FILM REVIEW OF ''JOE KIDD'' (1971)

 Clint Eastwood, scenarist Elmore Leonard, and director John Sturges teamed up to make this traditional, action-packed horse opera about racial injustice in the old West. “Joe Kidd” (***1/2 out of ****) ranks as Eastwood’s least appreciated western. Nevertheless, it qualifies as a solid, well-made, shoot’em up with spectacular scenery enhanced by Bruce Surtees’ pictorially elegant widescreen cinematography, and a well-rounded, first-class supporting cast including Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Paul Koslo, and Gregory Walcott. “Mission Impossible” composer Lalo Schifrin’s orchestral score delivers atmosphere and ramps up the suspense without calling attention to itself. Schifrin is the flipside of the coin to Sturges’ usual composer Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein always brought a thunderous, larger-than-life, Aaron Copland quality to Sturge's westerns, chiefly “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Hallelujah Trail.” Indeed, “Bad Day at Black Rock” helmer John Sturges crafted a modest, little dust-raiser that gave Clint Eastwood his least pretentious but most masculine role while Duvall makes a worthy adversary with Saxon as the victimized Hispanic caught in the crossfire. Elmore Leonard of “Hombre” and “3:10 to Yuma” delivers his usual brand of quirky dialogue that has an improvisational spontaneity. “Joe Kidd” isn’t the kind of oater that makes a big impression. It lacks the off-beat imagination of “High Plains Drifter,” the stolidity of “Hang’em High,” the abrasive violence of Leone’s Spaghetti western trilogy, the epic grandeur of Eastwood’s own “Outlaw Josey Wales,” or the funereal Bergman-esque histrionics of Eastwood’s “Pale Rider” and “Unforgiven.” Watching “Joe Kidd” is like eating ham on rye and washing it down with a light beer. You’ll enjoy it, but you’ll probably forget it until somebody prompts you to comment about it and because it is so fluid, you’ll dismiss as adequate but less than memorable. If you do remember “Joe Kidd,” you’ll remember it as the western where Clint Eastwood wields an automatic German Mauser pistol and crashes a locomotive through a saloon.

 “Joe Kidd” unfolds with a long shot of a Mexican woman, Helen (Stella Garcia) driving a buckboard across a rock-strewn landscape. Schifrin’s music is low-key and ominous. As the introductory credits appear, several Mexican horsemen drift into Sinola from various directions, dismount, and casually loiter here and there. Unarmed, they seem initially unremarkable. As several more Mexican riders appear and the music mounts insistently, all these Mexicans converge on Helen’s wagon in a back lot. They uncover a pile of guns and arm themselves. In an interview that I conducted with John Sturges in 1978, he explained the rationale behind the various shots used to show the Mexicans riding into town. "Of course, they would arrive in groups from different directions so as not to cause unusual notice. Yet they must arrive as a group at the same time, and take up certain strategic positions bound to have a similarity. Of course, they would do this in the most casual manner they could manage meanwhile covertly looking around for possible trouble or holding onto the security of their holstered guns. Any citizen who saw all this in the detail it is shown by the camera would rush off for the sheriff, but none does or can. The audience does and maybe the word geometric relates to the way that town is laid out and foresees the movement." Meanwhile, Sheriff Bob Mitchell (Gregory Walcott of “Midway”) leaves the courthouse as the judge explains to the predominantly Hispanic audience why their land claims cannot be recognized as legitimate. At the jail, the deputies bring coffee and a pot of stew to the prisoners for breakfast. Ramon (Ron Soble of “True Grit”) and Naco (Pepe Callahan of “Mackenna’s Gold”) share the cell with Joe (Clint Eastwood) who wears city duds and a derby. Mitchell arrested Joe for drunk and disorderly and handcuffed him to the bed. Naco slides Joe’s coffee out of reach. Later, Joe slings the pot of slew in Naco’s villainous face and then clobbers him with a pot.

Luis Chama (John Saxon of “Enter the Dragon”) invades the courthouse with his men, seizes land property deeds from the records, and sets them ablaze because his forefathers were treated similarly. Chama wants to take the judge as hostage, but Joe thwarts Chama’s efforts. Another amusing scene takes place when Joe waits in a bar for Naco. Naco enters and Joe raises a double-barreled shotgun with one hand. Naco turns to leave, but then bursts back into the saloon as Joe triggers the shotgun. This is a signature scene that Leonard used in his novel “Valdez Is Coming.” Chama hightails it out of Sinola and Joe winds up serving 10 days because he refused to pay the $10 fine for poaching a mule deer on Indian reservation lands. He also resisted arrest because The day after the ruckus, Harlan (Robert Duvall of “The Godfather”) and his entourage, including Elma (Lynne Marta), Roy Gannon (Paul Koslo of “Mr. Majestyk”) Lamarr Simms (Don Stroud of “Coogan’s Bluff”), and Olin Mingo (James Wainwright) step off the train and settle into the hotel run by Dick Van Patten.

