The Silver Screen Oasis

Then it is possible and it's such a good tale that I'd rather believe it than not.

There's no reason to doubt Ford met Earp as he was a frequenter to Hollywood, believe it or not. He liked promoting his book and his "legend", I think.

While I thing 'Clementine' is a great western, I prefer Kurt Russell's Tombstone, because it's closer to the facts, though to be fair even that had a lot of dramatic licence

According to Tombstone William S Hart and Tom Mix were Pall Bearers at Earp's funeral and to quote narrarter Robert Mitchum, Tom Mix wept

IMHO, as a film experience, My Darling Clementine is head & shoulders above Tombstone.

Ken - I have to agree.

MissGoddess wrote:There's no reason to doubt Ford met Earp as he was a frequenter to Hollywood, believe it or not. He liked promoting his book and his "legend", I think.

If anyone finds that possibility at all intriguing, I urge them to track down & rent Blake Edwards' Sunset, an inspired action lark featuring Bruce Willis as Tom Mix, and James Garner as an elderly-but-still-dangerous Wyatt Earp, as they team up to solve a murder-mystery in 1920's Hollywood.

OMG Bruce Willis ! YIKES ! But I do have to admit he was good in Paul Newman's Nobody's Fool, in which Melody Griffith is also more than ok.

Ken, Bruce Willis was terrific as Tom Mix. Full of himself, swaggering, enjoying life to the fullest, and yet laughing at himself the whole time. James Garner was his usual sexy self, and you really believe him as Wyatt Earp.
Klonnie, I have a question for you: Who was Malcom McDowell supposed to be? Charlie Chaplin? Harold Lloyd? or just a character????

Has anyone discussed James Garner's turn as Wyatt Earp in the 1967 movie, Hour of the Gun?

I don't think we have. I saw it earlier this year. If you want to go for it. I'll chime in with what I can remember.

Has anyone discussed James Garner's turn as Wyatt Earp in the 1967 movie, Hour of the Gun?[/quote]


I must have gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, but I find Hour of the Gun tedious. Sorry.

Since we are here. I didn't car all that much for it either. Garner is terminally mad. No one can stop him. Director John Sturges, having done so well with "Gunfight At The OK Corrall," seems to have gone way over to the dark side. Maybe it is just too dark.

movieman1957 wrote:Since we are here. I didn't car all that much for it either. Garner is terminally mad. No one can stop him. Director John Sturges, having done so well with "Gunfight At The OK Corrall," seems to have gone way over to the dark side. Maybe it is just too dark.

I like Gunfight at the OK Corral, too.

Oh my, I'm SO glad someone else saw what I did in Garner's surly performance. I was quite taken
aback because he's generally an easy-going, self-mocking presence in films. He is downright nasty here.
While that may be truer to life, it makes it rough going on me watching.

I have to say, however, underneath Garner's easy style, I have always sensed a slight hint of
what I might call, for lack of a better word, irritability. I noticed for the first time when contrasting
his performance of Bret Maverick with Jack Kelly's Bart Maverick. Garner, while very funny, shows
a temper at times. Kelly is invariably genial or nonplussed.

I apologize for REALLY taking this off-topic.

I love Maverick.

I get the irritable thing too. Sorry.

Resume Hour of the Gun discussion.

After growing up with the Hugh O'Brian series and Maverick, and having a major crush on O'Brian and James Garner and then seeing My Darling Clementine, I was totally stunned by Hour of the Gun. It makes total sense that a no holds barred gunman/lawman, who was devoted to his family, would hunt the killers down but there was just no redeeming qualities to Garner's Earp. Actually he scared the socks off me!!!