Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957 film)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 movie starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday about the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. The movie was based on a real event which took place on October 26, 1881. It was directed by John Sturges and featuring a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris, the movie has an outstanding supporting cast including Rhonda Fleming, John Ireland, Jo Van Fleet, Martin Milner, Dennis Hopper, Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, DeForest Kelley, Earl Holliman and Charles Herbert. The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards in the Sound and Editing categories. The movie was released on May 30, 1957.

Sturges also directed a sequel ten years later, Hour of the Gun, with James Garner as Earp and Jason Robards as Holliday.

Lancaster and Douglas made several films together over the decades, including I Walk Alone (1948), The Devil's Disciple (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), and Tough Guys (1986), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public's imagination. Douglas was always second-billed under Lancaster in these films but, with the exception of I Walk Alone, in which Douglas played a villain, their roles were usually more or less the same size.

Cast

Burt Lancaster ... Marshal Wyatt Earp
Kirk Douglas ... Doc Holliday
Rhonda Fleming ... Laura Denbow
Jo Van Fleet ... Kate Fisher (Doc's woman)
John Ireland ... Johnny Ringo (Clanton's hired gun)
Lyle Bettger ... Ike Clanton
Frank Faylen ... Cotton Wilson (county sheriff, Griffin, Texas)
Earl Holliman ... Deputy Sheriff Charlie Bassett
Ted de Corsia ... Shanghai Pierce (cattleman)
Dennis Hopper ... Billy Clanton
Whit Bissell ... John P. Clum (editor, 'Tombstone Epitaph' / Head of Citizens Council)
George Mathews ... John Shanssey (Griffin saloon owner)
John Hudson ... Virgil Earp
DeForest Kelley ... Morgan Earp
Martin Milner ... James 'Jimmy' Earp
Lee Van Cleef ... Ed Bailey

Quotations

"It’s not your fault, Kate. It’s not my fault. It’s not anybody's fault. It’s just the way the cards fall." —Doc Holliday

"You...you can thank God Wyatt Earp's your brother" - Doc Holliday (after being slapped by Morgan Earp)

Trivia

DeForest Kelley played the part of Morgan Earp in this film. Ten years later, as Doctor McCoy, he and others from the USS Enterprise landing crew faced the Earps in an episode of Star Trek "Spectre of the Gun".

External links