My Darling Clementine

If I was to mention the words two-fisted, rough-riding and shoot-em up, along with "Reckless, Riotous Frontier Adventure!" The words My Darling Clementine don't exactly spring to mind.

There was time when I hated John Ford films. Being raised on Sergio Leone Westerns - I just couldn't get into Ford's movies. When I saw The Searchers for the first time - I hated it. Dull, slow moving and racist were my first impressions of the film. The next Ford film I saw, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, didn't change my opinion much.

Fast forward a few years and I ended up re-watching The Searchers. And my opinion has been completely reversed. Here was a movie that was beautifully shot, brilliantly staged and extremely entertaining. As for the racist part, it occurred to me that it was more that John Wayne's character was racist and not necessarily the film. Certainly Jeffrey (the original Captain Pike) Hunter's character wasn't racist. Next thing I know I'm watching a ton of John Ford films which brings me to My Darling Clementine. Despite the wussy title, this film is Ford's take on that oft told tale of the west, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. And it is a two-fisted, rough-riding, shoot-em up "Reckless, Riotous Frontier Adventure!" and damn entertaining movie.

This was the fourth film to tell the tale of that legendary gunfight. The first three Frontier Marshall (1934 &1939) and Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die took extreme liberties with the story. Heck the first Frontier Marshall has it Michael Wyatt instead of Wyatt Earp. Ford had known Wyatt Earp and based the gunfight on what Earp had told him. The rest of the movie is typical Hollywood invention.

The story takes place the year after the actual gunfight took place. Wyatt (Henry Fonda) Earp and his three brothers are taking a herd of cattle to California. They stop near the town of Tombstone, Arizona by way of Monument Valley. When Wyatt and his brothers go into town, their brother James is murdered and their cattle rustled. They decide to stay in Tombstone and find their brother's killer. There Wyatt meets Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) and both men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman named Clementine (thus the title of the film). They also team up to fight the greatest evil ever to grace the screen, Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton. A man so evil, he is not only murderer and rustler, he also whips his own sons for not killing Wyatt. "When ya pull a gun, kill a man." It's hard to believe that this is the same actor that played that lovable crazy old coot Stumpy in Rio Bravo.

It might be historically inaccurate but the film is Ford at his entertaining best and although I've yet to revisit The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, I'm amazed at how much I keep enjoying his movies. But what is with the wussy title?