Not long after Kidd hires on to guide Harlan and company into rough country in pursuit of Chama, he discovers that Harlan has no qualms about killing Chama. Initially, Kidd turned Harlan down and decided to serve out his ten days. Joe owns a small horse ranch, and he found his Mexican ranch hand barb-wired to a fence. Ramon did this to Joe’s hired hand, so Joe changes his mind and tells Harlan that he will guide him for a $1000 rather than $500 dollars. Joe and Lamarr get off to a bad start. Lamarr confronts Joe on the hotel staircase and asks him where he is going. Joe simply grabs Lamarr’s belt and sends him tumbling down the stairs. Later, Lamarr confronts Joe again and threatens to kill him with his multi-shot Mauser pistol. Harlen and company with Kidd set out to find Chama.

At one point, Harlan takes an entire village hostage and threatens to five people if Chama doesn’t give himself up. Harlan fires Kidd and packs him into the church with the rest of the hostages. Joe has a brief scrap with Lamarr and leaves the upstart henchmen reeling after he slams a rifle butt into Lamarr’s throat and knocks him down. In the church, Joe sprawls out in the priest’s quarters. At this point, “Joe Kidd” takes on symbolic significance. The Eastwood character is about to become a genuine hero. First, the village priest offers him holy water, and this act serves as a kind of consecration for him. Kidd asks the priest to get him a gun, but he doesn't really think that the cleric with come through on his request. Later, the priest smuggles a revolver to Kidd because he cannot stand the thought of Harlan killing five of his worshippers. Kidd escapes from the church by ascending through the bell tower and manages to dispatch villainous Lamarr. Symbolically, Joe makes a messianic ascension and then spirits Helen away with him, and they ride off to find Chama. Kidd defies the odds and takes Chama back to Sinola, but Harlan doesn’t give us so easily and “Joe Kidd” concludes with a gunfight. The last scene when Kidd guns down Harlan in the same courtroom epitomizes Kidd’s character. He is seated where the judge sets so he amounts metaphorically to judge, jury, and executioner.

Characterization is integrated into the action so that the entire film becomes a fast-moving, tightly-knit story without one extraneous character or event. Every action that Kidd performs in the opening sequence foreshadows his later behavior. Rescuing the judge from Chama’s men compares with Kidd’s decision to bring in Chama before Harlan’s men kill innocent Mexicans. The remorse that Kidd displayed in the courtroom or tried to conceal with his admission later that he “made a poor judgment with which he must live. This philosophy reveals Kidd’s character. He accepts live in terms of good and poor judgments and lives with them. He is not proud of his mistakes, but he wastes no sentiment on them. Throughout the opening scenes, Sturges strongly characterizes Kidd as a man of unruffled nonchalance. According to Clint Eastwood, at CLINT EASTWOOD.NET, "Joe Kidd" never had an ending, and Eastwood states that he had never before gone into a movie without knowing "the punchline." Eastwood adds that Sturges said they would figure it out as they went along. Eastwood didn't seem too impressed with the train ending." Glenn Lovall in his book "Escape Artist" points out that Sturges got the idea for the train ending from an unproduced World War II movie project. Sturges had ambivalent feelings afterward about the film. He wrote in a letter to me in 1978 that, "There were a lot of holes in Joe Kidd. Some in the script that were never fixed and some resulting from cuts because the scenes just did't play." What sets “Joe Kidd” apart from other Eastwood westerns is the reluctance of the hero to shoot down his adversaries. Altogether, “Joe Kidd” qualifies as an underrated oater.

An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's exhaustive biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE LAW AND JAKE WADE" (1958)

The John Sturges western "The Law and Jake Wade" (*** out of ****) is a solidly made, entertaining 1950's era oater that stands out as one of the earliest 'take-me-to-the-buried-treasure' plots. Indeed, Robert Taylor is rather wooden as Jake Wade, but after all, Taylor is the hero and Wade is a lawman who represents the status quo. Richard Widmark said in an interview that he thought the movie was bad but he enjoyed the character of villainous Clint Hollister. The cast is uniformly excellent,especially De Forest Kelly with his Southern drawl and Henry Silva as the crazed kid Rennie. Aside from one obvious studio bound scene around a night camp fire, this western was filmed in the rugged outdoors at Lone Pine, California, and in Death Valley.

