Details

Release year: 1940

Storyline

Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed hanging judge in Vinegarroon, Texas, befriends saddle tramp Cole Harden, who opposes Bean's policy against homesteaders.

Top credits

Directors

William Wyler

Writers

Cast

Gary Cooper — Cole Harden
Walter Brennan — Judge Roy Bean
Doris Davenport — Jane Ellen Mathews
Fred Stone — Caliphet Mathews

See all 55 credits →

Awards

1 win & 2 nominations

See all awards →

Did you know

• Gary Cooper never liked the film and said, "You can't make a western without a gunfight." He walked off the film and refused to start work on it. It was only after long battles with Samuel Goldwyn that he started work on it but always said that he wished he'd never made it.

• Walter Brennan was somewhat embarrassed as to how he won three Oscars. In the early years of the Academy Awards, extras had the right to vote. Brennan was popular with the Union of Film Extras, and since their numbers were overwhelming, he won every time he was nominated. His third win for this film led to the disenfranchisement of the union from Oscar voting.

• This film was the third Oscar win for Walter Brennan, who won three out of the past five best Supporting Actor Academy Awards. Despite being nominated the subsequent year for Sergeant York (1941), also with Gary Cooper, he never was nominated again in a very long career.