This stands as a reasonably representative example of the initial flood of classic Westerns and, though an atypically regressive step for director Wyler to take (since he basically went back to his starting point as a director and would do so again twice more in the next 30 years); even so, he invested it with his customary flair for melodrama (via a number of confrontation scenes) and emphasis on characterization. Walter Brennan's Judge Roy Bean not only rewarded him with a third Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 4 years, a record which still stands to this day, but possibly marked the crowning achievement of his long and illustrious career – upstaging, in fact, nominal leading man and genre stalwart Gary Cooper! In this respect, the film has more talk than action but its pictorial qualities are more than evident: the cinematography is courtesy of the celebrated Gregg Toland. Revolving around a real-life character (subsequently played by Paul Newman in John Huston's eccentric Western pastiche THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN [1972]), the script – based on an Oscar-nominated story by Stuart N. Lake – draws on both his skewed sense of justice and passion for theatrical performer Lily Langtry (a split-second[!] appearance at the very end by Lilian Bond from THE OLD DARK HOUSE [1932]). However, for all Wyler's notoriously pain-staking approach, I had problems with both the central characters: Bean is depicted as ruthless yet unrealistically gullible – whereas Cooper has the demeanor of a simpleton but proves remarkably quick-witted! On the other hand, the heroine played by unknown Doris Davenport is unusually strong-willed for a Western (particularly this early into the game); also among the cast list, albeit in unrewarding roles, are Forrest Tucker (in his movie debut) and a pre-stardom Dana Andrews. As I said before, the film's highlights involve various forms of clashes – verbal sparring, fisticuffs, a widespread fire (Bean's cattlemen are determined to wipe out the homesteaders) and the final showdown inside a theater between Cooper and Brennan. For the record, among the star's other genre efforts, I recently acquired but have yet to watch THE VIRGINIAN (1929), NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE (1940) and ALONG CAME JONES (1945; which he produced himself).
Review of The Westerner
