My Darling Clementine(1946)

My Darling Clementine(1946) Director: John Ford. Cast: Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan.

The movie was adapted by Samuel G. Engel, Sam Hellman, and Winston Miller from the book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake. The title is from the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine", which is the theme song of the movie (sung in parts over the opening and closing credits). Whole scenes from an earlier version, 1939's Frontier Marshal, directed by Alan Dwan, produced by Sol M. Wurtzel, were re shot by Ford for this remake.

In 1991, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 1882, the Earp brothers are driving cattle to California when they cross the Clanton family led by the "Old Man", who tells the bothers of a nearby town, Tombstone, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest brother James to watch over the cattle. The Earps find Tombstone a lawless town. When they return to their camp, they find the cattle rustled and James dead.

Seeking vengeance, Wyatt returns to Tombstone and takes the job of town Marshall, meeting with, Doc Holliday and the Clantons, to find out who was responsible. In the meantime, a young woman from Boston named Clementine Carter arrives in town...

Although the characters and setting of the Gunfight at the OK Corral is the plot of the film is loosely based on actual history. Important plot changes in the film, the death of James Earp, the death of Old Man Clanton and Doc Holliday (who was a dentist, not a surgeon, and actually died years later of tuberculosis), are inaccurately portrayed.

Absolutely the perfect western. "My Darling Clementine" is at the top of my favorite list of westerns ever made.