The Westerner (1940)

A great, classic western

Of the great Hollywood westerns, "The Westerner" is not often mentioned. It captures the spirit of the old west with great accuracy and humor. One may question the plot line, but Judge Roy Bean was indeed infatuated with the Jersey Lilly. The chemistry between Cooper and Brennen is palpable and the scene where they wake up in bed together (not in any way gay) is one of the funniest in film history. As I recall, Brennen won an Oscar for his role in this film. It is perhaps his finest role and also one of Cooper's.

This is good wholesome, innocent fun with a touch of dark humor. It is one of my absolute favorites. If you like this one, also check out "Along Came Jones," also with Gary Cooper. October 4, 2008

"Gary Cooper Series ... The Westerner (1940) ... United Artists"

United Artists presents "THE WESTERNER" (20 September 1940) (100 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) -- Our story line and plot, If you like westerns, you'll love William Wyler's "The Westerner" -- great directing and superb acting, and gorgeous cinematography --- Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) just doesn't look like a horse thief, Jane-Ellen Matthews (Doris Davenport) tells Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan) 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 --- Cooper 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 --- Great to see some of my favorite B-Western character actors in the cast Dana Andrews, Stanley Andrews, Hank Bell, Forrest Tucker, Tom Tyler and Chill Wills --- Wyler's directing and Toland's shooting of the prairie fire sequence is one of the great spectacles of 1930s cinema, as well as an incredibly exciting scene --- Walter Brennan won his third Best Supporting Actor Oscar with this film. This was the fifth year the Supporting Player categories were being awarded by the Academy and Brennan won numbers one and three previously --- What makes the film even better is that it is based on a person who actually lived, which made the role even more challenging --- Walter Brennan carries this oater and transforms what would have otherwise been just another western into a classic.

Under the production staff of:
William Wyler - Director
Samuel Goldwyn - Producer
Niven Busch - Screenwriter
Stuart N. Lake - Screen Story
Jo Swerling - Screenwriter
Archie J. Stout - Cinematographer
Gregg Toland - Cinematographer
Alfred Newman - Composer (Music Score)
Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score) / Musical Direction/Supervision
Dan Mandell - Editor
James Basevi - Art Director
Julia Heron - Set Designer
Irene Saltern - Costume Designer
Fred Lau - Sound/Sound Designer
Blague Stephanoff - Makeup
Paul Eagler - Special Effects
Louis Clyde Stoumen - Special Effects
Walter Mayo - First Assistant Director

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Gary Cooper (aka: Frank James Cooper)
Date of Birth: 7 May 1901 - Helena, Montana
Date of Death: 13 May 1961 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

2. Walter Brennan
Date of Birth: 25 July 1894 - Swampscott, Massachusetts
Date of Death: 21 September 1974 - Oxnard, California

3. William Wyler (Director)
Date of Birth: 1 July 1902, Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]
Date of Death: 27 July 1981 - Los Angeles, California

the cast includes:
Gary Cooper ... Cole Harden
Walter Brennan ... Judge Roy Bean
Doris Davenport ... Jane Ellen Mathews
Fred Stone ... Caliphet Mathews
Forrest Tucker ... Wade Harper
Paul Hurst ... Chickenfoot
Chill Wills ... Southeast
Lilian Bond ... Lily Langtry
Dana Andrews ... Hod Johnson
Charles Halton ... Mort Borrow
Trevor Bardette ... Shad Wilkins
Tom Tyler ... King Evans
Lucien Littlefield ... The Stranger
Stanley Andrews ... Sheriff
Hank Bell ... Deputy

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- If you're into the memories of B-Westerns with high drama, this is the one you've been anxiously waiting for --- please stand up and take a bow Western Classics --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 100 mins on DVD ~ United Artists ~ (5/13/2008) September 24, 2008

Walter Brennan Stole the Show

Walter Brennan won his third Oscar for best supporting actor playing the part of "Judge" Roy Bean in The Westerner. He was made for this part like Vivien Leigh was made to play Scarlet. Anyone who remembers Brennan as "Grandpa" in The Real McCoys and in lesser roles over the years, and has any interest in the early westerns, will be captivated by Brennan's portrayal of this dusty, hard-drinking, straight-talking, wild and wooly Texas "judge," who runs a kangaroo court, where shooting a steer is a hanging offense and getting caught sober after sundown will get you arrested for disorderly conduct. Of course all the rules change if you're an acquaintance of Lily Lantry, the actress Bean has never seen in the flesh but is completely under his skin. Gary Cooper has the lead role in this movie as Cole Harden, who escapes the noose Bean has fitted for him when he puts two and two together and comes up with a story about Lily that Bean cannot resist pursuing, but needs Harden to do it. At the same time, battling cattlemen and farmers "tomato-kissers" fill out the storyline. As big a star as Cooper was, deservedly so, he is eclipsed by Walter Brennan in this film.

