Watch My Darling Clementine For Free

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Blistering performances.

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.

This is probably my second favorite western behind Shane and is probably in my top 25 or so overall. It has a very interesting folksy, nostalgic feel to it due largely to the cast and the black and white photography that makes the film look almost like 1880s still photos put in motion, especially the indoor scenes. The outdoor scenery is Monument Valley which is about the entire length of the state of Arizona away from the legendary town of Tombstone, but it is a whole lot more scenic than the landscape around that town, take it from someone who has been to both locations.Henry Fonda makes for a good Wyatt Earp and Walter Brennan does a fine job as the cruel elder Clanton. Victor Mature did only a fair job portraying Doc Holiday. Every time I see the movie I become a bit smitten by Clementine, i.e., actress Cathy Downs.As a side note; the movie is not exactly historically accurate, which I guess should be no surprise. For example; Contrary to what the film suggests, Doc Holiday was a dentist, not a surgeon. Morgan Earp, played by Ward Bond, survived the shootout at the O.K Corral, but did not leave Tombstone, as shown in the movie, but was shot six months later.It's not the first movie to askew accuracy for entertainment.

What kind of town is Tombstone? In quintessential western fashion it is the type of town where a stranger can walk in and find himself in trouble almost immediately. Those who live there tell each and every hotshot to get out of town before it is too late. It is framed by those endless plains and iconic mountains - so easy to forget it was Ford himself that made Monument Valley the first image to come to mind when you think western. Although Wyatt Earp might be forgiven for not thinking of the town's name and how it claims to have the largest cemetery around, it quickly becomes a personal affair. Fonda is riveting as the wiry cowboy who is thrust into the role of sheriff; there's a kind of reversal that is the opposite of what is expected with his characterisation. Entering the film he is full of silent anger and authority that he seizes to right the wrongs of Tombstone. The ex-marshal's every word is only slightly guarded and we sense that the death of his brothers may have unhinged him. When we try to find a moral centre within, Ford casts a dark, pitiless shadow on his face at the turning point of the narrative, as though he is uncertain whether his personal and romantic feelings will become unnecessarily involved and lead to further jeopardy. It isn't until he has spared Clanton that he is renewed - not with love, as Ford so wisely signals with the final handshake, but with a inner peace and closure only gained once the church has begun to be raised and Tombstone is no longer the hellish breeding ground for the scum he has dispatched. Oh, but how great is Fonda at the church dance, where he tells a whole story with just his body language; the way he fidgets and glances nervously again and again at Clementine's hands. Opposite him is Doc Holliday, whom is spoken of much earlier than he first appears, so we are apprehensive of the man who runs the town but whom is not the mayor. And in that tense confrontation in the bar, we feel that he is primed to oppose Fonda as the main villain, if not in his murmured threats then in the dark colour of his attire, but no such thing occurs. He is a man who has become accustomed to the west, even rules a little part of it - but not comfortably, and certainly not aligned with his nature. Medical certificates and honours line his walls as the last remnants of that former life, something he is increasingly running away from. Have we ever seen a love triangle (or even quadrangle) so buffeted by the wildness and lawlessness of the west? Clementine puts aside her grievances to assist in the surgery, Holliday is thrust back into the world he fled, a shadowy Wyatt lurks and looks on, and Ford doesn't need to show the procedure or the outcome; just the frozen, nervous portraits of the town inhabitants silhouetted in the bar, and shrieks echoing from beyond. Joseph MacDonald's day for night photography has a sinister mood about it that just could not be captured in technicolour. The early action has the rogue gunslinger drunken and shooting up the place, and the light leaks out of the salon just as he poses in the doorway; it's a stunning, otherworldly silhouette. See how wisps of smoke will drift across the interiors of the saloon, obscuring the truer and less than noble intentions of some of its regulars. And those evocative extreme wide shots that make the town buildings and the mountains jutting up from the ground in the distance seem tiny in comparison - and how it makes the thin framework of the church bell tower seem tall and magnificent in return. It marks a new age. There is something for everyone in My Darling Clementine. The action is quick and ruthless, without a hint of any intention of drawing it out beyond what it is worth. There's humour in the way Wyatt gets no real answers everywhere he turns, so that the change must come from himself, and how the thespian signs away a hotel bill with a flourish, and how the barber's new 'modern' chair is like lowering yourself into a death-trap. And there is simple, sweet romance, that evolves and devolves naturally according to the circumstances, instead of the other way around. Wyatt betrays his heart as he leaves a renewed Tombstone - he glances once up at the hotel window where darling Clementine resides, and then again.

We expect the title character of a movie to be the protagonist, and to be played by a well-known actor. So it is a little strange that Clementine is just a big nothing played by an actress you have never heard of (Cathy Downs). She is not even the most interesting woman in the movie, for that is Chihuahua (Linda Darnell).Apparently the point is that Clementine represents the future, which is to say, civilization. And civilization is bland and boring, as opposed to the Wild West, where we have such figures as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Clanton gang. So only after the excitement of the gunfight at the OK Corral, when just about everyone of interest is killed off except Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan, who then ride out of town, can Clementine finally become important.I guess director John Ford did not want civilization to be associated with disease, so he has Holliday die during the gunfight, instead of dying years later, as was in fact the case. Or maybe we just like it better that way. Who wouldn't rather spit up blood from being shot in a gunfight than spit up blood in a tuberculosis hospital?