It might have been better if Huston and Newman hadn’t softened the viciousness; then they’d have had to face the disgrace of what they were working on.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean sets out to be an elegy to the passing of the Old West, and ends up being an elegy to the passing of bad manners.

This ragged film never amounts to much, but it's at least consistent in its eccentricities.

It's all very movie-movie, with even that happy ending we schmaltz-lovers love so well.