The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean Page #6

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Leave peaceable.

I'll go by myself.

- I'll give you $400 for your ticket.

- Excuse me, Your Honor.

- I heard you with them police.

- Get away, boy.

- I'm trying to do you a favor.

- Go away.

I work for the opera house.

I wouldn't do this for nobody else.

Come on.

I mean, you being a judge and all,

talking about Miss Langtry and all.

How'd you like to meet her?

You know Miss Lillie?

I put her flowers in fresh water

every morning.

Part of my job.

Did you notice

any red and white roses there today?

Red and white?

Did you send those, Your Honor?

They were beautiful beyond belief.

- Miss Lillie like them?

- I can't rightly say, Your Honor.

Roses ain't her favorite flower.

But she appreciated the thought.

- What is her favorite flower?

- Tulips.

This year it was tulips.

That's what it was, all right.

Tulips?

You can get me back there?

Sure. I know the stage-door guard

real good.

You can watch from the wings.

It's the best seat in the house.

But it's going to cost you.

I mean, I got to make a living, too.

$100?

And you can keep the change, son.

Thanks, Your Honor.

This gentleman is a friend

of Miss Langtry's.

He'd like to see her.

I can't let him in. I got orders.

He's a judge.

Well, seeing he's a judge...

But I can't risk my job for nothing.

Give him something.

Only a fin, Your Honor.

We don't want to spoil him.

- How are you, Tector?

- Glad to have you back, Judge.

Glad to be back.

- How was your trip?

- Memorable.

- How'd you know I was on that train?

- I didn't know. I was just hoping.

Hoping?

Marie Elena's been calling for you.

The baby's fine, but Marie Elena...

She ain't...

We sent for the doctor

four days ago, Judge.

Ought to have been here by now.

What's going on here?

What kind of a welcome is this?

I can't abide you lying in bed.

You had the baby. You should...

be standing on your hind legs.

I'm sorry it's a girl.

Don't change the subject.

I can't abide you lying there...

all pale and wan. It ain't becoming...

for my bride-to-be.

How did she look?

Who?

Miss Lillie.

Oh, her.

Had other things on my mind.

Music boxes and the like.

I expect you'll be dancing

to this tomorrow.

Tonight.

You'll be dancing to it tonight.

I can't wait till tomorrow.

I won't have it.

You'll be dancing to this tonight.

That's my ruling, by Gobs!

Marie.

Marie?

Howdy, Judge.

Would have been here two days sooner,

except the doc was on a drunk.

He ain't in very good condition.

Got away from us once.

But we caught him

and throwed him in the Pecos River.

Wake up, Doc. Come on, wake up.

You're here. Wake up. Get on out of here.

Get out.

You may take me to the patient.

Hang him.

No, I'll hang him.

No, Judge.

No. No, please.

My God. No, Judge. Judge, no.

No, please.

No, Judge. Please don't.

No. Please.

What is going on here?

You! Put that man down, sir.

What is the meaning of this?

- He's hanging the doctor.

- Well, you stop him. I forbid it.

I am the mayor. You are my officers.

As mayor of this town,

I demand that you do your duty...

and put a halt to these illegal proceedings.

Hanging is the outlaw's path to glory...

and much too good for the likes of you.

Judge, I think I should tell you that...

in your absence,

a town meeting was held...

Shut up, Gass.

...during the course of which

I was duly appointed mayor.

Gass!

They voted for me, Judge,

by show of hands.

Our wives' fault, Judge. They kept at us.

I'm going home and beat mine.

Judge, can't we just pretend

it never happened?

Sure. That's a good idea, Judge.

Bygones is bygones.

The Judge left everything

he owned or built.

Rode off into the desert just like he came.

Time and the country

just swallowed him up.

Some say he never did return.

Like the historians,

they call it "a romantic fabrication. "

Hell, what do they know?

How would anybody know better than me?

I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I took the Judge's little girl

and raised her as my own.

Little Rose grew like a young colt.

Lawyer Gass, he took over.

With a carpet bag full of papers,

he was able to steal the same land...

that the Judge had wrested

from the Devil...

with a gun and a rope.

Civilization.

It was steps going down

for the Judge's marshals.

Gass fired them...

and they was forced to seek livelihoods

beneath their stations.

It didn't take long for their wives

to ditch them, either.

As she grew...

Rose read the same books

the Judge had read.

I think she thought of him...

the same as one

of them ancient Roman gods.

Looking back...

we had in the person of Teddy Roosevelt...

the finest President

in the history of this country.

He had the spirit and determination

that matched the times and the land.

Then the women got the vote,

and everything went to hell.

While our boys was overseas

fighting the Kaiser...

the women got Prohibition put in.

Drinking and gambling and whoring

were declared unlawful.

All those things which come natural

to men became crimes.

They went right on doing them, of course.

But in hiding.

And as if things weren't bad enough...

oil was discovered in west Texas.

Hoodlums came crawling

out of the woodwork.

Politicians and crime lords

were bedfellows...

and cops became pimps.

It was a generation of vipers.

Gass became the oil-richest man in Texas.

He hired killers and thugs

from the East to run things...

and kept order with his special police.

Those that stood in his way

were shot down in gang wars.

Blood soaked into the mud

of Langtry again.

Miss Bean,

when I acquired the Jersey Lily...

it was without foreknowledge

of the resources that lay beneath.

I mean, it's hardly my fault

that oil was struck here.

You just remember

your dear father's dream, Miss Bean:

hotels, refineries, factories.

You keep my father's name out of this.

I am bending over backwards to be fair.

Take your time about leaving.

One week or two weeks.

You take your time, too, Mr. Gass.

Take a second.

Take two seconds.

And then git.

I said git!

Be out of there by midnight,

or you shall be evicted.

Evict us?

Let them try.

You don't stand a chance.

The law's on his side.

The law.

Yes, law.

I didn't say nothing about justice.

Uncle Tector.

Yes?

That man on horseback.

He looks like...

something out of an old picture book.

Don't often see a man ride a horse

through this town anymore.

Just some...

old-timer who don't know

that civilization has set in here.

Civilization? We're not going to let it

swallow us up.

I won't stand by

and see my father's house...

the birthplace of law and order,

turned into a gasoline station.

Rose, there's nothing we can do about it.

I am a Bean.

And we Beans just don't know

when we're licked.

- Rose.

- Uncle Tector.

Let's give them hell.

You drunken bum. Stay out of here.

Bart. Big Bart Jackson.

Yes, sir, Judge.

What are you doing

wallowing in the mud...

in broad daylight like a common drunk?

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