# My Darling Clementine

My Darling Clementine is a 1946 film about Wyatt Earp during the period leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
    Directed by John Ford. Written by Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller, and Sam Hellman, based on the 1931 novel Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake.

## Wyatt Earp

* What kind of a town is this anyway? Excuse me ma'am. A man can't get a shave without gettin' his head blowed off.
* Look, Doc, I ain't tryin' to poke my nose into your personal affairs, but from where I stand, a man would have to go a long ways before he finds a finer girl than that Miss Carter, or a prettier one for that matter.
* There's probably fifty fellas around town just waitin' to see you get liquored up so they can fill you full of holes. Build themselves up a great reputation. The man that killed Doc Holliday.

## Newman Haynes Clanton

* When you pull a gun, kill a man.

## Other

* Deacon John Simpson: I hereby declare the first church of Tombstone, which ain't got no name yet, or no preacher either, officially dedicated. Now, I don't pretend to be no preacher, but I've read the Good Book from cover to cover and back again, and I never found one word ag'in' dancin'. So we'll commence by havin' a dad-blasted good dance!

## Dialogue

    Clanton: [about cattle] If you ain't got 'em committed to no shipper, I'll take 'em off your hands.
    Wyatt: Not interested.
    Clanton: I'll make ya a good offer. Pay in silver, three dollars a head.
    Wyatt: Nope.
    Clanton: Might raise it to five dollars silver.
    Wyatt: Made more than that in Mexico.
    Clanton: They'll be a sorry looking lot by the time they get to California, son.
    Wyatt: They'll feed out when we get to grass country. Sure is rough looking country. Ain't no cow country. Mighty different where I come from. What do they call this place?
    Clanton: Just over the rise there, a big town called Tombstone. A fine town.
    Wyatt: Tombstone! Yeah, I heard of it. Well, me and my brothers might ride in there tonight. Get ourselves a shave maybe. A glass of beer.
    Clanton: Yeah! You'd enjoy yourself. Wide-awake, wide-open town Tombstone. Get anything you want there.
    Holliday: I know all about you and your reason for being here.
    Wyatt: Heard a lot about you too, Doc. You left your mark around in Deadwood, Denver and places. In fact, a man could almost follow your trail goin' from graveyard to graveyard.
    Holliday: There's one here too, biggest graveyard west of the Rockies. Marshals and I usually get along much better when we understand that right away.
    Wyatt: Get your meanin' Doc.
    Holliday: Good.
    Holliday: [about how long Wyatt will stay in town] Until you catch the rustlers that killed your brother?
    Wyatt: That's the general idea.
    Holliday: What's the specific idea?
    Wyatt: I don't follow you quite.
    Holliday: You haven't taken it into your head to deliver us from all evil?
    Wyatt: I hadn't thought of it quite like that, but ain't a bad idea. It's what I'm gettin' paid fer.
    Holliday: Let's get down to cases, Marshal. I, for instance. How would you handle me if I took a notion to break the law?
    Wyatt: You already have.
    Holliday: For example.
    Wyatt: Runnin' that tin-horn out of town. That's none of your business.
    Holliday: I see we're in opposite camps, Marshal. Draw! [Holliday pulls and cocks his gun on Earp.]
    Wyatt: Can't. [He opens up his vest to reveal he doesn't wear a gun.]
    Holliday: We can take care of that easily enough. Mac! [Holliday shouts to the bartender for a gun. Before Mac can do anything, Wyatt's brother - standing behind Holliday - slides a gun down the bar to Wyatt to balance up the sides.]
    Wyatt: [Wyatt examines the gun and then slides it back on the bar to his brother.] Brother Morg's gun. [Holliday uncocks his gun and returns it to his holster.] The big one - that's Morg. The other one, that good-lookin' fella, that's my brother Virg. This is Doc Holliday, fellas.
    Morg: Hi ya, Doc.
    Virg: Howdy.
    Holliday: Howdy. Have a drink.
    Morg: Don't mind if I do, Doc.
    Clementine: It is wonderful to see you again, John. You are pleased that I came...? [Pause] My coming has made you unhappy.
    Holliday: It was ill advised.
    Clementine: Was it ill advised the way you left Boston?
    Holliday: How'd you know I was here?
    Clementine: I didn't. Finding you hasn't been easy. Cow camp to cow camp, from one mining town to another. I should think that if nothing more, you'd be at least flattered to have a girl chase you?
    Holliday: Look Clem, you've got to get out of here...
    Clementine: But I'm not!
    Holliday: This is no place for your kind of person.
    Clementine: What kind of a person am I, John?
    Holliday: Please go back home Clem, back where you belong. Forget that you... [Holliday experiences a severe coughing fit]
    Clementine: You're ill, John. So that's the reason you left.
    Holliday: That has nothing to do with it.
    Clementine: Foolish, foolish John, as if that would have mattered.
    Holliday: I'll tell you, Clem, the condition of my health has nothing to do with it.
    Clementine: I don't believe you, John.
    Holliday: Then I'll give you the truth. The man you once knew is no more, there's not a vestige of him left. Nothing! Come, I'll take you back to the hotel.
    Clementine: Please, John. You can't send me away like this. You can't run away from me any more than you can run away from yourself. Now I know why you don't care whether you live or die, why you tried to get yourself killed. Well, I've heard all about you John and you're wrong, so wrong. You have no right to destroy yourself. You have a world of friends back home who love you John, and I love you.
    Holliday: There's a stage leaving in the morning for the East. Take it. If you don't, I'm moving on.
    Clementine: Very well, John, I'll go.
    Holliday: From where I'm standing Earp, that tin badge you're wearing doesn't give you the right to stick your nose in my personal affairs.
    Wyatt: What's eatin' ya, Doc?
    Holliday: Why didn't you tell me Miss Carter's here?
    Wyatt: She told you why. She wanted to surprise ya.
    Wyatt: It's a mighty short visit.
    Clementine: Some people think I've overstayed my visit already.
    Wyatt: I don't know ma'am. If you ask me, I think you're givin' up too easy.
    Clementine: Marshal, if you ask me, I, I don't think you know too much about a woman's pride.
    Wyatt: No ma'am, maybe I don't.
    Holliday: Look, Clem, I told you last night to leave Tombstone and go back East. I also told you if you didn't leave, I would.
    Wyatt: Hey, Doc. Just a minute, Doc. That's the second time in three days you've been tryin' to run somebody out of town. That's my business. That's what I'm gettin' paid for. Miss Carter or any other decent citizen can stay here just as long as they want to.
    Holliday: We're through talking, Marshal. My advice to you is start carrying your gun.
    Wyatt: That's good advice.
    Holliday: Chihuahua. Why did you tell the Marshal I gave you this jewelry?
    Chihuahua: Well, you did, Doc. You gave it to me.
    Holliday: I never saw this piece of junk before in my life. Who gave it to you?
    Chihuahua: Well, you can't remember everything you give me, Doc. Sure you did. Don't you remember?
    Holliday: When?
    Chihuahua: Two or three days ago. I don't know. What difference does it make?
    Wyatt: That bein' the case, Doc, I charge you with the murder of my brother James Earp.
    Chihuahua: Well, you told me to go away and squall my silly little songs somewhere else. So I came up here and had a good cry. There was a knock at the door and I thought it was you. I opened the door and it was Billy Clanton.
    Chihuahua: [as she is dying] Hi, Doc.
    Holliday: You're all right. You've been a brave girl.
    Wyatt: Mac, you ever been in love?
    Mac: No, I've been a bartender all my life.
    Wyatt: I'm givin' you a chance to submit to proper authorities.
    Clanton: Well, you come on right in here Marshal and serve your warrant.
    Wyatt: Which one of ya killed James?
    Clanton: I did, and the other one too.
    Ike: I'm gonna kill ya.
    Clanton: My boys, Ike, Sam, Phin. Billy.
    Wyatt: They're dead. I ain't gonna kill you. I hope you live a hundred years, feel just a little what my Pa's gonna feel. Now get out of town. Start wanderin'.
    Clementine: There's so many things I wanted to say and now nothing seems appropriate.
    Wyatt: Yes, ma'am, uh, yeah I know. The mayor says you might be stayin' here a while, maybe helpin' get a school started.
    Clementine: Yes, I'm the new schoolmarm.
    Wyatt: That's mighty nice, ma'am. Me and Morg are goin' out to see Pa, tell him what happened. I might come East again, get some cattle, maybe stop by here again.
    Clementine: Stop by the schoolhouse?
    Wyatt: Yes, ma'am. I sure will. [Wyatt kisses her affectionately on the cheek.] Goodbye, ma'am. [Wyatt extends his hand for a handshake.]
    Clementine: Goodbye.
    Wyatt: Ma'am, I sure like that name - Clementine.

