My Darling Clementine [G]

When a family of notorious cattle rustlers murders Wyatt Earp’s brother James, he becomes the new Marshall of the town of Tombstone in an effort to find the killers and avenge his brother’s death. But keeping the little town a safe place proves harder than expected as Wyatt finds himself dealing with the cantankerous Doc Holliday, the feisty damsel Chihuaha, and to top everything off, he falls in love with Clementine, a former flame of Doc Holliday. 

Maybe you need to know the story or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for a film tonight. Whatever the reason, I honestly did not see the point to this film. Everything about it seemed wooden and subdued and there was no real passion or vibrancy about it at all. 

When a family of notorious cattle rustlers murders Wyatt Earp’s brother James, he becomes the new Marshall for the town of Tombstone in an effort to find the killers and avenge his brother’s death. But keeping the little town a safe place proves much more difficult than expected as Wyatt finds himself pitting against the cantankerous Doc Holliday, the feisty damsel Chihuaha, and, to top everything off, he falls in love with Clementine, a former flame of Doc Holliday’s. 

For me, the film just didn’t seem to go anywhere. The story is easy enough to follow, but I honestly cannot see what makes the movie so special. I’ll admit that the characters were memorable, I did particularly like Doc Holliday, Chihuaha, and the Shakespearean actor who could not remember the To Be Or Not To Be monologue from Hamlet, but ultimately the story was bland, the performances were rather wooden, and even the climactic actiony shoot-out towards the end was a bit of a downer. I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just being uncultured and ignorant, but I really did not see the point of this film. 

Starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Cathy Downs, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt, Ward Bond, Alan Mowbray, John Ireland, Roy Roberts, Jane Darwell, Grant Withers, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Russell Simpson, My Darling Clementine was a fine film for what it was, but I didn’t think it was all that. Filled with drama, romance, comedy, and action, it’s one of those films that you have to see at least once.