Synopsis
Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
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Cast
- Burt LancasterMarshal Wyatt Earp
- Kirk DouglasDr. John 'Doc' Holliday
- Jo Van FleetKate Fisher
- Rhonda FlemingLaura Denbow
- John IrelandJohnny Ringo
- Lyle BettgerIke Clanton
- Frank FaylenSheriff Cotton Wilson
- Earl HollimanDeputy Sheriff Charles 'Charlie' Bassett
- Ted de CorsiaShanghai Pierce
- Dennis HopperBilly Clanton
Recommendations
- 80
TV Guide Magazine
Solid, expert "town" Western, but lacking the fuel of passion. Still it's a landmark Western--more than any other of its era, it gave the genre major film status. - 80
Empire
It's not as poetic as My Darling Clementine or as historically accurate as Sturges' sequel-remake, Hour Of The Gun, but it is a wonderful evocation of the brassy Westerns of the 50s, when Burt and Kirk demonstrated more machismo than a whole posse of Arnies or Slys. - 70
The New York Times
It is firmly directed by John Sturges (of Bad Day at Black Rock fame), and it is ruggedly acted by all and sundry—of which there is quit[e] a heap. - 70
Variety
Producer Hal Wallis has taken the historic meeting of Wyatt Earp, a celebrated lawman of the West, his brothers and Doc Holliday, with the Clanton gang in the O.K. Corral of Tombstone, Arizona, and fashioned an absorbing yarn [suggested by an article by George Scullin] in action leading up to the gory gunfight. - 70
The Observer (UK)
Despite a curiously disjointed narrative and Frankie Laine on the soundtrack, it's well-staged, turning what in real life was a brief skirmish into a mythic confrontation. [29 Jun 2014, p.48] - 50
Time Out
Passion, certainly, is lacking, and being a 'town' Western, it's all very conventionally domestic. - 42
Portland Oregonian
The most famous and (naturally) least engaging film on the subject, John Sturges' melodrama about the friendship between Earp (Burt Lancaster) and Holliday (Kirk Douglas) is handsomely mounted and as dull as a dish. [02 Jan 1994, p.D06] - 40
Chicago Reader
It's a slick, empty spectacle, with antipathetic stars and a director with no basic sympathy for the myths he's treating.
