Two legendary cowboys, Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) and his friend Doc Holliday (Douglas) take it upon themselves to keep wild women under control and preventing the villains of the piece form taking over. Cue several gun fights and lots of tough talking in a generic but classic Western.
by William Thomas |
Published on
Running Time:
117 minutes
Certificate:
PG
Original Title:
Gunfight At The OK Corrall
A big, sprawling, brawling Western with the two most manly actors of the 50s united in gunplay as the morally inflexible Wyatt Earp and the trigger-happy consumptive Doc Holliday take on untamed women like Fleming and Jo Van Fleet, plus baddies like John Ireland, Lee Van Cleef and a young Dennis Hopper.
Sturges fills the big screen with images of big men striding down big streets and Frankie Laine provides a ballad title song to bridge the scenes. It's not as poetic as My Darling Clementine or as historically accurate as Sturges' sequel-remake, Hour Of The Gun, but it is a wonderful evocation of the brassy Westerns of the 50s, when Burt and Kirk demonstrated more machismo than a whole posse of Arnies or Slys.
Before Arnie, Bruce, even perish the thought, Vin, there was Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. These were the kind of guys who did their own stunts and really knew what to do in a fight. In Gunfight they are at their most testosterone-fuelled, taking car
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