Exciting classy Western with plenty of tension , thrills , shoot'em up , high body-count and it has now become accepted as a classic of the genre .This is a vigorous recounting of a familiar tale , dealing with the legendary lawman from Dodge City who moves to Tombstone , Arizona , aiming to begin a new life along with his brothers , Virgil (Tim Holt) and Morgan (Ward Bond) . This trigger-taut Western drama deals with a lawman Wyatt Earp , at the begining Wyatt is a cowboy , a nomadic savage transporting his cattle and he subsequently befriends a badman gunslinger and philosopher Southern gent who usually coughs , called Doc Holliday , (Victor Mature who excels , giving comsumptive conviction to character) , the strangest friendship this side of heaven and hell . They fought shoulder to shoulder in the wildest stand-up gunfight in the history of the West . As the fabled showdown is seen at the final way through this film . They are the strangest alliance between the West's most famous sheriff Wyatt Earp , trying to overcome outlaws and his deadliest gambling killer , Doc Holliday. It's incomparably performed by the greatest team who ever went into action , Henry Fonda portrays the large-than-life lawman , living by the old rules , driven by revenge , dueling to the death and Mature is most impressive as a gunslinger , the hellfire gambler , his only friends were his guns and his only refuge was a woman's heart , Chihuahua (Linda Darnell) . Two towering Box office actors in a huge exciting production . The film correctly builds up its suspense until a tense battle in streets of Tombstone , it is the highlight to the story .The Roaring West At Its Reckless Best! . Reckless, Riotous Frontier Adventure! . She was everything the West was - young, fiery, exciting.

This is an overwhelming Western , though too self-conscious , as the death of an intimate brother results to be the start of a small war between the revenger Earp and the baddies . As when a beloved sibling is murdered it marks the turning point of Wyatt's transition from a wandering cowboy , to bent on vendetta , settled , civilised , and the Marshall who administers the law . Based on a story by Sam Hellman from a book by Stuart N. Lake . In fact , it was the third adaptation , 1ª was : Frontier Marshal 1934 and second : 1939 Frontier Marshal by Allan Dwan . It was partially panned and by no means acclaimed in its day , but nowadays , being well considered , may be seen by some as unoriginal and cliched but is really a very fashionable outing in Earp saga and a throughly agreeable Western . The movie's enjoyability , authenticity , and greatness rests not only in the accuracy of the ending gun-play , but in the well orchestred series of incidents , such as : Earp's visit to barber shop , the dance in the unfinished church , Fonda 's poker game , the romantic scenes between Fonda and Cathy Dows , all of them give a deep meaning to this spledid picture . Decorated by import themes of camaraderie , brothership , fidelity , family and action that were to dominate Ford films for the first post-II world war decade as never before . Victor Mature coming up trumps as Holliday , he delivers a surprisingly awesome acting , stealing clearly the show , a character designed for scenary chewing , giving an attractive portrayal of the doomed dentist . Although overlong , but blessed with a high-energy level , thanks to noisy action , spectacular horse riding and rousing shooting . As the picture benefits itself from despictable villians as Walter Brennan as epitome of evil as Old Man Clanton , he is accompanied by his sons , Grant Whiters and John Ireland is again on the side of Clanton's family just like he was 10 years later in ¨Gunfight at OK Corral¨. The film focuses Tombstone , 1881 , with stimulating scenes about OK Corral gunfight between Morgan , Virgil , Wyatt Earp , Doc against the nefarious old Clanton , Ike , Billy Clanton ,and other brothers . It is good enough to form the main axis of several other sturdy western films. This main character is a historical figure , in this case the sheriff Wyatt Earp who participated the most famous duel occurred in the western town of Tombstone in 1881 that has been brought to the big screen many times as in this classic "My Darling Clementine" in 1946 directed by John Ford , in "Gunfight at O.K. Corral" (1957) with Burt Lancaster , Kirk Douglas directed by specialist John Sturges who would resume the same story in "The Hour of the Gun" (1967) ; the demystifying "Doc" (Frank Perry, 1971) with Harris Yulin and Stacy Keach or the more modern ¨Wyatt Earp¨ (Lawrence Kasdan, 1994) with Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid and Tombstone: Wyatt Earp 's legend (1993) by George P. Cosmatos, 1993) with Kurt Russell , Bill Paxton , Thomas Haden Church , Stephen Lang , Dana Denaley , Robert Burke and Val Kilmer

This is a story enormous in scope ,unusual in concept with a mile-a-minute action on a climatic and thrill-a-minute gunfight. Packs a magnificent and marvelous cinematography in Black and White with a nice sense of period , and in overblown and amazing deep by Joe MacDonald . As well as adequate costuming and lavish production design . This thrilling film contains a spectacular and lyric musical score by Cyril Mockridge who composes a rousing soundtrack . The motion picture was compellingly directed by John Ford . This Ford's film , studded with stunning individual scenes turns out to be the definitive rendition of this great story . As Ford said: ¨I knew Earp and he told me about the fight at the OK Corral , so we did it exactly the way it had been¨.

You need to understand that I have a problem when it comes to historical films. You see, I am a history teacher and when I watch films, I always look to be certain that the film makers get this side of the films right. Often they don't and this often ruins films for me that might still appeal to the public in general. I see history as sacrosanct and just can't stand to see Hollywood play fast and loose with the truth. Because of this, I have long avoided this and other films about the famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Why? Well, because this was a very, very, very minor occurrence in western history--yet it's been completely blown out of proportion. In addition, the facts of the story (despite John Ford's claim to the contrary) are muddied with time--and none of the films seem to get the essence of who the people involved were. Heck, many times the films don't even agree with each other. And, sadly, there have been some god-awful versions of this story--the worst I have seen involving the original Star Trek crew involved in this shootout!!! In my opinion, there should be a moratorium on this story--we simply have had too many films that have over-glamorized this event--or non-event!

Now it would not be fair if I trashed the film simply because it was terrible historically. Yes, it should count against it--but that alone can't ruin the film. In fact, the film is exceptionally well-made--which isn't surprising considering it was made by John Ford. The acting is very nice in a restrained manner. And I also liked the cinematography and music--I really appreciated the film's willingness to use quiet. All too often, sound tracks blare throughout the film but to heighten the sense of nothingness on the prairie the use of music was selective. In fact, had this film NOT purported to be based on a true story (which it really isn't),I would have given it a higher score. Well worth seeing, though I don't count this among the director's best westerns (such as the awesome "Fort Apache").

The movies sure do love telling and retelling the story of the OK Corral shootout. Most versions never do it with any degree of accuracy. This film is one of the least accurate, but maybe one of the most poetic. That's almost a given when you consider John Ford directed it.

My Darling Clementine is based on the book Stuart Lake wrote as an official biography of Wyatt Earp. A year or two before Earp died, he gave a series of interviews to Stuart Lake and gave his version of his life. The book is a good account of all the events of Wyatt Earp's life, his whole life as a frontier marshal before and after the OK Corral affair. Earp outlived just about all his contemporaries on the western scene so he got the final word in for the most part. There have been revisionist stuff done that show that the brothers Earp might not have been as noble as all that. But saying the Clantons and their satellites were any model citizens is just plain ridiculous.

20th Century Fox bought the rights to the Lake book and made two other films entitled Frontier Marshal in 1934 and 1939 starring George O'Brien and Randolph Scott respectively. Basically they bought the rights to the Earp myth, because none of this is in My Darling Clementine. Note also those are the ONLY Wyatt Earp films that are credited to the Lake authorized biography.

The myth of Earp is so overwhelming that you can't play it any other way but noble. Henry Fonda is certainly no exception here. But it's a good portrayal of the cowboy hero. Doc Holiday is always the character that is most complex and Victor Mature does well by Holiday. He's a surgeon here, not a dentist as in real life and part of the plot calls on him to operate on his girl friend Chihuahua played by Linda Darnell. Her death is what compels him to join the Earps in their meeting with the Clantons.

The best acted role in this film belongs to Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton. In real life Old Man Clanton was killed several months before the OK Corral gunfight, but Brennan is fascinating as one evil human being. His portrayal of the Clanton patriarch makes his Academy Award winning Roy Bean in The Westerner look like Mary Poppins.

John Ford got a great performance from Brennan, but it was the one and only time they ever worked together. Brennan refused to ever work for him after that. Ford could be a bully on the set and sometimes downright sadistic. Some actors took to him, some didn't and Brennan with Academy Awards under his belt felt he didn't have to.

I've seen My Darling Clementine, dozens of times, but I still jump when Brennan kills Virgil Earp played by Tim Holt by shooting him in the back. Actually the scene as great as it is shows one weakness in the screenplay. Virgil Earp would NEVER have ridden up to the Clanton ranch alone as he did, he was an experienced peace officer in his own right. But when Brennan takes that shotgun from under the blanket draped over his lap and shoots as Holt is leaving, I guarantee you will jump with fright. It's a great cinematic moment, but Ford should have had a better premise leading up to it.

My Darling Clementine is a wonderful poetic retelling of the great western myth about the OK Corral, a great classic western.