MY DARLING CLEMENTINE


US, 1947, 97 minutes, Black-and-white.
Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Cathy Downs, Walter Brennan, Jim Holt, Ward Bond, Alan Mowbray, John Ireland, Jane Darwell, Grant Withers.
Directed by John Ford.

My Darling Clementine is celebrated Western directors John Ford's version of the gunfight at the O.K.Corral. Ford had been directing westerns for a long time, making a box office breakthrough with critical acclaim with Stagecoach in 1939. He was to win the Oscar for best director in 1940 for The Long Voyage Home and in 1941 for How Green was my Valley. After war service, he began directing westerns again, many of them considered classics with this film, Fort Apache, Wagonmaster, Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and, in 1956, The Searchers.

Ford employs many of his regulars in supporting roles and relies on Henry Fonda who was his Young Mr Lincoln and was to star in a Custer-like role in Fort Apache. Victor Mature has a good opportunity for impressing audiences with his Doc Holliday.

Audiences will be familiar with the story – brought to the screen 10 years later by John Sturges in The Gunfight at the O.K.Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.


1. This is considered a classic western. What were its major qualities? How impressive and enjoyable?

2. The film seen as a classic of the forties? Studio backgrounds and locations, western conventions, styles of acting, black and white photography?

3. How well did the film fit into the conventions of the western? The legend and the myth of the American west? The glorification of the west? Criticism? Wyatt Earp and the O.K. Corral? What insight into these characters and events did the film offer?

4. The importance of the background of the cattlemen, Arizona and its opening up, Tombstone as a city, law and order and justice, greed and wealth?

5. The importance of the picture of pioneering? The lawmen within this context? What made them different few the selfish greedy men? The nature of the villains in this kind of west? The inevitability of clash? The human element, the need for survival, the motivation of wealth and power?

6. The portrayal of justice and its administration? Personal justice and authority? The bases for this? The bases for western law and order? The rule of violence and the gun? Personality clashes?

7. The picture of the Earp family? Their closeness as a family, their reputation and background, their attitude towards the cattlemen? Their being injured and their vengeance? Their standing behind the law? Their toughness, for example Wyatt and the Indian? Their role in Tombstone and people's attitude towards them? The help from Doe Holliday? Chihuahua? The influence of Clementine? The overall effect of the Earps' stay in Tombstone?

8. The portrayal of Morgan and Virgil Earp? How realistic, sympathetic? The impact of death on the whole family?

9. Doc Holliday and the legends about him? The film's explanation of his background, Boston, a doctor, his changed way of life, drinking and gambling, a killer? The devotion of Chihuahua? The change that the Earps made in his life? Clementine? The suspense and melodrama of the operation? His stand at the O.K. Corral?

10. The traditional picture of the Clantons? Villains or victims? The villainous presentation in this film? The father and his authority? Their stealing and killing? A law unto themselves? The need for justice? Their bitterness and the fight?

11. How well did the film build up to the gunfight? The nature of the fight, its strategy, the deaths? Those who lived? What did it achieve? Why was it remembered?

12. The Earps, myth, and the role of Clementine? What was her significance in the film? Characterization and themes? Choices?

13. The value of American westerns for portraying the heritage?