My Darling Clementine (1946)

Wyatt Earp tames Tombstone in John Ford’s stirring, poetic and visually stunning western.

1882, Tombstone, Arizona. Town marshal Wyatt Earp pursues his brother’s killer in the name of the law, aided by complex, tortured gunslinger Doc Holliday. Their uneasy alliance is complicated by the arrival of Clementine Carter, Doc’s old flame from back east.

With a gunfight expertly staged by one of the genre’s greatest directors, John Ford, there is also action, humour and nostalgia aplenty, alongside breathtaking vistas of America’s frontier-land and noir-tinged lighting in the night-time bars. But it’s the aching, bittersweet tone Ford lends the film that makes it so good – a poignant grace that imbues every frame and lingers in the mind long afterwards.

1946 USA
Directed by
John Ford
Produced by
Samuel G. Engel
Written by
Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller
Featuring
Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound