cast: 8/10 - Paul Newman and Victoria Principal are great together, natural, touching, and all the secondary knives are very fun to watch. Only false note: IMO who plays Bad Bob, gives an over the top, hysterical performance that drag down the movie for the 3 minutes he appears on screen. John Huston also makes a mediocre appearance.

• Production: 6,8/10 - Not a lavish production at all, but the simple, beautiful scenery, costumes and sets, will give you this feeling of great old school cinema. The Production design is still a little theatrical and details miss authenticity... but is not Carlo Simi who wants! - Editing: 8/10 - Fluent, simple, discrete, light, and it makes sense at all times. Professional. Special mention for the opening titles: 10/10 – original, spirited and high in color. fabulous! - Subject: 8/10 - a great, original premise. It will remind you that there was a time where people were making original, creative, rich, great movies.

• Personality: 7/10 - agreeable, light hearted provocation. It still misses a little bit of societal statement to really touch you, but here is a very sympathetic movie that plays on the nostalgia for the far gone wild west and its myths. It also has John Milius's macho romantic spirit all over, but with the subtle direction of John Huston. Great! -

• Note in history of genre cinema: 6,9.

• Personal enjoyment of your reviewer: 9/10

It may not be a late masterpiece but John Huston's movie "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" isn't just one of his most underrated films but also one of his best. It's a picaresque western, (the title is a bit of a giveaway), with an even more laconic than usual Paul Newman in the title role with a supporting cast of 'guest stars' including Huston himself. It also introduced a young Victoria Principal, (Pam Ewing herself), and had Ava Gardner pop up as Lily Langrty.

Of course, Huston doesn't take any of it seriously. This is a blackly comic western, beautiful written by John Milius and with dialogue ripe for quoting, done as a series of set=pieces built around that terrific cast and, of course, it owes nothing to any other vision of Judge Roy Bean we may have seen, (Newman's about as far removed from Walter Brennan as it's possible to get). As an opening title says, this isn't the way it was but it's the way it should have been and it's a total delight.

I watched "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" after having quit the last few movies I'd seen part way through. I hoped that "Judge" would be the movie to break me of that habit, and it was. I knew almost instantly that I was watching something different: "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" is unlike any Western I've ever really seen.

The movie has some surrealist and absurdist touches, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it an acid western. The strange bits - like a butt kicking in fast-forward delivered by Paul Newman's Bean at the beginning of the movie - or a scene where an albino outlaw (played by the great Stacy Keach) gets a hole blown clear through him - don't come across as the point of the movie, but rather as a little spice on top of the superior direction and photography.

Unfortunately, I did find my concentration wandering a fair bit. The movie starts and stops, with an unusual structure, feeling like a series of endings to short relationships with characters who are only briefly seen.

I could imagine, though, that many out there would find that this only adds to the movie's unique charm.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is directed by John Huston and written by John Milius. It stars Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Ned Beatty, Roddy McDowall, Tab Hunter, Victoria Principal and Ava Gardner. Music is by Maurice Jarre and cinematography by Richard Moore.

In Vinegaroon, Texas, former outlaw Roy Bean becomes the self appointed judge for the region and dispenses his brand of justice as he sees fit.

There were a handful of Quirky Revisionist Westerns that surfaced in the 1970s, usually directed by a big name and starring another, one such film is this effort, and much like the others of its ilk it is met with understandable division. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean can not be recommended in confidence since it is far too rambling and episodic for its own good, something which writer Milius was at pains to say himself. Going so far to say that it's not the film he wrote and that Huston just did his own thing and steered the pic in another direction - for better or worse depending on your own filmic proclivities.

The intention on the page was to have a man clearly with delusions of grandeur, a self appointed judge, jury and executioner, and as an egostical berk into the bargain as well, this side of things comes through. Yet the pic never settles down into a coherent rhythm, as a number of characters played by guest stars wander into each episode, the pic stalls and resorts to bawdy frothery or pretentious surrealism to hopefully hook you into staying with the piece. Unfortunately come the hour mark this becomes tedious and it's a slog to get through.

Some folk do love it, and maybe it's one to revisit on occasion to catch any nuances missed previously, maybe even grasp the point Huston was trying to make? But for me it's a mess, an overblown mess that not even the great Paul Newman could save. 5/10

A bizarre western, it is rather unique and interesting as one can never know what to expect from it, however it is at times awkward to watch too, with some messy moments and a plot consisting mainly of disjointed, episodic events. There are a number of different narrators, and each of them tell the tale in an interview type of manner, except that it is not quite that and what it is, it is hard to explain. The music choices are rather poor, and the pacing is at times too slow for the film's own good, but with colourful costumes by Edith Head, and colourful characters, there is certainly something of interest in this odd, sort of fascinating, but not entirely satisfying western.