Wyatt Earp (My Darling Clementine)

Wyatt Earp is the main protagonist of the 1946 classic John Ford western My Darling Clementine. Based loosely on the real Wyatt Earp, he's an independent, drifter cowboy and ex-marshal who becomes a responsible lawman.
He was portrayed by Henry Fonda.
== Biography ==
As he's based on the real life Wyatt Earp, it can be assumed the some of his early life was similar to the real Earp.
Sometime before the events of the film, he was the rough, fearsome marshal of Dodge City who wouldn't hesitate to use brute force to take down his enemies. He was so tough and talented at his job, he had developed a reputation from others inside and outside of the town, and would often be feared by various criminals.
Then later, he would eventually retire from his Dodge City marshal position, and he and his three brothers would drive a small herd of cattle west to California near the small, wild town of Tombstone, Arizona. On the side of the trail, a buckboard would come up with Old Man Clanton and his oldest son Ike, part of the notorious Clanton outlaw clan.
In an ominous meeting, the two groups size each other up.. Clanton visits with the bearded, scruffy Wyatt, while Ike sits mute and expressionless in the buckboard next to him. The old man offers to buy Wyatt's cattle, but the latter isn't interested.
The three older brothers eat their supper at their campsite, teasing their youngest brother James about his solid silver cross medal that he plans to take to his blonde sweetheart Cory Sue for an impending marriage. Then, they leave the cattle for James to mind and mount up, riding off to spend the evening in Tombstone for shaves and glasses of beer. As the younger brother watches them leave, he calls out their names.
When the three brothers arrive at the uncivilized Tombstone under a darkened, turbulent sky, they discover it is the "wide-open town" that Old Man Clanton had promised - a rough, raw, lawless and chaotic, sinful hellhole, filled with bustling, raucous saloons. The brothers first enter the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor, "the barber shop", and Wyatt settles into the newly-purchased barber's chair in front of the white-coated attendant for a "shave." When asked what they are doing, Wyatt answers saying they were just cattlemen passing through.
His shave is interrupted by gunshots that narrowly miss him and shatter the mirror in the shop. When the barber flees, Wyatt, a law-and-order man, expresses his exasperation with the situation, "What kind of a town is this? Barber?" while walking outside with his face still lathered up and carrying his barber's sheet. Dance-hall girls run screaming from the Oriental Saloon across the street where a reckless, drunken Indian Charlie, a symbol of the wildness of Tombstone, shoots his gun into the air.
Luke, the town's Marshal, resigns and cowardly turns in his badge to the town's Mayor rather than face the source of the gunshots. Wyatt steps into the crowd and again asks what the deal was with the town not having any proper order.
When the marshal turns and leaves, Wyatt is exasperated that no one will confront the drunk and take charge. Disgusted and still lathered up, he hands his barber sheet to the Mayor, picks up a heavy rock, enters the saloon through the second story window, successfully pursues and subdues the Indian, and then drags the unconscious man by his heels out into the street, where the townspeople have been witnessing the quick dispatch of the man. He couldn't believe the town sold liquor to Indians and runs the Indian out of town.
The mayor offers Wyatt the marshal's position for $200 a month (and then adds $50 more), but he declines insisting he just wanted to get a shave. Wyatt calls out for the barber in the crowd to continue his shave. When he identifies himself as Wyatt Earp, the mayor knows of his reputation from Dodge City.
When the Earp brothers return to their campsite in the rain, they find their younger brother James killed, lying face down on the wet ground, and their cattle herd stolen. Wyatt returns to town, wakes up the mayor, and offers to take the Marshal's job immediately to tame the community of Tombstone, bring decency to the wild land, and seek revenge - legally - for the killing. Then, Wyatt asks about the town's sources of power: Doc Holliday ran the gambling and the Clanton family (Old Man Clanton and his four sons) ran the cattle.
As he leaves the hotel where the mayor lives, Wyatt comes face-to-face a second time with Old Man Clanton and his clan who are coming in from the rain. He tells them of the cattle rustling and implies in a subtle exchange that his duty as newly-appointed Marshal is to find his brother's murderers. They scoff at the idea of a Marshal in Tombstone until they learn his name, setting themselves up for the inevitable conflict, and shocking them all.