"The Law and Jake Wade" opens traditionally with a lone horseman riding through scenic terrain until he enters a clapboard western town and reins up in front of a marshal's office. Quietly, Jake Wade (Robert Taylor of "Quo Vadis") dismounts and walks into the office and thrusts the muzzle of a shotgun into the lawman's back. Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark of "Kiss of Death") is lounging in the calaboose when he spots Jake with a shotgun in the marshal's back. "Well, who'd have thought," he marvels as his old friend forces the lawman to unlock the cell. Hollister complains about the terrible food that he has been served and slugs the lawman, knocking him out cold. As he is buckling on his gun belt, two deputies walk in unexpectedly, and he cuts loose on them with lead. Jake Wade, who has been trying to get them both out of town with the least amount of commotion, knocks the gun out of Clint's hand. They ride out with the townspeople firing shots at them. As it turns out, Jake and Clint once rode together as partners in crime. Their lawless days came to an end when Jake thought that he had gunned down an innocent child during a daylight robbery. Jake took the loot from the robbery and never looked back. Indeed, he rode away and buried the money and then created a new life for himself. Now, he serves as a lawman himself with a prospective bride-to-be, Peggy (Patricia Owens of "Seven Women from Hell"), awaiting marriage. Jake rides with Clint for a ways then decides to split up. Clint is happy to see Jake but he feels betrayed by Jake's stashing the loot and leaving the gang. Jake explains to Clint that he saved his old outlaw buddy from a date with the noose because Clint had rescued him from being hanged in the old days. Clint wants to shoot it out now with Jake, but Jake refuses to give him a gun.

When Jake returns to town, he spots a suspicious cowboy, Rennie (Henry Silva of "Sergeants Three"), loitering on front street. Later, Jake dresses up in his best suit and rents a buggy to visit Peggy. They quarrel because Jake wants her to move with him away somewhere else. Peggy doesn't want to leave and storms away from a dinner table. Jake rides back to town and an inquisitive Rennie visits him at the jail. Something about Rennie spooks Jake, and he slugs the kid without warning. Before he realizes it, another old friend Ortero (Robert Middleton of "Cattle King") pulls a derringer on him. It seems that Jake's deputy had locked up Ortero for sleeping off a drunk in the gutter, but he forget to frisk him. The rest of Clint's gang arrive, including Wexler (De Forest Kelly of "Star Trek"). Wexler isn't too happy with Jake either for pulling out on them and taking the money. Jake explains that he took the money, buried it, and refused to look back. Clint wants Jake to take them to where he buried the loot. Initially, Jake says no until Clint takes Peggy hostage, and Jake has to lead them to the loot.

"Bad Day at Black Rock" director John Sturges doesn't waste a moment in this character-driven epic. Everybody has that tough leathery look and these are no-nonsense characters. No sooner have they left for the badlands where the loot is buried than they learn that the Indians are on the warpath, adding to their woes. Jake tries to escape at one point, but Clint is just too sly for him. Eventually, when they reach the ramshackle ghost town where Jake buried the money, we learn he stashed it in the local cemetery, anticipating a similar burial of stolen gold in Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

Three-time Oscar winning lenser Robert Surtees of "PT-109" and "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" photographed this western in widescreen and it looks terrific! Some of the long shots will just blow your mind, but then anybody who watches Sturges' westerns will know that the director loved to shoot really long, long shots. Ferris Webster, another Sturges' favorite, edited "The Law and Jake Wade." The screenplay by William Bowers of "Support Your Local Sheriff" provides some flavorful dialogue. Widmark excels as the villain. The last shoot-out seems to prematurely end, still "The Law and Jake Wade" ranks as one of those memorable, widescreen western from the 195os. Okay, "The Law and Jake Wade" isn't the greatest western ever made, but it is competently-down, suspenseful and a wonderful way to burn 86 minutes.

An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's top-notch biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text about Sturges.

FILM REVIEW OF ''LAST TRAIN FROM GUNHILL" (1959)

The John Sturges western "Last Train from Gun Hill" is another one of those chamber westerns from the 1950s where the villains corner the hero in an urban setting and both sides have to count down to their inevitable showdown based on a ticking clock. Aside from some early scenes shot outdoors, most of "Last Train from Gun Hill" occurs within the city limits of the frontier western town of Gun Hill. Furthermore, the story pits two long-time friends, a courageous lawman Kirk Douglas against a powerful cattle baron Anthony Quinn. When the story opens neither man has seen the other in years, but both have sons. Russian composer Dimitri Tiomkin provides "Last Train from Gun Hill" with another one of his brilliant, evocative orchestral scores that enlivens the drama.

