One of the finest and most memorable westerns of the fifties is GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL! A splendid Vista Vision Technicolor presentation based around the famous shootout that took place in Tombstone Arizona on the 26th October 1881. Produced by Hal Wallis for Paramount Pictures in 1957 it was masterfully directed by John Sturges and mightily cast with Burt Lancaster as the great frontier lawman Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday. The combination of these two heavyweight stars playing the leads plus the movie's catchy fire cracker title assured the picture's box office success. From an excellent screenplay by Leon Uris it was stylishly complimented by the brilliant and glowing cinematography of Charles B. Lang together with Dimitri Tiomkin's rollicking score including the clever vocal sung by Frankie Laine which operatically guided us through the narrative. Regretfully Sturges had another go at the incident ten years later with the now disregarded and dismissed "Hour Of The Gun" (1967) starring the lightweight James Garner as an unconvincing Wyatt Earp, Jason Robards as a just about adequate Doc Holliday and a poorly cast Robert Ryan in the under written role of Ike Clanton.
The story we all know and love recounts the arrival in Tombstone of Marshal Wyatt Earp. From his developing relationship with the dubious Doc Holliday to his many run ins with rancher Ike Clanton and his law breaking gang of cowboys which would inevitably lead to the event that would become known as the most famous and notorious shootout in American western history.........THE GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL.
The incident itself has been well documented by Hollywood. Most famously by John Ford in 1946 when it featured in his classic "My Darling Clementine" for 20th Century Fox with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature as the consumptive Doc Holliday. After the dismal "Hour Of The Gun" in 1967 came "Tombstone" in 1993 with Kurt Russell as Earp and Val Kilmer who just chewed up every shred of scenery as a swashbuckling Holliday. This was followed the next year by Kevin Kostner's over long and bloated "Wyatt Earp" (1994) with Kostner making for a stiff Earp but Dennis Quaid delivering a blistering and definitive performance as a really frail and ill looking Holliday.
It is interesting to ponder that the actual event that occurred on that fateful October afternoon in 1881, when the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday confronted the Clantons and the McLaurys at the OK Corral, was but the briefest of encounters. It was all over inside of thirty seconds! With thirty shots fired at point blank range it resulted in the deaths of Tom and Frank McLaury and young Billy Clanton. Morgan and Virgil Earp along with Doc Holliday were wounded but survived. Wyatt was unhurt. For an incident that - in reality - was so short it is quite amazing how elaborate and embellished Hollywood has depicted the event in every movie. Sturges' '57 film probably contains the longest and most colourful version of the incident which took up to about twenty minutes of screen time. Of course we must accept this to be artistic licence and enjoy it as it is - regardless of the liberties taken by the film makers concerning the facts of what actually occurred that day. Also It is curious that situated next to the OK Corral was the photographic studio of Camillus Fly (Fly was famous for his many photos of early Arizona including those taken at the negotiations between the Apache warrior Geronimo and General Crook). Unfortunately Fly - reputed to be under threat from the Earps - took no photographs of the unfolding events that day in the adjacent OK Corral. A missed opportunity most certainly, a shamefully lost scoop that history can never forgive. Fly's studio is nowhere to be seen in either Sturges' or Ford's pictures. And yet it was quite prominent in 1993's "Tombstone".
However, actual occurrences and events not withstanding Sturges' movie is still an immensely entertaining picture. Performances are top notch! Lancaster makes a fine upstanding square jawed Wyatt Earp against Douglas' tempestuous and aggressive Doc Holliday. Good too are those in smaller roles like Jo Van Fleet as Doc's abused girl friend "Big Nose" Kate, Lyle Bettger as Ike Clanton, John Ireland as Ringo and Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton.
All in all another great one from the fifties, the decade of the classic Hollywood western.
The story we all know and love recounts the arrival in Tombstone of Marshal Wyatt Earp. From his developing relationship with the dubious Doc Holliday to his many run ins with rancher Ike Clanton and his law breaking gang of cowboys which would inevitably lead to the event that would become known as the most famous and notorious shootout in American western history.........THE GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL.
The incident itself has been well documented by Hollywood. Most famously by John Ford in 1946 when it featured in his classic "My Darling Clementine" for 20th Century Fox with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature as the consumptive Doc Holliday. After the dismal "Hour Of The Gun" in 1967 came "Tombstone" in 1993 with Kurt Russell as Earp and Val Kilmer who just chewed up every shred of scenery as a swashbuckling Holliday. This was followed the next year by Kevin Kostner's over long and bloated "Wyatt Earp" (1994) with Kostner making for a stiff Earp but Dennis Quaid delivering a blistering and definitive performance as a really frail and ill looking Holliday.
It is interesting to ponder that the actual event that occurred on that fateful October afternoon in 1881, when the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday confronted the Clantons and the McLaurys at the OK Corral, was but the briefest of encounters. It was all over inside of thirty seconds! With thirty shots fired at point blank range it resulted in the deaths of Tom and Frank McLaury and young Billy Clanton. Morgan and Virgil Earp along with Doc Holliday were wounded but survived. Wyatt was unhurt. For an incident that - in reality - was so short it is quite amazing how elaborate and embellished Hollywood has depicted the event in every movie. Sturges' '57 film probably contains the longest and most colourful version of the incident which took up to about twenty minutes of screen time. Of course we must accept this to be artistic licence and enjoy it as it is - regardless of the liberties taken by the film makers concerning the facts of what actually occurred that day. Also It is curious that situated next to the OK Corral was the photographic studio of Camillus Fly (Fly was famous for his many photos of early Arizona including those taken at the negotiations between the Apache warrior Geronimo and General Crook). Unfortunately Fly - reputed to be under threat from the Earps - took no photographs of the unfolding events that day in the adjacent OK Corral. A missed opportunity most certainly, a shamefully lost scoop that history can never forgive. Fly's studio is nowhere to be seen in either Sturges' or Ford's pictures. And yet it was quite prominent in 1993's "Tombstone".
However, actual occurrences and events not withstanding Sturges' movie is still an immensely entertaining picture. Performances are top notch! Lancaster makes a fine upstanding square jawed Wyatt Earp against Douglas' tempestuous and aggressive Doc Holliday. Good too are those in smaller roles like Jo Van Fleet as Doc's abused girl friend "Big Nose" Kate, Lyle Bettger as Ike Clanton, John Ireland as Ringo and Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton.
All in all another great one from the fifties, the decade of the classic Hollywood western.