Gunfight at the O.K. Corral [Blu-ray]

Director: John Sturges John Sturges

Overview

Of the many filmed versions of the October 26, 1881, O.K. Corral shootout in Tombstone, Arizona, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was one of the most elaborate and star-studded. Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp, the renowned lawman, while Kirk Douglas is consumptive gambler (and gunfighter) Doc Holliday -- the two meet in difficult circumstances, as Earp discovers that Holiday, for whom he initially feels little but loathing, is being held on a trumped up murder charge and being set up for a lynching, and intercedes on his behalf. The action shifts to Dodge City, Kansas, where Earp is marshal and Holiday, hardly grateful for the good turn, shows up right in the middle of all kinds of trouble, this time mostly on Earp's side of the ledger. And, finally, the two turn up in Tombstone, Arizona, where Wyatt's brother Virgil is city marshal, and where Wyatt finally gets to confront the Clanton/McLowery outlaw gang (led by Lyle Bettger as Ike Clanton). Since the time-span of the actual gunfight was at most 90 seconds, the bulk of the film concerns the tensions across many months leading up to the famous battle. As scripted by Leon Uris (from a magazine story by George Scullin), the story involves two unrelated but parallel plot-lines -- a long-standing vendetta against Holliday and the efforts of Earp to bring the Clanton/McLowery gang to justice -- that are eventually drawn together on the streets of Tombstone. Woven into these proceedings are Earp's and Holliday's romantic dalliances with lady gambler Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming) and Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet), whose switch in affections from Holiday to outlaw fast-gun Johnny Ringo (John Ireland) only rachets up gambler's rage and the reasons behind the bloody climax. There are plenty of bribery attempts, terse dialogue exchanges and "Mexican standoffs" before the inevitable gunfight takes place. Director John Sturges takes some dramatic license with this confrontation, as well, stretching things out to nearly six minutes, but this is after all an "A" production, and a minute-and-a-half of gunfire just wouldn't cut it. The huge cast of western veterans includes Earl Holliman as Charles Bassett, Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton, Kenneth Tobey as Bat Masterson, Lee Van Cleef as Ed Bailey, Jack Elam as Tom McLowery, and John Hudson, DeForest Kelley and Martin Milner as Virgil, Morgan, and James Earp, respectively. And there's that Dimitri Tiomkin score, pushing the movie's momentum as relentlessly as the two driven heroes, complete with a song (sung by Frankie Laine) underscoring the major transitions of scenes that's impossible to forget, once heard. Sturges himself would produce and direct a more fact-based and realistic version of the story -- focusing mostly on its aftermath -- a decade later, entitled Hour of the Gun, starring James Garner, Jason Robards, Jr., and Robert Ryan, which wasn't nearly as attractive or successful. But after Gunfight At The OK Corral, there would not be so impressive a lineup of talent at the OK Corral again until the twin Earp biopics of 1994, Wyatt Earp and Tombstone.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/25/2017
UPC:	0032429273604
Original Release:	1957
Rating:	NR
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Language:	English
Time:	2:02:00
Sales rank:	5,534

