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How others will see it. This entertaining outing fulfills audience expectations of what an old-time western should be: colorful characters, action, humor, romance, delayed justice, and closure. There's no real need to inspect the characters too closely for inconsistency, and never mind that the story has its elements of formula. Just sit back and enjoy it.
How I felt about it. The first sign of trouble for me wasn't the shootout and hanging that opens the movie. It was the entrace of courageous, self-righteous, and attractive Doris Davenport. She strides into Bean's saloon/courtroom and gives him a strident tongue-lashing. She's technically right, of course, and she's in trouble.
It's certain that only one man can save her. Fortunately, he's arrived into town just in time to regroup the homesteaders, and after the requisite courtship and fencing, he's sure to win her hand as well. We know that manly, sly, and slow-talking Gary Cooper will hook up with Davenport, and not just because she's pretty, single, and of marriageable age. She's also the only woman in the county, aside from her own mother. So, Cooper has little choice in the matter unless he rides off the set or instead prefers to continue sleeping in the same bed with snoring "Judge" Bean.
Cagey Cooper is given a preposterous set of obstacles to overcome. These begin with avoiding a hangman's noose by conning the "judge" with a story tailored to Bean's foolish obsession with a photogenic stage actress.
Because it's a movie, he's able to pull each plan off, except his improptu scheme to put out a cropfire is a dismal failure. Oops. Maybe a hasty retreat would have been better after all.
The audience is unlikely to find fault with our crafty but noble-minded hero, Gary Cooper. Or with female lead Davenport, whose courage and will never wavers. Her virtue is never in doubt, either.
Walter Brennan is more problematic. Of course, he's an outstanding character actor, and highly likable. But he's a murderous despot, backed by wealthy cattlemen. In his saloon "courtroom", the formalities of law are observed, but its bias is always in favor of his equally loyal power base.
Cooper is friends with Bean, but at first only to save his neck, and then to protect his promising new girlfriend. Bean must eventually be confronted with force, because it's the only real law on the frontier. In essence, Brennan is the villain that can only be (and must be) stopped by the hero. All Brennan lacks is a sinister, threatening sidekick for Cooper to dispose of first. Where's Jack Palance when you need him?