The Hour of the Gun
When the critics pan your film because the script is too constrained by history, you might think you were over the target. You might think that, but then the critics are critiquing Hollywood. True enough director John Sturges wanted his second swing at the famous gunfight to be more historically correct than his earlier treatment of last week’s Gunfight at the OK Corral. This film opens with the gunfight itself and follows it up with events of the vendetta ride. The further you get away from the corral, the fuzzier the history becomes.
The gunfight has all the players in their proper historical order, role, and outcome. Virgil Earp (Frank Converse) is City Marshal in Tombstone, assisted by brother Wyatt (James Garner) deputy marshal, brother Morgan (Sam Melville), and deputized gambler Doc Holliday (Jason Robards). They face off against Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) and his band of unnamed outlaw rustler cutthroats, presumably including the McLaury brothers thrown in with the Clantons. Notably Ike Clanton survives this one as he did the real McCoy.
In the aftermath the Earp brothers are charged with murder, tried, and acquitted. Virgil is wounded in an ambush while making his evening rounds. Morgan is assassinated in a billiard parlor, leading Wyatt and a posse including younger brother James, Texas Jack Vermillion, Turkey Creek Johnson, and Doc Holiday on the script version of the vendetta ride. This is where things begin to blur into Hollywood fantasy land. In the film, Doc assumes something of a leadership role over the posse. When Wyatt prefers killing the men they pursue, rather than arrest them, Doc calls him out for his tactics. Not sure where that bit of moral rectitude came from, let alone how it escaped the historical record. Oh, well. Meanwhile Ike Clanton escapes to Mexico.
With most of the shooting over, Doc’s tuberculosis forces him to seek treatment at a sanitorium in Colorado where he and Wyatt sentimentally part ways. Tombstone city fathers attempt to talk Wyatt into ending the bloodshed with the promise of a high-profile job in territorial law enforcement. Wyatt turns them down in favor of pursuing Ike in Mexico where he puts an end to ‘Old man Clanton’ in a go for your gun shoot out. Somehow the historical record missed all of this last.
Next Week: Lawman
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Ride easy,
Paul
The gunfight has all the players in their proper historical order, role, and outcome. Virgil Earp (Frank Converse) is City Marshal in Tombstone, assisted by brother Wyatt (James Garner) deputy marshal, brother Morgan (Sam Melville), and deputized gambler Doc Holliday (Jason Robards). They face off against Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) and his band of unnamed outlaw rustler cutthroats, presumably including the McLaury brothers thrown in with the Clantons. Notably Ike Clanton survives this one as he did the real McCoy.
In the aftermath the Earp brothers are charged with murder, tried, and acquitted. Virgil is wounded in an ambush while making his evening rounds. Morgan is assassinated in a billiard parlor, leading Wyatt and a posse including younger brother James, Texas Jack Vermillion, Turkey Creek Johnson, and Doc Holiday on the script version of the vendetta ride. This is where things begin to blur into Hollywood fantasy land. In the film, Doc assumes something of a leadership role over the posse. When Wyatt prefers killing the men they pursue, rather than arrest them, Doc calls him out for his tactics. Not sure where that bit of moral rectitude came from, let alone how it escaped the historical record. Oh, well. Meanwhile Ike Clanton escapes to Mexico.
With most of the shooting over, Doc’s tuberculosis forces him to seek treatment at a sanitorium in Colorado where he and Wyatt sentimentally part ways. Tombstone city fathers attempt to talk Wyatt into ending the bloodshed with the promise of a high-profile job in territorial law enforcement. Wyatt turns them down in favor of pursuing Ike in Mexico where he puts an end to ‘Old man Clanton’ in a go for your gun shoot out. Somehow the historical record missed all of this last.
Next Week: Lawman
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
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