Fella_shibby Saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it few days back on a blu-ray. This is another take on the OK Corral shootout, more entertaining n has a better shoot out sequence n good cinematography. Once again v get to c a young Lee Van Cleef in a very short role but this time he gets a few dialogues unlike in High Noon. Cleef wants to eliminate Doc. Unknown to Cleef, Doc is a skilled knife thrower besides being a qualified dentist n a gunslinger whose aim cannot be questioned because none of his opponents r alive. Watch the reply Doc gives to Earp after being questioned regarding shooting guns. V also get to c a very young n unrecognisable Dennis Hopper who is being preached by Earp about the dangers of a life of gun-slinging for the young. The best thing about the film is the chemistry n the performances of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Sturges' direction is wonderfully simple but nowhere close to The Great Escape n Magnificent Seven.

grantss Solid production with two great action-drama stars in the lead roles yet this movie just doesn't feel at all special. Maybe it is the fact that since this movie several other movies have been made about the famous gunfight at the OK Corral, and they were more accurate and more engaging. Tombstone (1993) covered not just the gunfight but the aftermath, which stretched for years. Wyatt Earp (1994) was an extensive study on Wyatt Earp, including the gunfight, though was overly long and a bit laboured.So, now, it feels dated and surpassed. However, for its time this movie is okay. Good performances by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the lead roles, plus the cinematography and action scenes are good. Plot is a touch dull, as the gunfight is really the only exciting part. While the backstory is very important, it feels overdone and padded.Ultimately, a so-so movie. Rather watch Tombstone for the full, accurate story.

jc-osms I must admit I watched this movie with some apprehension as I love John Ford's take on the Earp/Clanton feud so much as portrayed in "My Darling Clementine". At least John Sturges gets the title right and from there gives old Papa a real run for his money in relating this classic tale of the West.In actual fact, it takes till almost half-way before Wyatt Earp gets the fateful telegram from brother Virgil in Tombstone to face down the Clanton gang, augmented by bad penny gunslinger Johnny Ringo who has issues with Doc Holliday as they compete for the attention of Doc's old paramour. What that means is a lot of character-building as Sturges builds up the bond between Earp and Holliday as well as introducing Earp's love interest, lady gambler Laura Denbow. Not that the first hour is without incident as Earp and Holliday save each other in separate showdowns with the usual mob of unruly miscreants which seem to frequent every Western.By the time the showdown at OK comes around, tensions and expectations have been sufficiently aroused and Sturges doesn't disappoint with an exciting, fast moving conclusion, leaving the last Clanton death, that of reluctant inductee, young Billy to stand as a moral against youngsters taking up arms under so-called "peer-pressure".The two leads, Lancaster and Douglas are superb, the former stoic and reasoning, the latter passionate and devil-may-care. One might have wished for a similarly big-name star or two in the Clanton ranks to stand up more to Burt and Kirk, but even Duke Wayne and Randolph Scott couldn't have saved Ike and his boys. Sturges plays down the quirky folksiness of Ford, so that we don't get Holliday operating on, the sight of Wyatt and Laura hot-stepping at the country dance or even Earp balancing on his chair.There's a stirring theme song sung by Frankie Laine too, which acts as commentary as the film progresses and Star Trek fans will note the coincidence of DeForest Kelley appearing as an Earp brother when 10 years in later in the classic ST episode "Shadow Of The Gun", he found himself with Kirk, Spock and others as a Clanton.In the final analysis, I'll still award the OK laurels to Ford, but this excellent, fast-moving movie gets mighty, mighty close

Spikeopath 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