My Darling Clementine
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Movie Reviews of My Darling Clementine
Movie Review: A superb film with Ford, Fonda, Mature and Brennan at their peak
Summary: 5 Stars
Here is a movie which practically hums with excellence, from the star performances of Henry Fonda, Victor Mature and Walter Brennan to the extraordinary craftsmanship of director John Ford. I've watched a lot of Ford movies; many I like and many I don't. My Darling Clementine is, in my view, Ford's most accomplished film. The movie may seem to be about a gun fight showdown, or about the wary relationship between Wyatt Earp and John Holliday, or about a shy romance between an upright man with little experience with love and a proper young woman who decides to be a school marm, or about honor and justice and retribution. It's all of this. Most of all, it's about how the west changed. Ford shows us not through big gestures and symbolic, obvious actions, but through the little gestures of some good people and some extremely well-crafted set pieces.
The Earp brothers led by Wyatt (Henry Fonda) have their cattle rustled and their youngest brother, James, killed just outside the wild town of Tombstone. Earp is sure Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) and his four sons are responsible. He decides to stay awhile as Marshal and see about a little legal retribution. He encounters John Holliday (Victor Mature), a self-loathing former doctor, now a quick-shooting killer and gambler, ill with tuberculosis, who runs things in the saloon and is drinking himself to death. Holliday has had a relationship for quite a while with a bargirl named Chihuahua (Linda Darnel). Then Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs) shows up on a stage from back east looking for Holliday. She loves him and wants to rescue him. And Earp finds himself thinking that Clementine is the nicest, prettiest woman he's ever met. "I love your town in the morning, Marshal," she tells him. "The air is so clean and clear...the scent of the desert flower." Says Earp, a little shyly, "That's me...barber."
All these story threads are weaving in and out as the Earps press Old Man Clanton, as Wyatt and Doc nearly kill each other a couple of times, as they discover a medallion that was worn by young James Earp which was given to Chihuahua by the youngest Clanton. Before long a Clanton and another Earp are dead and the showdown at the OK Corral is set for sunup the next morning.
What satisfying delights Ford and his actors give us. There's Fonda's Wyatt Earp, a natural gentleman, shy with a "nice" woman, something of a killer himself. There's Victor Mature's John Holliday, self-loathing, honorable when it matters, a headstrong killer ready to gun down anyone who crosses him. And there's Walter Brennan's Old Man Clanton, just plain mean, a back shooter, a cattle rustler, an old man who always carries a horsewhip and doesn't hesitate to use it on his own sons. "When you pull a gun," he snarls at them, "shoot a man."
The set pieces are powerful and poignant, but they always advance the story and build up the characters. The first meeting between Wyatt Earp and Old Man Clanton out in the scrub. Without being in the least obvious Brennan lets us know Clanton is going to be trouble. Alan Mobray as the alcoholic, over-the-hill actor who is going to recite Shakespeare for the townspeople, encounters the Clanton boys in a bar. They force him to recite 'To be or not to be..." while they shame him...until Holliday intervenes. When Mobray falters and asks Holliday to continue, Holliday picks up the lines "....but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will." It's a sad moment for Holliday and for us. Fonda on horseback chasing after Holliday who is seated next to the driver on a stage. The horses are running their lungs out and Holliday isn't letting up. Earp catches him and there is a showdown which is quick and efficient. Earp on the porch leaning back on the rear legs of his chair, a boot bracing himself on a railing. Earp and Clementine at the church social when he invites her to dance with a stiff bow. A serious look on his face changes to joy as they whirl around.
The showdown at the Corral is a textbook piece of editing. The whole sequence from the walk to the corral to the final shooting takes only nine minutes. The actual gunplay lasts only one minute. It's dramatic but matter-of-fact. When it's over the old West is done for and the new West, with school marms, is starting. And we realize this by all that we've seen during the prior hour and a half, not just because of a 60-second shootout.
Not only, in my view, is My Darling Clementine John Ford's best movie, it has to be one of Henry Fonda's strongest and most subtle performances. I think he'd easily land among the top two or three on any list of America's best film actors. He shows why with this film.
The 20th Century Fox Film Classic DVD comes with the July 1946 preview version which is largely Ford's and the October 1946 release version which had some substantial editing overseen by Darryl F. Zanuck, scenes re-shot and a more obtrusive film score added where Ford had wanted natural background sounds. There is a fascinating interview with Robert Gitt, who did the restoration work at the UCLA Film and Television Archives. He not only describes and shows what his work involved, but also the changes which Zanuck insisted on. Except for the music score additions, I think Zanuck was right. After hearing Gitt and looking at the comparisons, it was the release version I watched. It's an instructive example of just how limited a director's rights can be when the top guy decides to exercise his authority.
Movie Review: A darling of a movie . . . . Clementine will like it too . .
