My Darling Clementine (1946)

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Samuel G. Engel (screenplay) and
Winston Miller (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

3 December 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

The Roaring West At Its Reckless Best!

Plot:

A Western retelling the tale of the Shoot-out at the OK Corral.

Plot Keywords:

OK Corral | Marshal | Doc Holliday | Wyatt Earp | Revenge

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Henry Fonda	...	Wyatt Earp
Linda Darnell	...	Chihuahua
Victor Mature	...	Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday
Cathy Downs	...	Clementine Carter
Walter Brennan	...	Old Man Clanton
Tim Holt	...	Virgil Earp
Ward Bond	...	Morgan Earp
Alan Mowbray	...	Granville Thorndyke
John Ireland	...	Billy Clanton
Roy Roberts	...	Mayor
Jane Darwell	...	Kate Nelson
Grant Withers	...	Ike Clanton
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Mac the Barman
Russell Simpson	...	John Simpson

Also Known As:

John Ford's My Darling Clementine (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

97 min | Spain:102 min | 103 min (pre-release version) | West Germany:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #11591) | Canada:PG (video rating) | South Korea:12 (2003) | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (1995) | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Reportedly, Lloyd Bacon worked uncredited on this film with Darryl F. Zanuck re-editing this film in deference to preview comment cards.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The ages of the Earp brothers is reversed. In the movie, James is in his late teens, Virgil is in his twenties, Wyatt is about thirty, and Morgan is well into his thirties. In actuality, at the time of the OK Corral gunfight, James was 40, Virgil was 38, Wyatt was 33, and Morgan was 30.

Quotes:

Wyatt Earp: Mac, you ever been in love?
Mac: No, I've been a bartender all me life.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Castle of Fu-Manchu (#4.23)" (1992)

Classic western

Wyatt Earp and his brothers are driving cattle to California. They stop off at Tombstone and go into town, leaving the youngest brother behind to mind the cattle. On their return they find their brother murdered and their cattle stolen. Wyatt decides to stay in town with his brother as the town's marshal to bring law and order and catch the murderer. In the town he not only comes up against the hard-drinking Doc Holliday but also the Clanton's.

Easily the best film that tells the story of Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Coral. There have been more action packed versions or more ponderous versions but this is still the best. The shootout itself is supposedly the most accurate, as director Ford said `I talked to Wyatt Earp, he told me how it was and that's how we did it' (I'm paraphrasing cause I can't remember the direct quote). However the shootout is not as dramatic as a result – in fact it is very short and straightforward. The strength in the film is the wider story. The story is well told with attention to character and has a good comic feel running right through it.

The script allows for good dialogue and the actors bring it to life well. Fonda was always at his strongest in these type of roles and is morally strong. His easy screen toughness really holds the attention. Mature has a good role in Doc, but is not the best doc ever I think. The Clantons are all underused and don't really make a big impact until the final section. Darnell makes a big impact and Downs is good despite being more subtle.

The film is as much Ford's as Fonda's. His black and white film is as lush as many colour films you see. His use of shadow is powerful – witness his death shroud on Holliday's face as he talks to Chihuahua who is literally and metaphorically entering into the light. The old west looks as sparse as I imagine it was. Ford's only weakness is that he doesn't bring much tension to the actual gunfight, but his warming, comic telling at other points means that his strengths vastly outweigh the odd weakness.

Overall this film is rightly a classic that appears in many critics top 100 lists. I was surprised to see it not in the top 250 of imdb (at time of writing). I guess that when modern films are `good' hundreds of thousands of people see it and it moves quickly up the internet polls, however older classics like this can tend to be forgotten as those same users slowly discover it. However, regardless of on line polls this is a very good film that is easily the best telling of the Wyatt Earp story.