Alone, Wyatt buries his brother out by their campsite, not in Tombstone's cemetery. He marks the gravesite with a tombstone and solemnly speaks to his dead brother, promising him that he will consecrate himself to restoring order for future generations. He also appeals to their unseen father.
As newly-appointed law enforcer, Wyatt is interested in gathering evidence to prove that the Clantons murdered his brother and stole their cattle. In the town's saloon while Earp plays poker, a hot-blooded Mexican dance-hall girl named Chihuahua tries to distract him, putting her leg up on the table, and then shortly later, singing to him.
Wyatt relates his love of poker to one of his poker playing partners, a professional gambler. Sensing that Chihuahua has been secretly helping his opponent win against him, he drags her outside and threatens her, mistaking her for an Apache Indian.
When he returns to his game, saloon chief "Doc" Holliday makes a dramatic entrance by striding into the saloon. The poker players all stop to notice his presence. The hands of the professional gambler pause on his winnings, and then he quickly tries to collect the money before Doc marches over to the poker table. Holliday asserts his authority over the gambler by knocking his hat off and ordering the professional gambler out of town.
An oppressive silence falls over the saloon as Holliday walks back to the end of the cleared-out bar and stands alone. The poker game is quickly curtailed while Wyatt complains how hard it was to get a game of poker in. Wyatt scoops his poker chips into his hat (which he puts on), and then walks down the saloon bar toward Doc.
Unaffected by Holliday's presence, Wyatt joins him at the end of the bar. As they look each other over and size each other up, they both know each others' reputations. Holliday challenges the new Marshal's authority in the town known for death and the "biggest graveyard west of the Rockies".
As his "guest," Holliday firmly insists that Earp have a glass of champagne rather than a standard whiskey shot. By accepting the champagne drink, Wyatt somehow acknowledges and accepts Holliday's power, and things become more relaxed in the saloon.
Holliday realizes that Earp will stay in town awhile after the murder of his brother to restore morality and law and order as Marshal in Tombstone - ultimately usurping his level of power. Earp reminds Holliday that he is the Marshal and has the sole authority to run the rogues out of town. Tension rises between the two - the balance of power unevenly tips back and forth between them until they reach a respectful, friendly standoff. After their showdown at the bar, Doc assents to being outnumbered by the Earps.
Holliday changes his mind about calling Wyatt out, after seeing Morgan and Virgil silently backing up their unarmed brother Wyatt in the background. The Earp brothers order whiskey shots and join Holliday. The saloon's atmosphere relaxes one more time, as Wyatt and Doc reach an accord of mutual respect. Doc gives a toast but painfully coughs.
Shakespearean actor Granville Thorndyke -- who is scheduled to perform in the evening's show in the local theater (The Birdcage) -- arrives in the bar for a one-night show. After an initial testing period, Holliday and Earp show a mutual regard for each other and make plans to attend the performance together. There, Earp realizes Chihuahua is Holliday's Mexican mistress, and much to her chagrin, she realizes that they have become friends - she dislikes Wyatt on sight. Earp explains to Doc how they first met.
The performance is delayed due to the disappearance of Thorndyke. When his absence is announced, a mad riot breaks out, and the Marshal learns this is the fourth time this has occurred in the town in the same year. The patrons wish to ride the tardy actor out of town on a rail, but before they do, the Marshal promises to find Thorndyke and in fifteen minutes bring him back to the stage.
He and Holliday find that the pathetic, half-drunk actor has been kidnapped by the Clantons, taken to another small saloon, and humiliated by being forced to recite the famous soliloquy from Hamlet atop a saloon table. Doc tells Wyatt he is interesting in listening. Holliday is drawn closer and closer to the actor, and he and Wyatt watch from inside the saloon as the uncultured clan bullies and torments the cultured performer. As a pianist accompanies the performance, Thorndyke melodically delivers his lines. Ike Clanton interrupts his poetic lines, silencing and mocking the actor.
As Wyatt looks on, Holliday orders a halt to the humiliation. Clearly identifying with the fears expressed in the speech, Doc asks for the actor to continue. When the actor is too drunk and frightened to continue or remember the rest of the soliloquy, Holliday finishes up the lines and impresses Earp with his knowledge and educated sophistication.
