The Westerner (1940)
Actors:
Dana Andrews (actor),
Stanley Andrews (actor),
Arthur Aylesworth (actor),
Trevor Bardette (actor),
Bill Beauman (actor),
Hank Bell (actor),
Danny Borzage (actor),
Walter Brennan (actor),
Charles Coleman (actor),
Heinie Conklin (actor),
Philip Connor (actor),
Buck Connors (actor),
Gary Cooper (actor),
Frank Cordell (actor),
C.E. Anderson (actor),
Plot: Cole Harden just doesn't look like a horse thief, Jane-Ellen Matthews tells Judge Roy Bean as she steps up to the bar. Cole says he can't take it with him as he empties all of his coins on the bar to buy drinks for the jury. He notices two big pictures of Lily Langtry behind the bar. Sure, Cole has met the Jersey Lily, whom the hanging judge adores, even has a lock of her hair. Hanging is delayed for two weeks, giving Cole time to get in the middle of a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders and to still be around when Lily Langtry, former mistress of Edward VII who became an international actress, arrives in Texas.
Keywords: actress, ambush, arrest, arson, bartender, brawl, cattleman, chase, civil-war-veteran, colt-45
Genres:
Drama,
Romance,
Western,
Taglines: THE RAW UNTAMED ADVENTUROUS WEST...LIVES AGAIN! (original print media ad - all caps) NOTORIOUS DESPERADOES They fought... for a frontier empire! Dangerous... Judge Roy Bean... who called himself "the law west of the Pecos"... the most dreaded man on the frontier! Outlawed! But fighting for an empire! Era of flaming feuds and new frontiers!
Quotes:
Judge Roy W. Bean: Don't spill none of that liquor, son. It eats right into the bar.
Judge Roy W. Bean: Shad Wilkins, you've been tried and found guilty of the most serious crime west of the Pecos, to wit: shooting a steer. Do you got anything to say for yourself before the sentence of the court is executed?::Shad Wilkins: I told you they shot at me first. I didn't mean to kill that steer on purpose. I was aiming at the man.::Judge Roy W. Bean: It's your bad luck you missed him. That's the trouble with you sodbusters... you can't shoot straight. Shad, may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Judge Roy W. Bean: I haven't worn this uniform since Chickamaugie, but it still fits right smart.
Judge Roy W. Bean: Mr. Harden, it's my duty to inform you that the larceny of an equine is a capital offense punishable by death, but you can rest assured that in this court, a horse thief always gets a fair trial before he's hung.
The Stranger: Have you met Miss Langtry?::Judge Roy W. Bean: No, I never met her. I never met the sun, I never shook hands with the moon, and I've never been introduced to no clouds.
Cole Harden: [to Bean] When I was a kid, I had a pet rattlesnake. I was fond of it, but I wouldn't turn my back on it.
Judge Roy W. Bean: Are you an attorney, Miss?::Jane Ellen Mathews: I'm as much an attorney as you are a judge!
Wade Harper: We're goin' back to build our fences.::Judge Roy W. Bean: If you do, you better build coffins with them. Now git!
Cole Harden: You get warrants in Fort Davis, don't you?::Judge Roy W. Bean: Yes, that's where they get 'em, but they don't know how to spell my name. It's been tried before.::Cole Harden: I'll get one. This time you'll get what's comin' to you, Judge.
Jane Ellen Mathews: You live in a house, don't you?::Cole Harden: No. No, my house is all out there. One room, with a sky for a roof.