## About My Darling Clementine

* The film we see is merely a cozy point of convergence, with swirling metaphysical gravity and back-porch nostalgia attained through the way in which Ford frames the story as a curious detail on an epic canvas, or a single, gorgeous constellation amid a blanket of stars. The characters are rounded, rootsy products of lives lived and knowledge procured, and this story little more than a juncture of souls or a random point of communal progression.
** David Jenkins, My Darling Clementine: The Great Beyond an essay at the Criterion Collection

## Taglines

* Reckless, Riotous Frontier Adventure!
* The Roaring West At Its Reckless Best!

## Cast

* Henry Fonda - Wyatt Earp
* Linda Darnell - Chihuahua
* Victor Mature - Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday
* Cathy Downs - Clementine Carter
* Walter Brennan - Newman Haynes Clanton
* Tim Holt - Virgil Earp
* Ward Bond - Morgan Earp
* Don Garner - James Earp
* Grant Withers - Ike Clanton
* John Ireland - Billy Clanton
* Alan Mowbray - Granville Thorndyke
* Roy Roberts - Mayor
* Jane Darwell - Kate Nelson
* J. Farrell MacDonald - Mac the barman
* Russell Simpson - Deacon John Simpson

## External links

* My Darling Clementine quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* My Darling Clementine at Allmovie
* My Darling Clementine at Filmsite.org