Holliday breaks into a tubercular coughing fit, cannot finish the lines, and leaves the saloon. Earp escorts Thorndyke from the scene, as the actor tells him Shakespeare was "not meant for taverns nor for tavern louts" One of the Clantons is insulted and grabs for Thorndyke, resulting in Wyatt Earp shooting said clan brother and holds off the others. Old Man Clanton enters and apologizes for the behavior of his drunken sons, to which Earp replies: "Sure, I figured they was just havin' themselves some fun." Wyatt Earp leaves the saloon Thorndyke and after they left, the Old Man sadistically bullwhips his sons, bullying them like bestial animals.
The next morning brings the Tucson stagecoach to town, stopping at the Mansion Hotel for a breakfast layover. Earp reclines on the two legs of his four-legged chair on the porch, balancing his feet on the post of the porch outside the hotel.
Earp commands one of the passengers -- the professional gambler he played poker with -- to be sure to be on the stage when it leaves town. When another one of the passengers, a pretty graceful lady named Clementine Carter, disembarks off the coach into the dusty, deserted street, Wyatt politely but awkwardly rises from his chair and adjusts his hat as she avoids his stare. Three Indians quietly ride by on ponies in the background. Gazing at her for a few moments, looking self-conscious even though his back is to the frame, he then asks if she needs assistance with her duffel bags on top of the stage. He helps her into the hotel, just as his brother Morgan is ordering a man's breakfast.
Suddenly Morgan turns and notices the lady who has come to Tombstone. At the desk, Clementine asks for "Dr. John Holliday." She learns that he won't be returning to town until later. Earp immediately takes an interest in her, escorting her along the upstairs hotel corridor to her rented room - her room is across the hall from Doc's room. Betraying her love for Holliday as his former fiancée and the Eastern girl he left behind, she first enters Holliday's room lined with his doctor's diplomas and bookcases and lovingly touches his things while describing his personality.
That day, the Shakespearean actor Thorndyke gathers a following as he leaves town following his one-night performance, signing autographs, and bidding goodbye to one of the aging town drunks with the words.
That evening, Clementine enters the noisy saloon to look for Holliday, noticing the simple guitar strumming of Chihuahua, and then finding him eating dinner in the back of the saloon with Wyatt. Holliday is startled to see her, while Chihuahua jealously resents her appearance. A former love from Boston where he practiced surgical medicine, Clementine has sought him all over the West. She finally traced him to Tombstone and wants to find out why he left - and possibly bring him home. Holliday spurns her, claiming that both he and the life he leads are not for her. She assumes that he left because of his health. Holliday's body is wracked with tubucular coughing and he is dying from consumption and alcoholism. However, he claims there are other deeper torments from his past that keep him in a diseased state. He threatens to move further West if she will not leave.
With his life slowly fading away, Holliday returns alone to his rented room and stands and gazes at his diplomas, then he reaches for a whiskey bottle sitting below them and pours himself a drink and he smashes his whiskey shot glass into the frame, shattering the glass and the reminder of what he was.
Then, Doc returns to the bar and chastises Earp for not telling him about Clementine's arrival. He recklessly drinks more whiskey, as Mac the bartender cautions him not to drink as it would kill him. Wearing a broad sombrero, Chihuahua attempts to cheer him up with a song, but he is despondent.
After a kiss, he snarls at her and tells her to go away. Dejected, Chihuahua loosens her sombrero, walks away, and tosses a glass at him. Earp joins Doc at the bar and forcefully refuses a drink offer. Then, he intervenes to help his friend Clementine.
But Holliday bitterly resists any assistance, thinking Earp has said enough about his affairs and his drinking. (Doc also notices the inordinate amount of interest displayed by Wyatt toward Miss Carter.) Half-drunk and reaching for his gun, Holliday thinks it's "time he tempted fate", but Earp believes he's only playing a "sucker game". When Holliday shoots wildly into the saloon, Earp punches him unconscious and drags him out of the saloon to his room.
The next morning, as the town comes together for a social gathering to celebrate and dedicate the construction of Tombstone's first church, the Marshal has just finished being freshly barbered and perfumed by the barber. The Marshal vainly stares at himself in a large mirror in the shop, and as he steps out to his favorite perch on the porch, is sprayed with a sweet scent. On the porch, he admires the reflection of himself in the shop window. Earp's brother Virgil comments on the smell - the scent of honeysuckle blossoms.