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Burt Lancaster	Wyatt Earp
Kirk Douglas	John H. "Doc" Holliday
Rhonda Fleming	Laura Denbow
Jo Van Fleet	Kate Fisher
John Ireland	Johnny Ringo
Lyle Bettger	Ike Clanton
Frank Faylen	Cotton Wilson
Earl Holliman	Charles Bassett
Ted de Corsia	Abel Head `Shanghai Pierce'
Dennis Hopper	Billy Clanton
Whit Bissell	John P. Clum
George Mathews	John Shanssey
John Hudson	Virgil Earp
DeForest Kelley	Morgan Earp
Martin Milner	James Earp
Kenneth Tobey	Bat Masterson
Lee Van Cleef	Ed Bailey
Joan Camden	Betty Earp
Olive Carey	Mrs. Clanton
Brian Hutton	Rick,Rick
Nelson Leigh	Mayor Kelley
Jack Elam	Tom McLowery
Don Castle	Drunken Cowboy
Mickey Simpson	Frank McLowery
Charles Herbert	Tommy Earp
Tony Merrill	Barber
Lee Roberts	Finn Clanton
Frank Carter	Hotel Clerk
Edward Ingram	Deputy
Bing Russell	Bartender
Henry Wills	Alby
Dorothy Abbott	Girl
William S. Meigs	Wayne
John Benson	Rig Driver
Richard J. Reeves	Foreman,Foreman
John Maxwell	Merchant
Ethan Laidlaw	Bartender
Frank Hagney	Bartender,Bartender
Henry B. Mendoza	Cockeyed Frank Loving
Roger Creed	Deputy/Killer/Townsman
Anthony Jochim	Old Man
Joe Forte	Card Player,Tombstone Card Player
James Davies	Card Player
Max Power	Card Player
Courtland Shepard	Card Player
Gregg Martell	Cowboy
Dennis Moore	Cowboy
Len Hendry	Cowboy
Trude Wyler	Social Hall Guest
Morgan Lane	Killer
Paul Gary	Killer
Bill Williams	Stuntman
Robert Swan	Shaugnessy Man
William Norton Bailey	Actor
Franklyn Farnum	Barfly
Kenner G. Kemp	Gamgling Croupier in Saloon
Jack Kenny	Barfly
Jim Davies	Actor
Dimitri Tiomkin	Conductor,Composer
Frankie Laine	Composer

Technical Credits

Leon Uris

John P. Fulton	Special Effects
John Sturges	Director
Hal B. Wallis	Producer
Leon Uris	Screenwriter
Joseph H. Hazen	Executive Producer,Producer
George Dutton	Sound Effects
Paul Baxley	Stunts
Harold Lewis	Sound/Sound Designer
Winston H. Leverett	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

It's one of the sad details of John Sturges' life that he never thought much of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Perhaps he just resented the fact that it was a more popular and successful film than Hour of the Gun, the film account of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday's friendship that he produced as well as directed a decade later. Sturges always regarded Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as a Hal B. Wallis film on which he was just a hired hand, without a lot of control -- the script wasn't his and the project wasn't his, but he did his job well and then some, pulling out two of the more complex performances ever given by Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas, the former playing Wyatt Earp, as a frontier lawman who surprises himself with the violence that his decency can't prevent and, in fact, seems to instigate; and the latter as Doc Holliday, an embittered, self-destructive outcast, betrayed by his own body and the disease he can't shake, who finds a streak of decency in himself just large enough to give him a sliver of common ground with Earp. They're excellent on their own and off the scale when they're together in the same scene or shot. Additionally, Sturges set up some shots -- including a scene early in the movie between Lancaster and Douglas in a barber shop, involving a mirror, the cowboys' invasion of Dodge City and Lancaster's breaking up of their revels, and the build-up to the final shoot-out -- that are as good as any in the Western genre. And the final shoot-out, though hardly accurate historically, was about the best staged in any Western ever seen up to that time. Moreover, the supporting performances are mostly first-rate, from George Mathews to Jo Van Fleet, the latter giving a portrayal that is the perfect match for Douglas' doom-laden, self-tortured Doc Holliday, and Dennis Hopper gives one of his better performances from his early career as Billy Clanton, which anticipated his work in Curtis Harrington's Night Tide. That said, the movie does sacrifice a lot of historical accuracy; among many, many problems in this area, Wyatt Earp was nothing like the way he is portrayed in the script or by Lancaster (though he is so compelling in the part that one almost wishes it were true). Also, Rhonda Fleming's character is a somewhat awkward fit; she isn't essential to the plot, though Sturges does as much and as well with her as one could hope, and more than one would expect given the poor showing that most actresses (apart from Van Fleet here and Anne Francis in Bad Day at Black Rock) get in Sturges' movies. The title ballad, heard at various points in the movie as sung by Frankie Laine, may seem dated and hokey, but it does hold together a dramatic arc that stretches across months of time, three towns, and several vignettes that are often only linked in their backgrounds, and it is a very haunting tune as well. Sturges' subsequent film about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, Hour of the Gun, done ten years later through his own production company, is more realistic and accurate in its historical portrayals, and less romantic and dramatic, but also less accessible.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder