My Darling Clementine
Movie, 1946, The '50s and before, Set in Tombstone
My Darling Clementine is #2 of 34 in release order and #2 of 34 in chronological order in the Westerns.
The story
Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.
My Darling Clementine recap
My Darling Clementine (1946) is John Ford's account of Wyatt Earp taking the marshal's job in Tombstone after his youngest brother is murdered. Wyatt (Henry Fonda) and his brothers Morgan, Virgil and James are driving cattle to California. While the older three visit town, the herd is rustled and James is killed, and Wyatt suspects Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) and his sons. He pins on the badge to find the killers. He forms an uneasy friendship with Doc Holliday (Victor Mature), a tubercular gambler who runs the town, and whose lover, the saloon singer Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), resents the Earps. Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs), Doc's sweetheart from Boston, arrives looking for him, and Wyatt is quietly taken with her. When Chihuahua is seen wearing James's stolen silver pendant, she names Billy Clanton as the giver, and Billy shoots her as he runs. Virgil chases Billy to the Clanton ranch and is killed. The film stands alone; Tombstone, later in this collection, retells the same feud.
My Darling Clementine ending explained
My Darling Clementine ends with the gunfight at the O.K. Corral at dawn, where the Clantons die along with Doc Holliday. Doc first fails to save Chihuahua in surgery. At the corral Wyatt spares Old Man Clanton, who is shot by Morgan when he draws. Wyatt and Morgan ride off to tell their father, and Wyatt says goodbye to Clementine, who stays on as the town's schoolteacher. The real Holliday survived the fight and died of tuberculosis in Colorado in 1887, and the elder Clanton was dead before it took place.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Where to watch My Darling Clementine
My Darling Clementine isn't on a US streaming service right now. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes 100%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Stagecoach, before Red River.
- Chronological order: after Stagecoach, before Red River.
Cast
- Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp
- Linda Darnell as Chihuahua
- Victor Mature as Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday
- Cathy Downs as Clementine Carter
- Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton
- Tim Holt as Virgil Earp
- Ward Bond as Morgan Earp
- Alan Mowbray as Granville Thorndyke
- John Ireland as Billy Clanton
- Roy Roberts as Mayor
- Jane Darwell as Kate Nelson
- Grant Withers as Ike Clanton
Directed by John Ford.