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Tuesday March 19th 2024

The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean | 1972

Judge Roy Bean's combination saloon, courthouse and opera house: the real Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center, Langtry, Texas
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean: Judge Roy Bean’s combination saloon, courthouse and opera house: the real Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center, Langtry, Texas

Mythmaking script by ultra-rightist poseur John Milius, saved by director John Huston’s quirky treatment.

The real town of Langtry in Texas, where the colourful Judge Bean embodied the ‘law west of the Pecos’, is named in honour of Bean’s obsession, English actress Lillie Langtry. For the movie, the town was reconstructed in the Arizona desert near Tucson.

What you'll want to visit, though, is Bean’s unique combination of saloon, courthouse and opera house, which has been preserved as the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center, a Texas Department of Transportation rest stop on the stretch of Hwy 90 between Del Rio and Sanderson, southwest Texas near the Mexican border.