My Darling Clementine (1946) - film review

The Earp brothers – Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil and James – are driving their cattle across open country towards California.  Whilst crossing Arizona, they run into Old Man Clanton, a local farmer, who offers to buy their cattle at a derisory price which they turn down.  Leaving their brother James to watch over the cattle, the older Earps head for the nearby town of Tombstone for an evening’s amusement.  The town has a reputation for lawlessness and no sooner have the Earps arrived than an Indian runs amok.  Wyatt risks his life to disarm the Indian and the grateful townsfolk ask him to be their new sheriff.  Wyatt refuses, but has second thoughts when he learns that his brother James has been murdered and their cattle stolen.  Resolving to find who is responsible for these crimes, Wyatt appoints himself sheriff of Tombstone and begins to restore the rule of law in the town.   His task is not made easy by the arrival of a notorious gunslinger Doc Holliday who, prone to heavy drinking and brooding, is itching for a fight.  Holliday’s former sweetheart Clementine then shows up.  She has been following Holliday, hoping to win him back to her, but he has no desire to see her and tells her to go away.  Through Holliday’s new mistress, Chihuahua, Wyatt finally discovers who killed his brother James.  The stage is set for a bloody confrontation at the O.K. Corral...

My Darling Clementine is the quintessence of the American western, and one of the best films the genre has given us.  Not only does it recount the most famous story in the mythology of the western – the legendary feud between the Earps and the Clantons – but it has all the essential ingredients of the classic western, assembled and woven into a compelling story with faultless cinematic brilliance.  It is a film that evokes the ethos of America, through its wild west setting, unflinching humanity and tough moral perspective.  It is also a film that shows us the worst and best in human nature, with far greater depth and sincerity than you would expect to find in a western.  Here we have much more than the usual lukewarm serving of Stetsons, stallions and shoot-outs.

There have been many film depictions of the famous Earp-Clanton story – Law and Order (1932), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Tombstone (1993) being just three alternatives.  However, My Darling Clementine is the definitive version, despite its historic accuracies and obvious romantic embellishments.  For one thing, it has a great cast, with Henry Fonda perfect in the part of the quietly brooding Wyatt Earp, a character who, despite his gentleness and slight build, has great presence and exudes an insuperable moral authority and nobility.  Victor Mature makes a darkly morose yet sympathetic Doc Holliday whilst Linda Darnell is convincing as the fragile temptress Chihuahua.  The film benefits from an exemplary screenplay, which combines memorable action sequences and moments of tender reflection, allowing Ford to do what he does best – to tell  stories of great depth and intimacy whilst simultaneously painting glorious vistas of the seemingly unbounded American landscape.

My Darling Clementine has many strengths, but what makes it an unrivalled masterpiece is its sheer visual beauty.  Few westerns are as well shot and as well edited as this one.  Ford’s direction and Joseph MacDonald’s mesmerising black-and-white photography create one of cinema’s most potent evocations of how the west was won.  In common with much of Ford’s work, this is a highly symbolic film.  It reminds us how the wilder side of man and his environment were tamed by men of character and insight such as Wyatt Earp, allowing a powerful and united nation to grow and prosper.  How characteristic of John Ford to translate the gunfight at the O.K. corral into a metaphor of how his country forged its identity in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

© James Travers 2008

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