Summary: 5 Stars
My Darling Clemintine"My Darling Clementine" is one of those films about which so much has been written(including a good Rutgers "Films In Print" entry),that it seems pointless to belabour it's greatness.I award it five stars only because there are no more available."Clementine" is less a story than a series of incidents,and since the purchase of a video implies repeat viewings,this one is a natural for everyone's permanent collection.I'm all for lean,tightly constructed westerns(of which the James Stewart/Anthony Manns are excellent examples),but the leisurely "Clementine"---austere,relaxed,filled with moments that seem utterly spontaneous---has a roughhewn,unrehearsed quality that's all the more surprising in a major studio "A" western.Since we're dealing with Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the O.K.Corall,the narrative does eventually assert itself,if only to steer us toward the final confrontation---but the device involving the stolen "Chingadera" and it's reappearance around Linda Darnell's neck,seems almost an intrusion,taking us away from the simpler moments we've enjoyed(for nearly two-thirds of the running time!),and reminding us that there is a story which must be told and now let's get down to the business of telling it.More telling,however,are the many and marvelous details Ford reveals throughout---check out Doc Holliday's room in the hotel---not only do we see his diplomas,but there are photos of a college rowing team on the water---a wonderfully vivid and underplayed glimpse of Doc's past life.There's delightful scenes of people eating meals---big meals---alone and in groups---whereas in so many lesser westerns,all they do is drink whiskey.I love Ward Bond's frequent recitals of what he's just had,or is going to have,for breakfast.The Clantons may be outlaws,but they have framed pictures in their house and potted plants out front---even in town,they move about with familiar ease(check out the way Brennan walks behind the hotel counter to get his own room key).When the Earps are overlooking Tombstone(a stunning shot)just before their initial ride in,Wyatt regards it all quietly for a moment,follows with a resigned "Let's go..",as if knowing something disagreeable lies ahead.The business with the barber and his "sweet smellin' stuff" has been celebrated elsewhere,so I'll only add that the gag works beautifully for me because it's so underplayed---notice how both Tim Holt and Cathy Downs react to Fonda's explanation of the "honeysuckle"---both could have gone for an unsubtle laugh,and in a lesser director's hands,they might have.Several previous films had dealt with the Wyatt Earp legend---two are outstanding---"Law and Order",directed by Edward L.Cahn,and "Frontier Marshall",directed by Alan Dwan.The fact that neither are available on video points up the sorry state of affairs in home collecting these days---such a tiny portion of our great movie past is out there,and with each new technology being so ruthlessy swept away by the next,it seems unlikely that we'll be seeing many new releases of vintage titles in the near future(if at all).Still,there is "Clementine",and if you haven't already keyed it in for purchase,do yourself(and your viewing friends)a favor and buy it now.This is truly a picture you'll want to watch again and again.
Movie Review: A Gorgeous Moment between The Worlds
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not often that everything comes together in a movie. John Ford's elegy to frontier America, "My Darling Clementine" is one of those movies, where script, acting, photography and directing make art. Many reviewers point out that the west of "My Darling Clementine" is a west of myth, where the characters, story and scenery are larger than life. But are they? If one could be transported back to the Western frontier and walk into a saloon in the 1880's, I think you'd see just the kind of characters that appear in the movie. The same glassy, emotionless stare of men who've been drinking heavily. The dark, low-ceilinged saloon that could be gay one minute and deathly the next fits the descriptions that I've read of the era; that combination of 100-proof whiskey, Colt's Army revolver, and little to do except gamble.
The icy look in Henry Fonda's eyes when he confronts Doc Holiday or the Clantons - if you didn't have that look in the old west, how could you possibly be a lawman? This is the frontier, before the rule of law. Earp's declaration that he wants Tombstone to be a place where "decent folk can live" in a town that is still frontier - ie., lawless, ie., anything can happen. That's why we're fascinated. I'm speaking as a male, of course, and, as Freud has said, civilization does have it's discontents.
And that's why the church dance scene is so riveting. The church is not built yet, only a foundation exists. It's the gorgeous moment between the worlds. The unformed and the formed, frontier and settled. When the church is completed and the school opens; it won't be a frontier. The movie exists in that moment between the worlds. When the Clantons are killed, civilization has won; the movie ends.
But there have been hundreds of western movies with a similar premise. Why is this a classic, instead of a formula? The photography for one reason. Each scene is a balanced, well crafted composition. The landscape is a character in this movie. It dominates, we're not in the city here, folks, and we know it. Acting. Probably Henry Fonda's greatest movie. Fonda's Wyatt Earp has a moral and a physical center, a gravity that draws you in. In short, he's a man. Who today has that gravity? Leonardo di Caprio? Brad Pitt? Gimme a break.
Walter Brennan is great as the Clanton father. He's a great actor who had won several Academy Awards previously. See him also in "The Westerner" as judge Roy Bean. All the supporting actors are great, even Cathy Downs as Clementine, whom I never thought was given recognition that she should have. Victor Mature played director John Ford's alter ego; alcoholic, self-hating, full of rages. Ford would years later punch Henry Fonda and end their friendship.
And finally, there's all those small "bits" that seem to breathe life into what could have been just another western. Fonda's "dance" on the porch post, the bit with the barber, the Shakesperean actor, the champaign scene, the poker game. Yes, this is a 1940's era movie, so Linda Darnell sings a couple of songs. There some fake saguaro cacti in a few shots, the opening credits are laughable. But this is a movie where one forgives. It has a largeness of spirit that's hard to find today.
