Judge Roy Bean is one of the legendary figures of the western frontier — yet I must I admit I know virtually nothing about him. That’ll change in November when a new book lands that explores the family saga of the Bean brothers, from Kentucky to California.
Roy Bean was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Texas, who called himself “The Only Law West of the Pecos”. He and his three brothers set out from Kentucky in the mid 1840s, heading into the American frontier to find their fortunes. Their lifetimes of triumphs, tragedies, laurels and scandals will play out on the battlefields of Mexico, in shady dealings in California city halls, inside eccentric saloon courtrooms of Texas, and along the blood-soaked Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to New Mexico. They will kill men, and murder will likewise stalk them.
The Beans chase their American dreams as the nation reinvents itself as a coast-to-coast powerhouse, only to be tested by the Civil War. During their saga, the brothers become soldiers, judges, husbands, guerillas, lawmen, entrepreneurs, refugees, fathers, politicians, pioneers and – in Judge Roy Bean’s case – one of the Old West’s best known but least understood scoundrels.
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Man, it’s going to be a long wait till spring for this one…
Dig the caper:
A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice…
A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
Clyde says
Like you, it’s going to be a longtime til “Four against the West” is released. Sounds like another one I’ll have to get. I’ve enjoyed what little I have read about The Judge and thought the movie with Paul Newman was a stretch but good entertainment.
Quixotic Mainer says
Larry McMurtry had a pretty good (if fictional) take on Judge Roy Bean in Streets of Laredo!
“If you could see, you’d see we’re west of the Pecos. And out here, if you want to be a judge bad enough, you can be,” – *spits obligatory blast of chew* “And I want to be one bad enough!”
lane batot says
I know the Paul Newman portrayal of Judge Roy Bean from that goofy, CLASSIC film(in my opinion) “The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean”–one of my favorites! I don’t really want any other version to taint the view portrayed by that movie! As they said at the beginning of it–(paraphrased) “if this isn’t perzackly as it happened, then it SHOULD be how it happened!”(or something like that…..) And of course I loved the “Watch Bear” best of all! I related to the judge’s idol worship of Lillie Langtry, too, as I also dedicatedly sent fan letters to MY own idol for many years, but unlike the Judge, I actually got to eventually meet up with mine! And I love how “progress” and even more corrupt greed was conquered in the end–if only such could happen in real life! I love the quirky soundtrack, too, which I have on a record album, purchased back in the days not far removed from the Judge’s time! The CD remains stupidly, impossibly exorbitant, alas…..
Ugly Hombre says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWztLyZ5q2Y
I’m with Bad Bob..
https://d3tudoxwnizvk7.cloudfront.net/gallery-jpeg/052106-0_0.jpg
I like my critters cooked till blue.. lol
https://cinephiliabeyond.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2UgqB0W-1050×724.png?x13370
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Times_of_Judge_Roy_Bean
What a great movie! funny, bawdy, six shooters and a bear fond of the hops!
Man I miss the old days when fun was allowed- that sound track is first rate, thanks for the lead- to bad its so dear.
lane batot says
…If you have a record player, the record album soundtrack of “The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean” is not terribly exorbitant. And thank goodness the movie is still readily available on DVD! Although I realize DVD’s are becoming a thing of the past, too(sigh)……Funny how record players have experienced something of a popular rebirth! I got a new one not too long ago(my old record player having died decades ago), and pulled out all my old records, that I had not played for thirty years, but just could not make myself discard! I wondered if they’d still play, and by gosh, they sounded just as good as ever! It was like visiting with old, beloved friends, to hear them again!
Ugly Hombre says
I got a BX turn table that’s broke and when I was not broke a while back I got a new digital blue tooth turn table of some type that I don’t know how to work. And yep,stacks of old records gathering dust.
The Judge Bean sound track on vinyl might get me to rectify that.
I first saw that movie at my crazed pards house who could quote it verbatim and when drunk would pull out a 51 Navy from under the table at the shoot out scene where the guy blows a hole in his pants and blast away. The Colt was just capped not charged but it scared chit out of me first time he did it. lol
Wrote by John Milius, directed by Huston staring Newman and the Bear. Soundtrack by Jarre the king of soundtracks. I got the DVD too have to watch it.
Movies of yore like the days of yore were fine.
I checked the “movies now playing” yesterday. Huston would puke if he saw that.
Thanks again for the lead.
🙂
lane batot says
I got a purty reasonable, uncomplicated old-fashioned turntable off’n Amazon awhile back.(where I saw the vinyl record of the soundtrack for sale, too–I bought a vinyl soundtrack of another favorite movie, and it came in EXCELLENT condition–I was kinda leery about sending a vinyl record through the mail!) It’s worked great! It is a combo turntable CD player, so plays everything I have…..I read some of the links you provided–seems Milius was not so happy with what Huston did with his script, but the quirky nature of the film, and out of place scenes(like the bear picnic with an Andy Williams crooner song, for Christ’s sake!), are actually what I LOVED about the film. It somehow made ridiculous fun of old Westerns, while at the same time sentimentalizing them–I appreciate it more every time I re-watch it!
David Wrolson says
My experience with Judge Roy Bean was in my first high school drama experience. I played a tenderfoot lawyer who had to argue a case before the judge. For some reason, my “Wife” was with me-Ah-Good times.
Not generally a fan of horror-but the “Buffalo Hunter Hunter” will be pre-ordered. Man, what a title.
JimC says
That’s fun.