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| A star-touting, hot-colored poster for John Sturges' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral |
In a little small town in the West the sheriff Wyatt Earp rides in and gets mixed up in the local troubles of Doc Holliday.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is written by Leon Uris (Battle Cry (1955)), inspired by the actual 1881 gunfight and 1954 Holiday magazine article The Killer by George Scullin, and directed by John Sturges (The Man Who Dared (1946)).
It opens with a beautiful credits sequence and the wonderful title theme by Dmitri Tiomkin (score) (Rio Bravo (1959)) and Ned Washington (lyrics) (High Noon (1952)), sung by Frankie Laine (Thunder in the East (1952)). Burt Lancaster (The Scalphunters (1968)) and Kirk Douglas (Top Secret Affair (1957)) are splendid together in a radiant production.
Entanglements and romance prolong the film beyond what was necessary, and some of its magic is thus lost. But Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is still an iconic, style-assured western that's as near to becoming a caricature and a pastiche on itself as it possibly can without actually being one.
Related posts:
John Sturges: The Eagle Has Landed (1976) - Sturges' enjoyable, last man's adventure
Chino/Valdez,
Il Mezzosangue/Valdez the Half BreedThe Valdez Horses (1973) - Bronson
is his own man only in Sturges' good spaghetti western
The Great Escape (1963) - Sturges' further manly exploits in war-adventure classic
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 10.7 mil. $ (likely North America alone)
= Some uncertainty but at least a big hit (returned at least 5.35 times its cost)
[Gunfight at the O.K. Corral premiered 29 May (New York) and runs 122 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 1956 in Arizona, including Phoenix, and in California, including Los Angeles. The film includes countless historical inaccuracies. It reportedly earned 4.7 mil. $ on its first run and 6 mil. $ on a re-release; it is unclear but likely that this was just in North America, meaning that the world gross was likely in the 15-17 mil. $ range at least, which would change the film's status to that of 'huge hit' or even 'mega-hit'. It was nominated for 2 Oscars: It lost Best Sound to Sayonara and Editing to The Bridge on the River Kwai. Sturges later made sort-of sequel Hour of the Gun (1967), which is more historically accurate, about the gunfight's aftermath, with other stars. Sturges returned first with uncredited work on Saddle the Wind (1958) and in official front with The Law and Jack Wade (1958). Lancaster and Douglas returned together again in their next movie, Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is fresh at 83 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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