My Darling Clementine (1946)

The most gorgeously photographed black and white western I have ever seen, this movie would be worth seeing even with the sound turned off. My Darling Clementine is John Ford's take on the legend of Wyatt Earp and the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Ford renders the story in the suitably iconic manner you would expect of him. While the film is based on the writings of Earp biographer Stuart N. Lake, I have no doubt that large portions of this film are highly mythologized, or even just made up. Not looking into the history I have a hard time believing much if anything concerning Linda Darnell's character is real, and while Ford had stated that the depiction of the final gunfight is taken exactly as it was told to him by the real Earp decades earlier, who knows how reliable it really is. However none of that matters much, because as a film its most excellent, and as Ford himself would make the point the better part of two decades later:"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Fonda is great as Earp, and the lesser known actress Cathy Downs absolutely the perfect choice for Clementine, while the rest of the cast is strong as well. A picture very much deserving of its prominent place in the canon of the film western. ****