Chihuahua storms up onto the porch and is angered at Earp for getting in Holliday's business left night. Relaxed but watchful while ignoring her threats, he yawns while balancing and shifting from one foot to the other on the railing post, while tilted back on the two legs of his chair. Chihuahua goes to Clementine's room in the hotel, throws open the door, and tells her to get out of town.
With Holliday in his room across the hallway, Chihuahua is happy that her feminine rival Clementine is packing to leave town. Chihuahua shows her love for Doc by bringing him whiskey. Out of character, Doc promises to take Chihuahua with him into Mexico for a week or ten days and proposes marriage to her.
Earp is surprised to find a rejected Clementine packed and waiting in the hotel for the stage to take her back East. Church bells at the unfinished church toll as the two walk out onto the porch. Services are being held to commemorate the laying of the foundation of the town's new church. Wyatt uses the opportunity to shyly pursue the attractive lady.
Majestically arm in arm, he slowly escorts her down the covered porch and past the barber who salutes them as they pass. They round the corner as he squires her out to the edge of the town's main street. Emotion builds as they approach closer to the ritualistic celebration.
Deacon John Simpson, one of the devout churchmen with a fiddle tucked under his arm, announces that the people will not have to listen to the words of a preacher. An open-air dance will be held at the skeletal church building instead.
Tombstone celebrates its first half-erected, embryonic church by holding a delightful open-air dance. Clapping in rhythm to the fiddle music, the dancers take to the floor. After watching for a while, Earp tentatively and stiffly removes his hat, and then asks Clementine if she would dance. She accepts and as they make their way up to the raised dance floor, everyone is told to part deferentially around them and make way. Wyatt's two brothers ride up in a buckboard on their way out to visit James' grave, amazed to see their brother dancing with Clementine.
After the celebration at the church, everyone returns for Sunday dinner in the hotel. Holliday, increasingly hostile to Wyatt for taking an interest in his former girl, discovers Clementine at Wyatt's dinner table and denounces her for not leaving town as he requested. Wyatt defends her presence.
On the porch near the street, Chihuahua sees Holliday riding out of town as shotgun on the stagecoach, leaving her behind and throwing her a canvas pouch of money. She is heartbroken that he is irresponsibly running out on her, without understanding that it is his inner tormented nature that is the cause for his sudden departure. In a jealous rage, she blames Clementine for ruining her own romantic future with Doc. She runs to Clem's room, telling her Doc was gone and had left town. When Earp arrives as she hysterically rants and raves at Clementine, he notices his younger brother James' silver cross/medal around Chihuahua's neck. She claims that Doc gave it to her.
Although Wyatt suspects the Clantons of killing James and rustling their cattle, he immediately suspects that Doc had something to do with James' death. He learns from Mac the bartender that Holliday got his saddlebags and a sack of gold out of the safe and left in a hurry. He left on the bullion stage for Tucson. On horseback, Wyatt races and pursues after Holliday's speedy stagecoach to bring him back to Tombstone. Doc refuses to be brought back to town. The two face each other, drawing their guns and shooting. Wyatt shoots the gun out of Doc's hand and prevents Doc from running away from Tombstone (and himself).
In Chihuahua's room, she pulls her blouse up. The Marshal and Doc rap loudly on Chihuahua's door while she delays them and urges Billy Clanton to leave through the window door. When the two are finally allowed to enter, Doc asks why she lied to Wyatt about the locket. Realizing that she has implicated Doc in a murder, Chihuahua is reluctant to be a "squealer" and admit that one of the Clanton boys gave her the medal. She explains how her hurt and jilted feelings led her to make the false accusation against Doc.
Outside the window, Billy has overheard their conversation - he fires shots just at the moment of her confession and badly wounds her. Billy runs along the rooftop and escapes out of town toward the Clanton ranch on horseback. After taking some shots at Billy himself (and fatally wounding him), Wyatt sends Virgil to ride after him.
Wyatt believes in Holliday's ability to revive his Eastern surgeon's skills, calls for nurse Clementine, and asks for poker tables in the saloon to be set up as an improvised operating table. Before being operated on without a sedative, Chihuahua asks if the pain was very bad.