August 3, 2008

Redemption of Judge Roy Bean

This is the best and most sensitive of the stories about Judge Roy Bean--The Law West of the Pecos. He was known as a hanging judge and, early in the film, he determines, in his court room-saloon to execute Cole [Gary Cooper] as a horse thief because he can't produce legal ownership papers.

Before the hanging, however, there is the mandatory round of drinks. Cole notices that the saloon is hanging with numerous pictures and mementoes of the actress Lily Langtree. Over a final drink, he tells Bean that he has a hidden locket of Lily's hair. The execution is immediately postponed until the acquisitive Bean can get the locket.

Both Cooper and Brennan are terrific as they develp a complex and dangerous "friendship." Cooper, who has no locket, gets one from a local girl. After much "horse-trading" Bean gets the locket and is transported with joy.

Langtree shows up El Paso or San Antonio and nothing will keep Bean from going. Resplendant in his old Confederate army uniform he goes to the music hall. Cole and Bean shoot it out and Bean is fatally hit. Before he dies, however, he gets to visit the angelic Langtry. The dangerous Roy Bean is redeemed by his love for Lily. We look through his eyes as the image of Lily fades out--forever. A truly great film.

Ron Braithwaite author of Mexican Conquest novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God" June 19, 2008

One of the true classic westerns

A magnificent film, The Westerner concerns the love between two men. The men's love is platonic, not fleshy. They love the wildness in each other, the humour, the sense of style, the taste for adventure, the bravado. They are too alike not to admire and intrigue each other, and too alike not to come into fatal conflict. But both of them are essentially destroyed by women.

One of the men is 'Judge' Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), 'the only law west of the Pecos', dispensing a lethal whisky ('Rub o' the Brush') and his own brand of equally lethal frontier justice from his ramshackle bar. The bar also doubles as a shrine to the 'Jersey Lilly', Lily Langtry. Into this court/bar comes Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper). Falsely accused of horse stealing, Cooper can almost feel the rope snuggling around his neck when he realises he can use Bean's devotion to Langtry to save his life. He pretends to have met Langtry and even to have a lock of her hair. In scenes of masterly comedy, Bean and Cooper jest and test other. A promise to give the lock of hair to Bean secures Cooper's release. Those who only know Brennan as the edentulous, portly comedy extra in 1950s westerns will not recognise the lean, gimlet-eyed Brennan who stalks this picture, alternating psychopathic violence and charming but malicious humour. Brennan secured an Oscar for best supporting actor for this performance (his second such award), and Cooper matches him line for line (reputedly director William Wyler let them improvise many of their scenes). In one moment of astonishing tenderness and humour, they wake in each other's arms after a night of heavy drinking.

The film's thematic framework, as so often in westerns, is the conflict between rancher and homesteader. But both Brennan and Cooper are only tenuously connected to the causes they fight for. Brennan hates homesteaders, and is the ranchers' champion. But he is unofficial lawman and bar owner, not really a rancher. His hatred of homesteaders is clearly more spiritual than economic: they represent the forces of settlement and civilisation that will tame the West and end the anarchic freedom he revels in. He is a former Confederate who keeps his old army sword over the bar; he is the rebel in grey making the last stand against the forces of modernisation. And Cooper is essentially a 'saddle-bum', irresponsibly indulging in the freedom of the prairie. He is seduced, there is no other word, into working and eventually fighting for the homesteaders by the nubile charms of a raven-haired farmer's daughter.

Both Langtry and the farmer's daughter end the wild days of their respective worshippers. Brennan is drawn to his death in Fort Davies by Langtry's unexpected appearance in the town's opera house (although he gets to meet her just before he dies). Cooper is killed spiritually by marriage and respectability. In the final scene of the film, Cooper looks emasculated and constrained in the domestic sphere. There is a map of Texas on the living room wall: the mighty state he once roamed free is now reduced to room decoration. And from the window of his ranch, awkwardly clutching his bride, Cooper watches thousands of settlers arriving from the East. The West he and Brennan could once stride heroically is now destined to disappear. The Westerner is no more.
June 17, 2008

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