Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 American Western film starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, loosely based on the actual event which took place on October 26, 1881. The picture was directed by John Sturges from a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris.
Plot
In Fort Griffin, Texas, Ed Bailey comes looking to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of gunslinger John H. "Doc" Holliday. Seeing him in a bar, Holliday's girl, Kate Fisher, returns to Holliday's room, where the two argue while Holliday throws knives at the door - near her once she brings up Holliday's once-prominent family. Well-known marshal Wyatt Earp arrives in Fort Griffin thinking he will take outlaws Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo into custody, but instead finds out that the local sheriff, Cotton Wilson, released them despite the outstanding warrants for their arrest. Holliday refuses to help the lawman, holding a grudge against Wyatt's brother, Morgan. Holliday kills Bailey with a knife-throw when Bailey attempts to shoot him in the back. Holliday is arrested for murder, though Wyatt and Kate allow him to escape from a lynch mob.In Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt finds out that Holliday and Kate are in town. Holliday tells him he has no money, so Wyatt allows him to stay if he promises to not fight while he is in town. Meanwhile, gambler Laura Denbow is arrested for playing cards since women are not allowed to gamble. She is released and allowed to play in the side rooms of the saloon. Wyatt is forced to deputize Holliday because a bank robber kills a cashier and Wyatt's other deputies are out in a posse catching another outlaw. The bank robbers attempt to ambush Wyatt outside of town, but are instead killed by Wyatt and Holliday.
Back in Dodge City, Holliday learns Kate has left him for Ringo, who taunts Holliday to a shootout and throws liquor on him. Holliday steadfastly refuses to fight him. Shanghai Pierce and his henchmen ride into town, wound deputy Charlie Bassett and attack a dancehall, but Wyatt and Holliday hold the men and defuse the situation. As Ringo attempts to intervene, Holliday shoots him in the arm. Holliday returns to his room and Kate is waiting for him, but he refuses to take her back. She swears she will see him dead. By now, Wyatt and Laura have fallen in love, but when he receives a letter from his brother, Virgil, asking him to come clean up Tombstone, Arizona, she refuses to go with him unless he changes. Holliday catches up to Wyatt on the trail and both head to Tombstone.
In Tombstone, Wyatt finds out that Ike Clanton is trying to herd thousands of head of rustled Mexican cattle but cannot as long as the Earps control Tombstone's railway station. Morgan Earp criticizes his brother's association with Holliday, but Wyatt insists the gunslinger is welcome in Tombstone as long as he stays out of trouble. Cotton offers Wyatt a $20,000 bribe if he allows the stolen cattle to be shipped, but Wyatt refuses. He rides out to the Clanton ranch, returning young Billy Clanton to his mother after finding Billy drunk. Wyatt informs Ike that he has been made a U.S. Marshal and has legal authority in every county in the United States. Finding no recourse, the Clantons decide to ambush Wyatt as he makes his nightly rounds, but kill his younger brother James Earp by mistake.
The next morning, Ike and five of his henchman go to Tombstone to face off against the Earps at the O.K. Corral. Holliday, who is sick from tuberculosis, joins them. Though Virgil and Morgan are wounded in the gunfight, all six in Clanton's gang are killed, including Billy, who is given a chance to surrender but refuses. After the fight is over, Wyatt joins Holliday for a final drink before heading off to California to meet Laura, as promised.
Cast
- Burt Lancaster – Marshal Wyatt Earp
- Kirk Douglas – Doc Holliday
- Rhonda Fleming – Laura Denbow
- Jo Van Fleet – Kate Fisher
- John Ireland – Johnny Ringo
- Lyle Bettger – Ike Clanton
- Frank Faylen – Sheriff Cotton Wilson
- Earl Holliman – Deputy Sheriff Charlie Bassett
- Ted de Corsia – Shanghai Pierce
- Dennis Hopper – Billy Clanton
- Whit Bissell – John Clum
- George Mathews – John Shanssey
- John Hudson – Virgil Earp
- DeForest Kelley – Morgan Earp
- Martin Milner – James 'Jimmy' Earp
- Lee Van Cleef – Ed Bailey
- Jack Elam – Tom McLowery
- Peter Lawman – Jack Morgan
- Brian G. Hutton – Rick
- Kenneth Tobey – Bat Masterson
Historical inaccuracies
- Virgil Earp was already a deputy U.S. Marshal when he arrived in Tombstone, while Wyatt had little, if any, legal authority.
