This is a movie directed by John Ford about a western ledgend that has some fact laced with myth. The first scene is a cattle drive and it pictures the initial characters getting ready to stop for the night and a lone buggy drive by Walter Brennan playing old man Clanton comes close and the character played by Henry Fonda goes out to visit and the buggy. Old man Clanton wants to buy the cattle but he wouldn’t sell them. You learn that they are close to Tombstone, Arizona and the cattle drivers are heading for California. The three oldest brothers head for town leaving the youngest to clean up and watch the cattle.
Things begin to happen and in town you learn that Henry Fonda is playing Wyatt Earp. On their return to their camp they find that the cattle were rustled and the youngest brother James was shot dead. This puts the Earp clan and the Clanton family on a trail of a blood feud. The Earp’s particularly Wyatt befriends Doc Holiday played by Victor Mature. Victor Mature was to physically robust to convey a consumptive Doc Holiday. The movie has a real flavor of the west in the way that it was in the late 1800’s.
The story has all the fury of a storm as the families collide at the shoot out at the OK Corral. This is legend and the good guys win out and the bad guys die. While all of this is happening Wyatt falls in love with the new schoolteacher Clementine Carter an eastern love of Doc Holiday. The movie I viewed was the original version save for history and I saw excerpts of the released version. Not a lot of difference but very interesting. I recommend that you western movie buffs see the original. I have this movie on my top 100 best westerns, how about your list.
