The Westerner

In the years after the American Civil War, settlers and cattlemen compete for land in Texas. Roy Bean, who has appointed himself the law west of the Pecos, holds court in a saloon and rules in favour of the ranchers, handing down quick sentences against anyone he considers a troublemaker. When a drifter named Cole Harden is brought before him on a charge of stealing a horse, Harden talks his way out of a hanging by claiming to know the stage actress Lillie Langtry, whom Bean admires from afar and has never met. The lie buys Harden time, and he soon takes the side of homesteaders Bean is trying to drive off the land.

William Wyler directed the film, the sixth of the twenty-two he made, following Wuthering Heights and preceding The Letter. Gary Cooper plays Harden and Walter Brennan plays Judge Bean, with Doris Davenport, Fred Stone, Forrest Tucker and Paul Hurst among the credited cast of forty-six. Jo Swerling and Niven Busch wrote the screenplay, and Samuel Goldwyn produced it through Samuel Goldwyn Productions.

The Westerner runs 100 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.2 from around 7,500 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7.1 from 138 votes. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from seven reviews places it slightly above the audience scores.