THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN

 It may not be a late masterpiece but John Huston's movie "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" isn't just one of his most underrated films but also one of his best. It's a picaresque western, (the title is a bit of a giveaway), with an even more laconic than usual Paul Newman in the title role with a supporting cast of 'guest stars' including Huston himself. It also introduced a young Victoria Principal, (Pam Ewing herself), and had Ava Gardner pop up as Lily Langtry.

Of course, Huston doesn't take any of it seriously. This is a blackly comic western, beautiful written by John Milius and with dialogue ripe for quoting, done as a series of set=pieces built around that terrific cast and, of course, it owes nothing to any other vision of Judge Roy Bean we may have seen, (Newman's about as far removed from Walter Brennan as it's possible to get). As an opening title says, this isn't the way it was but it's the way it should have been and it's a total delight.