My Darling Clementine

This article is about the John Ford Western. For the song, see Oh My Darling, Clementine. For the 1943 Roy Acuff film, see O, My Darling Clementine. For the country music duo, see My Darling Clementine (band). For the Mexican film, see My Darling Clementine (1953 film).

My Darling Clementine
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Ford
Written bySamuel G. Engel
Winston Miller
Story:
Sam Hellman
Uncredited:
Stuart Anthony
William M. Conselman
Based onWyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal
1931 novel
by Stuart N. Lake
Produced bySamuel G. Engel
Starring
CinematographyJoseph MacDonald
Edited byDorothy Spencer
Music byCyril J. Mockridge (uncredited)
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 3, 1946 (1946-12-03)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million[1]
Box office$2,750,000 (US rentals)[2][3]

My Darling Clementine is a 1946 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp during the period leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The ensemble cast also features Victor Mature (as Doc Holliday), Linda Darnell, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt, Cathy Downs and Ward Bond.

The title of the movie is borrowed from the theme song "Oh My Darling, Clementine", sung in parts over the opening and closing credits. The screenplay is based on the biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart Lake, as were two earlier movies, both named Frontier Marshal (released in 1934 and 1939, respectively). The book was discovered to be highly inaccurate and Wyatt had told many outright lies about himself, his brothers and the events surrounding the O.K. Corral incident to both Lake and director Ford.

My Darling Clementine is regarded by many film critics as one of the best Westerns ever made. In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It was among the third annual group of 25 films named to the registry.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stanley1946 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "60 Top Grossers of 1946", Variety 8 January 1947 p8
  3. ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 221
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference nixon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).