Meanwhile, Virgil continues to pursue the mortally wounded Billy to the Clanton ranch. There, he finds Old Man Clanton commiserating in a stony pose over the dead body of his son laid out on a bed. When Virgil leaves the dark-shadowed room, Old Man Clanton blasts him in the back with his shotgun, killing him in revenge. He orders his three sons to prepare to leave for town for a showdown.
Chihuahua lies on the operating table and speaks a few final words to Doc, believing that he loves her. The jovial town madam, offers to care for her as she recuperates. Wyatt proposes to victoriously toast the elated Doc after performing the seemingly-successful operation. At the saloon door as Holliday proudly leaves carrying his doctor's bag after regaining some of his confidence and life-affirming values, Clementine tries to congratulate him.
In the foreground at the bar, Wyatt asks Mac if he had ever been in love, and the latter states he's been a bartender his entire life. As Wyatt leaves the saloon, the Clantons ride through town with their guns blazing. Old Man Clanton dumps Virgil's body into the street, shouting at Earp they'd be waiting her him at the OK Corral.
The mayor and deacon offer to help fight the Clantons who have barricaded themselves at the O.K. Corral, but Earp declines them as volunteers. He wishes to settle his personal score with the Clantons alone. The Earp's strong family ties justify the killing of the Clantons. At the Corral, Ike asks his father if Earp is "too yella" to fight, but Clanton assures him he'd come.
Disheartened by the death of Chihuahua and bitter at the loss of his renewed hope, Holliday decides to face what is left of his life. In the Marshal's office, Doc joins the Earp brothers who wait for dawn to accept the Clanton's challenge. Doc contemptuously mocks his own title: "Doctor John Holliday." He grabs a rifle in Earp's office, cocks it and is allowed to join them asking when they'd start. Earp responds: "Sunup." After a quiet, but tense night, the sun rises, the Mayor hands warrants for the Clantons' arrest to Earp, and final preparations are made.
The confrontation pits the efficient and calculated Earps against the ragged Clantons. The five men leave the office and slowly start marching down the main street of town toward the O.K. Corral. - Wyatt, Morgan, Doc, the Mayor, and the Deacon. As they approach closer, the Mayor and Deacon fall back, Doc and Morg circle to the side through a back alley and behind fences, and Wyatt is left alone in the street. Then he too circles to the other side in a semi-military maneuver. 
Before any shooting commences, Earp explains how he has warrants charging Old Man Clanton and his sons for the murder of James and Virgil Earp - including a charge of cattle rustling. Old Man Clinton attempts to murdering James and Virgil as Ike threatens to kill Earp.
The town stagecoach riding between Earp and Ike billows up clouds of dust as the oldest Clanton son kicks open the corral gate and walks toward Earp. Using the dust as camouflage, Earp moves closer and fires a shot at Ike, killing him. Morgan kills a second Clanton. Next to him, Doc suffers a coughing fit and is shot by one of the Clantons. Using horses in the corral as cover, Earp gets closer and kills another Clanton in front of a horse trough. Just before he collapses, Doc kills the fourth Clanton son. Old Man Clanton surrenders to Earp and is banished from town.
Old Man Clanton is allowed to ride out of the O.K. Corral - his punishment is to live and feel what Earp's father will soon feel. Suicidally avenging the deaths of his sons, he turns with gun in hand to shoot Wyatt. To defend his brother, Morgan (from the hip) shoots Clanton from his saddle. Morgan informs Wyatt that Doc has been killed in the gun battle.
At the film's conclusion, the opposing forces have been obliterated by a showdown between the law and anarchy. Marshal Earp's job is completed and he leaves town on horseback (with his brother Morgan in a small buckboard) headed for California. They are taking their brothers' bodies home to their father. Wyatt stops at the crest of the hill at the outskirts of Tombstone - in front of him, the road stretches endlessly into the distance, as Clementine, the new schoolmarm waits for him within the town's fence. They speak together for the last time. Wyatt tells her that he and the other surviving Earp son have chosen to leave to tell their father what happened rather than stay around to finish civilizing Tombstone.
Category:Fictionalized
Category:Siblings
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Anti-Heroes
Category:Western Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Male
Category:Vengeful
Category:Strategists
Category:Lawful Good
Category:Protectors
Category:Honorable