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Strong and Moving!

Simply A Masterpiece

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When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I've seen my fair share, but the western film genre isn't my favorite. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is one of the best, so if you're like me and need good acting and an exciting story amidst the horses and rifles, add this one to your list!Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas plays Doc Holliday in this version of the famed shootout in Tombstone, Arizona. If you've never seen a Wyatt Earp movie-yes, there are plenty to choose from-this is a great one to start with. You might want to end with this one, too, to quit while you're ahead. The chemistry between the two leads is dynamite, and the story is extremely exciting, which is a credit to Leon Uris's script and John Sturges's directing. It takes a great talent to make a film thrilling when the entire premise is a countdown to a very brief event that's already been recorded in history books. High Noon tried to hold audience's attentions by counting down the time to a shootout, but I found it incredibly boring and poorly acted. Be on the lookout for several familiar faces among the cast, including Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland, Earl Holliman, Dennis Hopper, DeForest Kelley, and Martin Milner. For a fantastic western with two classy and wonderful actors, rent Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

This account of the events leading up to and including the historical shootout between Wyatt Earp and the former dentist come gambling gunfighter afflicted with tuberculosis (that becomes the Marshal's friend) Doc Holliday versus Ike Clanton and associates in Tombstone, Arizona is notable for the on screen relationship portrayed between its two leads, Burt Lancaster as Marshal Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday.Directed by John Sturges, with a screenplay by novelist Leon Uris from an article by George Scullin, this slightly above average Western received an Academy Award nomination for Warren Low's Editing; its Sound Recording by George Dutton was also Oscar nominated.According to this film, Wyatt Earp was a lawman above reproach, with an enviable moral code of conduct. He was so well thought of that the association which develops into a friendship between him and the gambler, who's also a notorious gunfighter, known as Doc Holliday threatens to tarnish the Marshal's reputation. Rhonda Fleming plays Laura Denbow, a gambling woman who temporarily interests Marshal Earp enough for him to consider settling down and retiring from the law. Jo Van Fleet plays Kate Fisher, a floozy and longtime girlfriend of Doc's; her loyalty wanes as he is weakened by his disease and promise to the Marshal not to kill anyone since they'd become friends. The situation is exacerbated when Kate takes up with Johnny Ringo (John Ireland), one of Ike Clanton's hired guns that exploits the situation.Clanton (Lyle Bettger) is a powerful cattle rustler who owns the less lily white county sheriff Cotton Wilson (Frank Faylen); Earl Holliman plays Earp's somewhat green Deputy Sheriff Charlie Bassett whereas a very youthful looking Dennis Hopper plays Clanton's youngest boy Billy. Whit Bissell plays the head of Tombstone's citizen council, which backs Wyatt and his brothers Virgil (John Hudson) and Morgan (DeForest Kelley); Martin Milner plays the youngest, greenest Earp brother Jimmy, whose murder by the Clantons leads to the personal showdown in this fictionalized account of the events. Don't blink or you'll miss Kenneth Tobey as Bat Masterson near the beginning of the film (sitting on a porch with Wyatt); would be Western movie veteran Lee Van Cleef appears a little less briefly as the disgruntled Ed Bailey, whose skirmish with a knife throwing Holliday is short-lived. Jack Elam might be hard to spot as well; he plays one of the McLowery brothers that's allied with the Clantons in the climactic (lengthened to a cinematic six minute) gun battle with the Earps and Holliday.As a producer, Sturges would follow-up this story ten years later by directing Hour of the Gun (1967) with James Garner and Jason Robards in the Wyatt and Doc roles, respectively.

Another Prissy, Preening, Bloated "Action" Movie from Overrated Director John Sturgess. This is a Boring Big Budget Western with a Production of A-List Stars, Writer, A-List Character Actors, and Composer.It just Talks and Talks, and Talks some more. Familiar Faces Show Up for a Scene or Two and a Few Lines of Dialog and then are Discarded and the Movie Moves On and On and On. Lee Van Cleef, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, and a Rogues Gallery of Villains are Wasted and Barely Register in this Regrettable, Forgettable Dud.The Action comes about at Designated, Pre-Determined Times, like Clockwork. The Pacing is Excruciating. There isn't a Single Scene, Camera Shot, or Anything Memorable about this Hollywood Exercise in Excess. There are Cowpokes with Wardrobes Featuring Color Coordination, with a Dry Clean Sheen. The Frankie Laine Song, with its Laughable Lyrics is not Only in the Opening and Closing Credits, it is Hit-Paraded Out a Number of Times just in Case the Audience got So Bored and Tired of the Triteness that the Plot Needed to be Tuned with some Clippity-Clop Embarrassment.The Titled Climax, so Long in Coming, is the Highlight in this Film that has So Many Lowlights and it is Hardly Worth the Wait.Note...Writer Leon Uris needs a shout out Razzie in this mess, because He actually wrote a line that has one of the Earps saying "By golly"...oh Brother how's that for some true grit.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Wednesday, October 26, 1881, gets an all star glossy Hollywood telling. Directed by John Sturges and adapted by Leon Uris from an article written by George Scullin. It stars Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland and Lyle Bettger. Music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and cinematography by Charles B. Lang Junior.I don't want any part of him. I don't even like him.Actually The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as a title is something of a bum steer, for Sturges' two hour movie gives up just over five minutes to the actual event that continues to fascinate over 130 years later. In fact, for such a glorious sounding title, it's arguably surprising that there is very little action in the movie. For what unfolds in that two hour running time is what director (Sturges would be bemused by its success and ten years later took another stab at the legend and made Hour of the Gun) and leading actors agreed was a very talky movie, the emphasis is on a friendship, a love really, between John Henry "Doc" Holliday and Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp. This is one of the Western genre's greatest "buddy-buddy" movies. Listen, preacher, being here is causing me a lot of embarrassment. Some people are even taking me for a lawman.In spite of its talky nature and being very much a "town" Western, the film was hugely successful and became a leading forerunner for all star Westerns. It wasn't all sweetness and light, mind. In the beginning Douglas had already turned down the role of Earp before accepting the part of Holliday (Bogart was close, Palance and Widmark also considered) and Lancaster had to be "bribed" to take on the role of Wyatt (being pretty vociferous about the talky nature of the screenplay). The two leading men were initially at odds with each other, but they would form a respectful friendship from here on in and their chemistry as Doc and Wyatt is why the film succeeds as a "literate" piece. All gunfighters are lonely. They live in fear. They die without a dime, a woman or a friend. It has a mixed reputation amongst Western aficionados, which is understandable. Some of the dialogue is cheesy and the likes of Fleming and DeForest Kelley are in turn badly written and under used. There's also the historical fudging of the story and the sparsity of landscape photography, the latter of which a crime given it's a VistaVision Technicolor production. The town set designs often look artificial, a problem since 90% of the picture is set to town background, but if viewed as a story of a friendship set to the famous shoot-out, it strikes all the right notes; including Frankie Laine's warbling of the clippy cloppy catchy title tune. It should have been titled Doc and Wyatt, though. 8/10