My Darling Clementine

TITLE: MY DARLING CLEMENTINE was release in theaters in the United States on December 3 1946 and it took 97 minutes to watch this movie. My Darling Clementine (1946) is a western film, directed by John Ford, and based on the story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral between the Earp brothers and the Clanton gang. It features an ensemble cast including Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, and others. The movie was adapted by Samuel G. Engel, Sam Hellman, and Winston Miller from the book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake. The title derives from the folk song "Oh My Darling, Clementine", which is the theme song of the movie (sung in parts over the opening and closing credits). Whole scenes from an earlier version, 1939's Frontier Marshal, directed by Alan Dwan, produced by Sol M. Wurtzel, were re shot by Ford for this remake. In 1991, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. SUMMARY: In 1882 (the wrong year is marked on the tombstone of James, since Oct 26th, 1881 was the date of the Gunfight at the OK Corral), the Earp brothers (Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil and James) are driving cattle to California when they cross the Clanton family led by the "Old Man". Told of a nearby town, Tombstone, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest brother James to watch over the cattle. The Earps quickly find Tombstone a lawless town. When they return to their camp, they find the cattle rustled and James dead. Seeking vengeance, Wyatt returns to Tombstone and takes the open job of town Marshall, meeting with the local powers, Doc Holliday and the Clantons, again and again in order to find out who was responsible. In the meantime, a young woman from Boston named Clementine Carter arrives in town. It should be noted that, although the characters and setting of the Gunfight at the OK Corral are presented, a great deal of the plot of the film significantly deviates from the actual history. Important plot devices in the film, such as the death of James Earp (who actually died in 1926), the death of Old Man Clanton (who actually died two months before the O.K. Corral confrontation), and personal details about Doc Holliday (who was a dentist, not a surgeon, and actually died years later of tuberculosis), are inaccurately portrayed. MY THOUGHTS: I didn't care for this movie because there wasn't any drama to it. Sure, it was your typical Western with guns, horses, cattle and guns. However, you knew how it was going to end just 20 minutes into it. Therefore I give this movie just 5 weasel stars and that's being nice in my book.

Many seem to think this is one of the great westerns in the legacy that John Ford left us. I never warmed up to this version of the Wyatt Earp legend for a number of reasons--mainly, because it's told in a style that is bleak and barren of any real emotional involvement and several of the cast members are severely underused--LINDA DARNELL and TIM HOLT are two examples. Furthermore, not being a staunch HENRY FONDA fan, I find his performance pales beside that of VICTOR MATURE as Doc Holliday. CATHY DOWNS does nothing for me as the demure Clementine and only WALTER BRENNAN stands out in the supporting cast. And yet, the film has quite a reputation among western fans as being one of Ford's best. It just doesn't connect with me, partly due to the fact that there is virtually no background music throughout to set the stark mood of the story. I'm much more impressed by other Ford westerns, beginning with DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, FORT APACHE, THE SEARCHERS and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON. I'll take any one of them over MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. Summing up: VICTOR MATURE's is the standout performance here. He and Brennan create two of the more colorful characters but the film itself is a disappointment in many ways.

The enormous number and variety of factual errors in this over-rated classic have been noted by viewers and the authors of the "goofs" section. (Neither Wyatt's presumed wife Hattie nor later wife Josie even appear in the film.) Suffice to say, MDC would have been a far-far more acceptable film had John Ford merely changed the names and place. His oft-repeated statement that he interviewed Wyatt Earp, who allegedly "planned the gunfight like a military campaign" simply does not bear scrutiny. In fact, the OK Corral shootout was typical of so many lethal confrontations: it began with a vague plan and quickly turned to hash. Granted, the photography is marvelous--just what we expect of Ford--and the scenery is eye-watering. But almost any other Earp movie does vastly better at portraying the era and the events in Arizona Territory. As an Arizonan, I much prefer "Tombstone," which is not only more stylish and more authentic, but just plain more fun to watch.

Director John Ford, working without John Wayne this time, instead casts Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp who, in this version, arrives in Tombstone Arizona on a cattle drive with his brothers Morgan(Ward Bond),& Virgil(Tim Holt). When they leave the herd in the care of third brother James, they are dismayed to later discover him murdered, and their herd stolen by ruthless cattle rustler Ike Clanton(Walter Brennan) and his sons. Wyatt becomes town Marshal to seek out the proof he needs to get the Clantons, with the help of old friend Doc Holliday(Victor Mature) which sets up the famous showdown. Along the way, he finds himself romancing the local schoolteacher Clementine... Strangely dull film has some good direction but moves like molasses and takes far too many liberties with history to even resemble the truth; they may as well have told a whole new(and entirely fictional) story for all the difference it makes. Good cast can't save it, though it is highly regarded by many.

