Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

SnoopyStyle In the dusty town of Fort Griffin, Texas, Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) is hounded by Ed Bailey and his two friends looking for revenge. Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet) begs him to run away. Marshal Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) arrives looking to take two prisoners but the local sheriff had already released them. Doc was previously Wyatt's dentist and not that friendly. Doc is arrested for killing Ed with a knife throw. Wyatt and Kate help Doc escape from an approaching lynch mob. Back in Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt leads his brothers as the town's law. He tries to send newly arrived Doc away. Wyatt arrests Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming) for being a female gambler.This old fashion western directed by legendary John Sturges is led by two top level Hollywood stars. They are able to drive the story through its long winding road. Along with the old stars, there are younger actors like Dennis Hopper and DeForest Kelley. It's not necessarily breaking the mold. The action is mostly straight forward. The running time is a little long but it does end with a solid gun fight at the O.K. Corral.

rdavies0303 There are many fine features, eg photography, score, performances generally. However in a film 2 hours long the famous corral only appears in the last 30 minutes. By then too much time has been spent on too a loose story line. Of the performances the interplay between Erp and Doc Halliday is good. The two women though look far too alike. Both redheads......?Lancaster probably makes a better Erp than Wayne would have done in this film. In many ways in fact I kept on thinking of "Rio Bravo". That is even longer and for much of the time nothing seems to happen. But it work. And personally I think the gunfight in "Rio Bravo" is better. Most people will not agree.

TxMike Man, they drank a lot of whiskey in the 1880s. I caught this movie on the 'Movies!' TV network. I probably have seen parts of it over the years but today I saw all of it, beginning to end.The basic story and characters are all based on fact, but there are some liberties taken with the timeline and how certain events went down. Still it is a very good old 'western' that holds up well almost 60 years alter.Burt Lancaster, in his early 40s, is Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas, just about 40, is Doc Holliday. In real life they became friends when Holliday saved Earp's life in a saloon confrontation, and that scene is depicted in the movie.From the title we know exactly where the story arc will end up, but there is a lot of good movie leading up to it. Earp is portrayed as an honest, dedicated lawman, some even call him "preacher." In real life he probably wasn't quite as awesome as the movies make him out to be. Holliday was a dentist turned gambler, a shady character to be sure, but he ended up assisting Earp.Beautiful Rhonda Fleming, in her early 30s here, plays a fictional character Laura Denbow, a traveling gambler, that Earp falls for and has to decide whether to stick with her or follow his duty to get the outlaws, commonly called "cowboys" in that era.The big gunfight at OK Corral in Tombstone involved the Clanton gang. It was actually a 30-second fight but the movie makes it much more drawn out than that. Lyle Bettger is Ike Clanton, the leader of the cattle-rustling gang. His younger brother is a very young Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton who dies at OK Corral, his only gunfight. The movie has Ike dying there also but in fact he died 6 years later in a different altercation.It is a movie so the excursions away from historical fact are minor and fine, it is a very fine movie and both Lancaster and Douglas are in great form.

zardoz-13 Before director John Sturges made "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," he'd only made a few westerns, "The Walking Hills" with Randolph Scott, "Bad Day at Black Rock," with Spencer Tracy, and "Backlash" with Richard Widmark. I'd say that "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" was the first of his big-budgeted westerns at Paramount Pictures with Hal Wallis producing this polished looking horse opera. Things are pretty straightforward with Burt Lancaster cast as a stern but charismatic Wyatt Earp sans a mustache, while Kirk Douglas looks a mite too robust as the consumptive Doc Holiday. This was the second time that Lancaster and Douglas had co-starred in a movie, but it was certainly the first of their best. One of the best known western villains from the era clashed with this pair of titans; Lyle Bettger played Ike Clanton. He is thoroughly rotten to the core and holds his own against Lancaster. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin's orchestral score and the lyrics that Ned Washington and he co-wrote for the title ballad about the O.K. Corral are not only atmospheric but accentuate the action. The Ballad doesn't end with the opening titles but recurs throughout the action at dramatic points. Sturges stages a much bigger and more ambitious finale at the O.K. Corral with the Clantons shooting it out with Earp, Holiday, and company. This is a first-class horse opera that should be not be missed. If you're a western fan, you must saddle up for this sagebrusher!"Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" opens with the heroic Frankie Lane song. Those lyrics punctuate the action and serve as the equivalent of a Greek chorus. The first scene details a showdown between Kirk Douglas and character actor Lee Van Cleef in a saloon. Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster of "Brute Force") is riding through town when Holiday sets foot in a saloon to challenge Ed Bailey (Lee Van Cleef of "High Noon") for shooting his brother. The catch is the neither man is allowed to tote firearms in the saloon. Doc conceals a switchblade in his cuff, while Bailey hides a derringer in his boot. No sooner has Doc hurled a knife into Ed Bailey's chest than Fort Griffin Sheriff Cotton Ryan (Frank Faylen of "The Lost Weekend") arrests him and sticks him in jail. Later, as a lynch mob assembles, a desperate Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet of "East of Eden") entreats Wyatt to help Doc escape the lynch mob. Wyatt helps Doc get out of town. Afterward, Wyatt runs into Doc in Dodge City. Dead broke, Doc plans to gamble up some money, and he makes a deal with Wyatt to loan him money. The 'square deal' friendship between Wyatt and Doc gets off to a start after they gun down Richie Bell and his bank robbing buddies who try to sneak into their camp and dry gulch them. Meanwhile, Wyatt takes up with a headstrong lady gambler Laura Denbow (Rhonda Fleming of "Pony Express") who gives him a hard time when he arrests her. The romance between Wyatt and Laura is short-lived because she refuses to follow him when he rides to Tombstone to support brother Morgan and Virgil Earp. About an hour into the action, gunslinger Johnny Ringo (John Ireland of "Red River") shows up to steal Kate from Doc. They develop an intense rivalry and Doc wings him during a saloon shoot-out. Doc and Wyatt solidify their relationship when they have a showdown with Shanghai Pierce (Ted De Corsia of "Vengeance Valley") in Dodge City. When Wyatt's three brothers summon him to Tombstone, he finds Doc Holiday riding along to join him. Laura refuses to accompany Wyatt so he leaves her. Initially, Morgan and Virgil hate the idea of Doc hanging around with Wyatt. No sooner has Doc arrived in Tombstone than his old nemesis Ringo and Kate blow into town. Doc and Ringo clash but Morgan convinces Doc not to kill him. Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger of "The Lone Ranger") rustles Mexican cattle and tries to ship it through Tombstone, but Wyatt and his brothers refuse to let him do it. Eventually, Ike and his brothers have it out at the O.K. Corral in a beautifully staged shoot-out with the Earps. In an evocative scene, Wyatt, his brothers and Doc assemble for the big finale. John Sturges has "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" lenser Charles Lang shoot set-ups from low angles to make everything look larger than life. Terrific stuff! Sturges would stick to the facts more closely with his unofficial sequel "Hour of the Gun" with James Garner cast as Wyatt Earp.