Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Micitype Pretty Good

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

weezeralfalfa Much has been written about the significance of the near total disregard for historical facts in this John Ford movie about the stay of the Earps and Doc Holiday in Tombstone, AZ. Some think it a very significant negative in the overall judgement of the film, while others think historical accuracy is a minor consideration in the making of an entertaining film. I say, if you're going to falsify many historical facts, you should also falsify the names and locations of the historical personages and location. "Powder River" and "Dawn at Socorro" are good examples(see my reviews). An alternative would be to title the film as "The legend of ........", as I did in my review title, to indicate that the screenplay may sometimes deviate strongly from history. In this case, I believe this would have been the best choice. I had previously reviewed the semi-western "Rage at Dawn". In the beginning, we see the message that "This is the true story of the Reno Brothers". Well, checking out the facts, I learned that they got most major details wrong! So, I downgraded the film for that reason. In the present film, there is no such claim of authenticity. Nonetheless, the audience should demand a reasonable degree of authenticity be presented, unless the title or a written message at the beginning indicates that this is not true by saying "The legend of ........" .......This film, as are most westerns, is about the conflict of good and evil, both for men and women. The Earps represent the coming of law and order to a Wild West town. Clementine Carter is the formulistic 'good' girl, while Linda, Darnell, as Chihuahua, is the 'bad' girl. In her ambition to become a schoolteacher, Clementine represents a potential civilizing force. Chihuahua, as the epitome of the saloon girl, represents the corrupting female version of the Wild West. Yet another indication of the creep of civilization into this town is the building of a church. Of course, the Clayton family represents the lawlessness of the Wild West. So, where does Doc Holiday fit into this scheme of things. He's an educated Easterner: a doctor. He can sometimes quote Shakespeare. He fought with the Earps against the Claytons. But he is also part of the wildness of this town: a gambler, a bully, a gunslinger, a sometimes enemy of the Earps' law and order philosophy. He probably fought the Claytons only because one had killed his current girl friend : Chihuahua. He demanded that Clementine leave town, because she represented his civilized past. The main characters who represent the Wild West all die by the last scene. This includes Doc and Chihuahua, and symbolizes the gradual dying of the Wild West. Most of the civilizing characters survive, with the exception of 2 of the Earp brothers, who remind us that stamping out evil often requires the sacrifice of some good people.......Most of the actors were well chosen for their role. This includes Henry Fonda as laconic Wyatt, Victor Mature as ailing Doc, Walter Brennan, as crusty Old Man Clayton, Linda Darnell, as a fetching saloon girl, and Cathy Downs as the appropriately bland, prim, Clementine. Clementine and Wyatt had developed somewhat of a romantic attachment by film's end, but he clearly wasn't ready to settle down to family life, just yet, and perhaps felt intimidated by her Eastern pedigree. See it at YouTube.

Tad Pole . . . ten men their lives in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. When Henry Fonda turns down Walter Brennan's impromptu post-sunset low-ball cattle herd purchase offer in the middle of the Arizona desert, the men do NOT exchange business cards. But you can tell by the look on Walt's face at he hotel desk later that evening that IF Hank had told him out in the desert that he was "Wyatt Earp," Walt never would have killed Wyatt's little brother and stolen the Earp cattle herd. Another Earp, Doc Holliday, two of their anonymous allies, and all five of Walt's clan then bite the dust (not to mention Chihuahua, who doesn't count because she's not a guy, she's not White, and she's not even Doc's dog!). Besides Jimmy's demise, not much happens for the first hour plus of MY DARLING. We get a smattering of Shakespeare, a smidgen of faro (which seems to be some sort of Old Timey card game), a Doc with too many women and too little breath, and a sheriff who's reluctant to meet a woman or mete out death. Then Walt has to find out that DUST BE MY DESTINY the hard way.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . almost manages to bamboozle movie-goers that Evil is Good in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. And this is without so much as a cameo appearance by Ford's personal Frankenstein Monster, John Wayne. Unlike Wayne's nemesis director, Frank Capra of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, Ford's vision of the America he's promoting is more aptly titled IT'S A FASCIST'S PARADISE. Therefore, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE predicates ALL of its events upon the opening 1882 murder of poor Jimmy Earp, at the tender age of 18, by Evil Pops Clanton (Walter Brennan). Trouble is, as Western historian Andrew C. Isenberg documents in the definitive Criterion CLEMENTINE, James Earp was Wyatt's OLDER brother, and this Jimmy expired superannuated in 1926! The Earps were NOT cattlemen, either, as Ford would have it, and only dabbled occasionally in "law enforcement" TO PROTECT THE E^RP FAMILY PROSTITUTION AND CARD-CHEATING BUSINESSES. Like one of today's Chicago cops, it was Wyatt Earp himself who EXECUTED unarmed business rivals as a crooked "lawman." Anyone acquainted with the rest of John Ford's films (or even the Wayne flicks directed by someone else) is familiar with the pattern this mendacious pair of so-called "Hollywood Icons" used in doing their Devil's Work to tear down American Core Values and our Constitution. They were the Fox "News" of the 1900s: Unfair and Unbalanced. Though Wayne somehow missed 20th Century Fox's CLEMENTINE, one of Ford and Wayne's main henchmen--Ward Bond--plays a key Earp role here. Naturally.