- Wyatt came to Tombstone with a common-law wife, whom he later sent away to stay with his family—in order to get her away from opiates.
- The real gunfight was a 30-second long, face-to-face affair with only a few firearms, not a medium-range, heavily armed shootout as in the film.
- The real corral was considerably smaller and simpler than depicted in the film
- Johnny Ringo was not present at the OK Corral gunfight. He later killed himself.
- Ike Clanton brought murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday. The Cowboys claimed the Earps had killed the outlaws as they attempted to surrender. During the Spicer hearing, the coroner and witnesses presented conflicting evidence about whether the Cowboys had their hands in the air or guns in their hands or were trying to draw their weapon when the fighting started.
- Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded and Holliday was grazed by a bullet. Wyatt was unhurt.
- Judge Wells Spicer ruled that the lawmen acted within their authority.
- It was Wyatt's younger brother Morgan, not James, who was ambushed and murdered in Tombstone. This occurred after the O.K. Corral gunfight, not before. Virgil Earp was also ambushed in Tombstone after the O.K. Corral fight. He survived the attack, but was left with a permanently disabled arm.
- The actual gunfight took place in a vacant lot behind the O.K. Corral, next to a boarding house and photography studio, not in the corral itself. It was not an "event by appointment", as the prearrangement between Billy and Wyatt the night before depicts in the movie. It evolved the morning of the fight as the Earps responded to the chaos and threats raised by Ike Clanton after drinking himself into a rage the entire night before.
- James Earp was the older brother of Wyatt and never involved in the law enforcement side of the family. He was present in Tombstone but worked as a bartender. Warren Earp was the youngest of the Earp brothers and bounced from Tombstone to California between 1880 and 1882.
- Ike Clanton was never the leader of the Cowboys. Old Man Clanton controlled the gang until he was killed in 1881 and leadership of the gang fell to Curly Bill Brocis and Johnny Ringo.
- The film introduces a romance involving Wyatt Earp and a fictional character which played no factor in the actual gunfight nor did anything to advance the film's plot.
- Charlie Bassett was Wyatt's boss in Dodge City. The film portrays the relationship as the other way around. Bassett and Wyatt Earp were nearly the same age. The film portrays Bassett as a younger man compared to Wyatt.
- Doc Holliday did not directly follow Wyatt to Tombstone. He turned-up there sometime after Wyatt had already established residence.
- Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life, not the other way around.
- The real sheriff's name was John Behan, not Cotton Wilson. The sheriff was not shot that day, and the Clanton gang did not shoot one of their own for deserting.
- The shootout is portrayed in the film as a protracted, heavily armed firefight that took place at medium range. The actual event began in a narrow wide empty lot between the Harwood house and C. S. Fly's 12-room boarding house and photography studio. The two parties were initially only about apart, and the real gunfight lasted only about 30 seconds.
Shooting
Reception
Reviews in 1957 were generally positive. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the film as "firmly directed" and "ruggedly acted," though he lamented "odd, embarrassing moments when Cupid lets fly with his arrows," and thought that the inclusion of a ballad was too derivative of High Noon. Variety called Lancaster and Douglas "excellently cast" and added, "in its development and exciting climax John Sturges has captured the stirring spirit of the period in his sock direction." Harrison's Reports agreed that the two leads were "excellent in their respective roles" and found the action "tense and suspenseful throughout, culminating in a highly exciting and thrilling gun battle." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post deemed the film "just what its title suggests — blood-thirsty, empty-headed and good fun of its sort." The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "carefully and lavishly mounted, but it is ultimately overlong and overwrought. Leon Uris's script dulls the final scene of action by the introduction of too many minor climaxes, which never blend."The film was a big hit and earned $4.7 million on its first run and $6 million on re-release. Its Dimitri Tiomkin score, featuring the song "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", with lyrics by Ned Washington, sung by Frankie Laine, pushes the movie's momentum relentlessly throughout.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose the song "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.