John Ford takes on the legend of the O.K. Corral shoot-out in this multilayered, exceptionally well-constructed Western, one of the director’s very best films. Henry Fonda cuts an iconic figure as Wyatt Earp, the sturdy lawman who sets about the task of shaping up the disorderly Arizona town of Tombstone, and Victor Mature gives the performance of his career as the boozy, tubercular gambler and gunman Doc Holliday. Though initially at cross-purposes, the pair ultimately team up to confront the violent Clanton gang. Affecting and stunningly photographed by Joseph McDonald (YELLOW SKY, playing Aug 11), MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is a story of the triumph of civilization over the Wild West from American cinema’s consummate mythmaker. (Synopsis provided by the Criterion Collection)

“MY DARLING CLEMENTINE builds up to the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but it is more about everyday things—haircuts, romance, friendship, poker and illness… One of the sweetest and most good-hearted of all Westerns. The giveaway is the title, which is not about Wyatt or Doc or the gunfight, but about Clementine.” —Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com

“...Ford’s filmography…[is] defined by the collisions between people of varying classes, ethnicities, and visions of the nation’s future. Rarely have these weighty queries been explored with such elegance, poignancy, and dexterous economy as in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE.” —Matthew Connolly, Slant