'My Darling Clementine' is easily one of Ford's best Westerns, and quite certainly the best of all the Wyatt Earp films... To most modern audiences, the Corral incident and the confused events and motivations which led to it have been best presented by two motion pictures, John Ford's 'My Darling Clementine,' and John Sturges' 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.' Ford makes a fine account of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday's legendary defeat of the Clanton gang... By now, despite the film's climactic shoot-out at the OK Corral, Ford's talents lay less in action scenes than in playing endless variations on community rituals... Dances, church-meetings, saloon brawls and funerals are utilized to define social hierarchies and relationships, and to emphasize the role of tradition in the molding of America's heroic culture... Ford makes much of the visit of a pretty graceful lady named Clementine searching for her presumably long-lost love, none other than the consumptive Doc Holliday, now, devoted to the bottle and hidden under a huge white handkerchief... Victor Mature gives a touchy performance as the wild and reckless Doc seeking death... Holliday sways between two kinds of women: The Eastern, fair and respectable Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs), and the wild dark-eyed dancing girl 'Apache' Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), one of the sirens of the 1940s whose rose-at-twilight looks seem to stimulate every cameraman... Earp, the marshal of Tombstone, deliciously played by Henry Fonda, and Doc Holliday track down the Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan-in one of his finest performances) and his infamous four sons... There is deviation on the way... A revenge motive attributed to Fonda, and the jealous intervention of Holliday's Mexican mistress... But the path is well and truly pointed to that challenge at the corral... The action is firm, nicely photographed in Ford's favorite locale, the rugged Monument Valley in northern Arizona... The story is also well told... But the film will be always remembered for its fine sensations and curiously captivating moods... This is Ford indulging himself, as was his habit, but on this occasion the indulgences all come off and are imparted with pure magic... It's a film of touches, simple and beautiful... Ford often likes to slow his Westerns down... Edged deeper into the American myth, Ford makes Fonda sit precariously on the veranda, adjusts his boots and balances himself while the world, such as it is, goes by... Fonda, with quiet persuasive self-confidence, is the imperturbable peacemaker, who walks a lady to church... Fonda-shy and slow-moving, with delightful intonation of short words, and an old-world frontier concept of courtesy, leads Clementine in a delightful two-step open-air dance... Filmed in gloriously rich black and white, 'My Darling Clementine' is an archetypal Western mood piece, full of nostalgia for times gone by and crackling with memorable scenes and characterizations...

This will be remembered as a good Henry Fonda western showing the growth and civilizing of a Western town but coming nowhere close to representing the facts on which it is supposed to be based. Putting aside the events connected to Wyatt Earp, there is nothing to indicate that Tombstone is a boomtown based on mining (except for one tiny reference to prospecting). If we are going to have a shootout at the OK corral, where are the McLaury brothers, 2 of the 3 people killed at the shootout? The shootout itself bears virtually no resemblance to the actual event and the killing and wounding of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and their adversaries as depicted in the film are totally at odds with reality, with the exception of Billy Clanton (killed) and Wyatt Earp (uninjured). I have to wonder if John Ford really believed he was being accurate since the history of the event was not widely known at the time of the film. Both female leads are pretty bad, both as characters as well as how they are acted. I liked Victor Mature as Holliday, but he seemed out of his element, I think being best suited to film noirs. He is too self-involved to develop any real bond with Wyatt, which is a detriment in this film. Doc Holliday has been played by a wide range of actors, from Mature to Kirk Douglas, to Jason Robards Jr. to the more modern portrayals of Val Kilmer and Dennis Quaid. They were all interesting and very different from each other. I guess Doc is just a great character. Tombstone and Wyatt Earp are the only two films that attempted to get the Tombstone story right. All the other Earp movies just played with various elements of the true story. My Darling Clementine makes a good Fonda double feature with the Ox Bow Incident. 7 of 10 stars.