Movie Review: A dark but extraordinary John Ford Western
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a very big fan of John Ford, but of his many great films, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, along with THE SEARCHERS, is my favorite. Many of the elements that help create the film's effect are common to other Ford films: the extraordinary photography (veteran Joseph MacDonald, though Ford's eye was so good that he functioned as a second cinematographer), the sparse, spartan sets, the rituals that individuals wittingly or unwittingly follow in the concourse with one another, the use of music to create especially powerful moments (in this case, the title of the film as well), the themes of individual responsibilty and compassion, and the stellar cast of Ford regulars. But in this film, many of the great moments derive from Ford irregulars, actors who do not feature in many of his other films. Although much maligned as an actor during the course of his career, Victor Mature in his greatest role is magnificent as Doc Holiday. He teams up with another For irregular, Alan Mowbray, in one of the finest moments in the film, when Mowbray, playing a drunken Shakespearean actor, is unable to complete Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Mature takes over and movingly completes it. The beauty of the black and white photography has to be seen to be appreciated. In addition to Mature and Mowbray, the cast is magnificently rounded out by Western veteran Walter Brennan, who despite having starred in a host of great Westerns, had not worked in any of Ford's great classics. He stands out as Old Man Clanton, the utterly vicious and crude but oddly principled nemesis of Wyatt Earp at the OK Corral. As fine as Mature, Mowbray, and Brennan are, what truly holds the film together is Ford semi-regular Henry Fonda, who undertakes one of the greatest performances of his career. It is a remarkable undertaking. Of all the actors of the 1930s and 1940s, Fonda was perhaps the actor most comfortable with silences, and Ford makes maximum use of this by filming scene after scene in which he surrounds Fonda with no dialog at all. The patient and deliberate manner in which Ford and Fonda allow scenes to unfold with a minimum of dialog gives this film a quality unique among films of the era, which tended to be filled with vastly more talking than today's films. Indeed, his attitude towards speech is what sets Ford apart from his only other serious rival for title of the Greatest American Born Director, Howard Hawks. Only Preston Sturges could rival Hawks for the sheer number of words he could pack into a film, while Ford was by contrast quite at ease with long stretches of near or complete silence. Indeed, some of the great scenes in this film are not truly dependent upon speech at all. Look at the long Sunday afternoon dance scene, in which Fonda awkwardly but charmingly courts Kathy Downs. Although there is music and some talk, the scene would have worked just as well in a silent film.
A great movie, this not only one of the finest Westerns ever made, but one of the finest films ever made in America.
Movie Review: TWISTED HISTORY, BUT ONE OF THE GREATEST WESTERNS EVER!
Summary: 5 Stars
TWISTED HISTORY AND ONE OF THE GREATEST WESTERNS EVER!
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is a Western enigma. On the one hand it's about as messed up when it comes to history as it can get but on the other hand, when considering its cinematography, star quality and pure western appeal, it's nothing short of a masterpiece.
Yes, the story involves the Earps, Doc Holliday and the Clantons and the story is set in Tombstone, Arizona, but that's where history ends. From chronological problems about the relative age of the Earp brothers, who is who and who dies when or at all, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is nothing short of a circus! History clearly shows that while Morgan was shot in the back and killed by unknown assailants (and not Virgil), Virgil, who was crippled in Tombstone, went on to a career as a law enforcement officer in California. Also very little is known about James Earp. One thing is certain. James did not die as a teenager during a raid on the Earp cattle herd.
Another interesting historic problem arises with the portrayal of Doc Holliday. It's historically easy to show that Doc was a Georgian (not from Boston) and that he died in Colorado of his terminal tuberculosis (and not of gunshot wounds at the OK Corral in Tombstone). While Doc derived his famous name from his being a doctor in a life that preceded his career as a gambler and bloodthirsty killer, his specialty was dentistry and not surgery. So when he performs a medical procedure on his girlfriend, wounded by Billy Clanton, her hopes are slim in Holliday's care unless, of course, she was shot in the mouth.
Perhaps the historical problems are why it's titled MY DARLING CLEMENTINE and not WYATT EARP or TOMBSTONE.
But watch this one for its movie value and don't reject it for its lack of historical accuracy. Look past the names of the main characters and the geographic location and what emerges is a marvelous movie classic. John Ford is at his best directing what many believe is one of the finest classic Westerns ever. The beauty of monument valley, western sunsets, and the black and white cinematography for which Ford was famous redeem the historic shortcomings of this film with plenty to spare.
Add to that the acting of Henry Fonda, Ward Bond, Walter Brennan and Victor Mature and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE will be a Western that will keep you coming back again and again.
The DVD release of the film is packed with extras including two versions of the film; the first a pre-release version that Ford felt was the best of the film and the second, the version of the film that was ultimately released in theaters. Expert commentary by individuals that explain why the film is available in two versions is especially enlightening.
THE HORSEMAN