James Hitchcock Despite the title, this film does not tell the story of the "miner, forty-niner", who dwelt with his daughter "in a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mine" during the California Gold Rush. It is rather one of several Westerns about Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the OK Corral, although "Oh My Darling, Clementine" serves as the theme song, even though it was not written until 1884, three years after the Gunfight. That, however, is far from being the only liberty which this movie takes with history. In this version the Earp brothers are driving cattle to California and are passing through Tombstone when their cattle are rustled and James, the youngest brother, is shot dead by the Clanton gang under the leadership of their patriarch Old Man Clanton. Seeking to avenge his brother's murder, Wyatt takes the job of town marshal and makes the acquaintance of Doc Holliday, originally a surgeon from Boston but now a local gambler. The two men initially take a dislike to one another, but realise that they need to work together against the Clantons, especially after another Earp brother, Virgil, is murdered by them. During the Gunfight Wyatt, his surviving brother Morgan and Doc take on the Clantons; they emerge victorious, but Doc is fatally wounded. Another important theme involves a love-triangle between Doc, his former sweetheart from back East, and his mistress Chihuahua, a fiery Mexican girl. (And, in the universe inhabited by Hollywood screenwriters, what Mexican girl is anything other than "fiery"?)What is wrong with the above synopsis? Well, from a historical perspective, just about everything. The Earps were never cattle drovers. James Earp was the oldest of the brothers, not the youngest, and was not murdered. He died of natural causes at the age of 85 in 1926. Old Man Clanton died before the Gunfight. Wyatt was not town marshal of Tombstone; Virgil held that position. Wyatt and Doc were close friends and knew one another before the Earps arrived in Tombstone. Doc was originally from Georgia, not Boston, and was a dentist rather than a surgeon. He survived the Gunfight unscathed, dying of tuberculosis six years later. Like James, Virgil was not murdered; he survived an attempt to kill him several months after the Gunfight (not before it) and lived until 1905. The film even gets the year and time of day wrong. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place on October 26th 1881, at about 3 pm, but here the date is given as 1882 and the Gunfight takes place at dawn. Chihuahua and Doc's ex-lover are both fictitious characters. The latter is given the name Clementine Carter, presumably because the filmmakers needed to find some justification, however spurious, for their title and for using that song. There is, however, no rule which says that historical films have to be 100% historically accurate or which forbids directors and scriptwriters from rearranging historical fact in order to suit the story they want to tell. If there were such a rule, some very great films could never have been made. There seems to be a widely-held opinion that "My Darling Clementine" falls within the category of Very Great Films; an opinion I am unable to share. It may be a good film, but falls some way short of being a great one, although my reasons for saying so have nothing to do with its lack of fidelity to historical truth. Nor do they have much to do with political correctness, even though, if judged by the standards of 2014, John Ford would certainly be found wanting on that particular score, both here and in many of his other movies. Quite apart from the ethnic stereotyping of Mexican women we also have the scene where Chihuahua is unceremoniously dumped in the horse-trough and there are disobliging references to Indians as violent drunkards who should stay on their reservations and out of any places where decent white folks might live. Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp was perhaps rather too quiet and restrained for my taste; I preferred the interpretations of Burt Lancaster in "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and Kevin Costner in "Wyatt Earp", both of whom seemed to bring a greater presence and solidity to the role. I felt that the powerfully built, healthy-looking Victor Mature was miscast as the supposedly frail, tubercular Doc; a few obviously feigned coughing-fits were not enough to convince me that he was seriously ill. The changes to the historical facts made in this film have the effect of making Holliday a tragic hero and a central figure in the story, arguably more important than Wyatt Earp himself, and I felt that Mature did not really have the scope as an actor or the range of emotions needed for the role. On the positive side the black-and-white photography of the Western landscapes is, as one might expect from Ford, wonderful, although all those shots of Monument Valley suggest that he has relocated Tombstone from Arizona into Utah. (Is it a Federal offence to transport a town across State lines?) The gunfight scene is well staged, the musical score is a fine one and there are some good performances in supporting roles, notably from two lovely young actresses, Linda Darnell and Cathy Downs, as Chihuahua and Clementine, and from Alan Mowbray as the eccentric British actor Granville Thorndyke. (His name is derived from two real British actors, Harley Granville Barker and Russell Thorndike). "My Darling Clementine" is not my favourite version of the Wyatt Earp story; that would probably be "Gunfight at the OK Corral" It is a very decent Western adventure, but I just can't see it as a great all-time classic. 7/10