If you're looking for a straight-forward, fairly factual presentation of the events leading up to the 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral', watch 'Wyatt Earp', or 'Tombstone'...But if you prefer your history more spiritual, and want to see a master storyteller paint a visual canvas of a West that may never have existed, but SHOULD have, then this film should be a treasured part of your video collection! John Ford knew Wyatt Earp personally, and was familiar with the events surrounding the Tombstone shootout, but one of his greatest assets as a director was his ability to look beyond simple facts, and focus on what 'made' a legend. 'My Darling Clementine' is a story of icons, of Loners, accepting their own weaknesses and limitations, yet willing to risk their lives and abilities to aid others, then to walk away, allowing Civilization to grow. It's a classic theme of most great westerns, particularly in Ford's work (he would return to it in 'The Searchers', and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'), as well as other directors ('Shane', 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'Unforgiven', and 'Open Range' are a few examples). Wyatt Earp (wonderfully portrayed by Henry Fonda) and his brothers have an aloofness that makes their characters both deceptively simple, yet enigmatic at the same time. At the film's start, Wyatt's a cowpuncher who had walked away from the responsibilities of being a lawman, finding satisfaction with his brothers in the hard work and solitary life of the range. When the Clantons (led by Walter Brennan, in one of his greatest, yet most vicious roles), first approach the brothers on the range, they accept the old man's invitation to get a taste of city life, but it's clear that it will only be a brief stay before they move on, and Wyatt brushes aside any overtures of friendship. Wyatt's lack of desire to commit to a larger community is stressed when he subdues an armed, drunken Indian with his bare hands in a saloon (based on an actual event in Earp's life), then turns down the city council's plea to accept the Marshall's badge. Only after a brother is murdered do the Earp brothers decide to clean up the town, as it had become 'personal'. In counterpoint to Earp is another 'loner', Doc Holliday (sensitively portrayed by Victor Mature), an intellectual who fled the South, and had found his solitude through his guns, his gambling, and his illness. While Wyatt is a true 'Man of the West', however, Holliday is simply a lonely man with no place to go, only comfortable at a poker table. He is doomed, more by his own shrinking world, than by the disease that forces him to cough into his handkerchief. The scenes of Wyatt in Tombstone are wonderful, as Civilization grows up around the uncomfortable stranger. Yet he toys with the idea of settling into this world, through his polite yet obvious attraction to Doc's lost love, Clementine. The scene of the outdoor church dance, where the stiffly formal Earp dances against the vista of a West being 'boarded in' is symbolic of what his own life, and the West, itself, was becoming, and is classic Ford! The climactic shootout at the O.K. Corral is both powerful and raw, ultimately fulfilling the Earps' commitment to a world that needed their aid, and ending the downward spiral of Holliday's life, in a heroic and theatrical gesture. It's often asked why Wyatt leaves, afterward, when Clementine and Tombstone are so attractive...The answer is simple, really; his work is finished, and his participation was no longer necessary. Civilization could now grow, unimpeded. The Loner would have no place there. Like Ethan, or Shane, or 'The Man With No Name', he must return to the solitary vistas that are his true home. John Ford has truly created the 'Stuff of Legends' with this beloved classic!

It is worth to see the film because of the many outstanding actors who might have contributed to the high ranking. But the film, although entertaining, is in parts rather boring. It is hardly to be understood why they ignored the historic facts so much that it is not bearable for anybody who likes to have treated truth with more respect. It would have been better to change names to create just a simple story about the wild west. It is in my opinion of no use at all to show history in falsifying history. I am a strong opponent to this. If history is too boring You need not make a film about it, choose something else or relate a tale. That is much better. Compared with other westerns of the time, this one is not very convincing. To locate Tombstone in the Monument Valley is not excusable. Ford did not care a penny for the ridicule he must have received from all the Arizona audience. But You have to respect the claims of people who live in the area where historic incidents happened. They claim more accuracy and they have the right to do this. Hollywood is of course not bound to facts or history, but it is much more appreciated if they do not only make fantasy films when the reality is much more interesting. The art is not in displaying fantasy but in making sense, something beautiful for the eyes and something bothering for the mind.

If it comes to historical accuracy "My Darling Clementine" is not the version of the OK Corral gunfight you should look for (it lasted 31 seconds and the contenders where no more than 9 or 10 feet away). So what has this film that makes it so "classical" to most viewers? I've always wondered. As for direction, John Ford has made better things. The black and white release helps the atmosphere and is good. The cast is mostly adequate, mainly Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan. acceptable musical score. Outdoor filming in open wide sceneries is fine as well. But how in the name of God could they cast Victor Mature as "Doc" Holiday I'll never understand. His usual and classical over-overacting literally damages the movie badly. His part is too important to overlook his terrible acting. This is not the first potential classic that Mature ruined with his performance (other one is "The Egyptian", though he got a lot of help there from Edmund Purdom in the main role). And also, how could a smart director like Ford include a scene where Fonda faces Mature in a gun duel and shoots "Doc's" gun right off his hand in the most pure "Lone Ranger" style? I must say too that the film is sortof slow, but I admit this could be a matter of opinion. Don't get me wrong; "My Darling Clementine" is a watchable western, but no "classic" could have such flaws. Just a 6 out of 10 for me. Sorry.

Why should facts interfere with a great movie? Virtually everything in this John Ford classic about Wyatt Earp, his brothers, Doc Holliday and the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral was false. James Earp, who was killed by Old Man Clanton (who didn't exist)at the beginning of the film (set in 1881) actually died of old age in Los Angeles in 1926. Virgil Earp, who was also killed by the fictitious Old Man Earp in the movie, actually died in Goldfield, NV in 1905. Ike Clanton, who was killed at the gunfight on screen, was, in fact, killed in 1887. One month later, Doc Holliday, who was killed at the OK Corral in the film, died of tuberculosis. And Wyatt Earp? He died in Beautiful Downtown Burbank, CA in 1929,after living through the Roaring Twenties, months before the great Wall Street Crash. But the film itself is beautiful. The performances are as poignant as the scenery, lighting and photography are beautiful.