The stalwart hero, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral"), serves as marshal in the peaceful town of Pauley. One day Matt's wife, Catherine Morgan (Ziva Rodann of "King Creole"), and their young son, (Ricky William Kelman), are on the way back from the Indian Reservation where they have just visited her father when two drunken cowpokes, Rick Belden (Earl Holliman of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral") and Lee Smithers (Brian G. Hutton, future director of "Where Eagles Dare"), frighten them. Catherine whips Rick so violently that it leaves a scar on his face. Enraged, Rick runs them down, and their carriage overturns. Rick knocks aside her boy and rapes her in the woods. During the rape, Matt's son steals Rick's horse and rides back to town to alert his father. Meanwhile, Matt is in town describing a famous gun battle that took place years ago between the infamous Bradley boys and him. At a properly dramatic moment, his son coming thundering into town on the stolen horse crying his eyes out. Matt rides back to where the carriage overturned and finds the partially nude body of his raped wife who lies dead in the woods. When Matt walks back to the horse with his wife in his arms, he notices the elaborate leather saddle and raises one of the flaps. Tiomkin's score singles out this moment with a melodramatic tone when Matt discovers the initials C.B. in the saddle. He recognizes those initials and heads back to town to prepare for his journey to Gun Hill to see his own friend about the stolen horse.

At the Belden ranch, Rick and Lee return and complain to Craig Belden about the loss of Rick's horse. Craig (Anthony Quinn of "The Ride Back") could care less about the loss of the horse, but he demands that Rick find his saddle. Moreover, Craig refuses to settle for any substitute for that saddle. He makes a big deal out of it and this is the point where we see that father and son are not on the same wavelength. Later, we discover that they like to batter women. At one point, Craig's foreman Beero (Brad Dexter of "The Magnificent Seven") makes a joke about the scar on Rick's father. Craig interprets the comment as a slur on the Belden name and forces Rick to fight with Beero. Predictably, Beero knocks out Rick in no time. Craig roars about Rick not having enough pride. Win or lose, whenever anybody disgraces the name of Belden, Craig expects his son to fight back. Afterward, they share a chuckle about the 'she-bears' in Pauley, the peaceful town, where Rick lost the horse and saddle.

Matt takes the train to Gun Hill and rents a buggy to see Craig Belden. He returns the saddle to Craig, and they reminisce about old times. Craig tells Matt that his son lost the horse in Pauley, but by now Craig knows that his son raped and killed Matt's wife. Furthermore, Craig knows that nothing in the world will prevent Matt from taking Rick back in irons to stand trial. Matt returns to Gun Hill where he receives a chilly reception and Craig sends Beero and another cowpoke, Skag (Bing Russell of "The Magnificent Seven") to town to watch over Rick. Matt snoops around, then enters the saloon from the rear by a tree and catches Rick hiding behind some curtains, slugs him and takes his prisoner. The Gun Hill sheriff, Bartlett (Walter Sande of "Bad Day at Black Rock") refuses to let Matt use his jail cell until the train arrives, so Matt holes up with Rick in the local hotel. Meantime, Craig rounds up all his gunhands and they lay siege to the hotel. Craig's old girlfriend (Carolyn Jones of "The Addams Family") has just returned to Gun Hill from a long stay in the hospital. Craig uses her as a go-between, but she goes behind his back and smuggles Matt a shotgun. Neither man plans to back down in this duel of the titans.

When "Last Train to Gun Hill" appeared theatrically in 1959, interracial romances in westerns were nothing new, but this western contained a rape scene that occurred partly on camera, though by the time that Rick had ripped off Catherine's clothing, the camera has retreated to a long shot. "Last Train from Gun Hill" represented a new spate of westerns that dealt with frank subject matter because the western had encountered flak from its television counterparts and film producers were looking from material of a more adult nature. Charles Lang's cinematography is exemplary and Tiomkin's theme music knows where to highlight segments of the plot for maximum impact. John Sturges paces the momentum so that things never get boring. The speech about hanging is superb from a top-notch screenplay by James Poe. Hal Wallis produced this above-average oater for Paramount Pictures.

An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's top-notch biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text about Sturges.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE WALKING HILLS'' (1949)

"Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" director John Sturges made his first foray into the western movie genre with this modern day western hybrid about a back room poker game that evolves into a feverish search for lost treasure in the desert. Lean, mean Randolph Scott heads up a sturdy, first-class cast in this atmospheric outdoors yarn that features John Ireland, William Bishop, Edgar Buchanan, Ella Raines, Arthur Kennedy, Russell Collins, and Jerome Courtland. Comparisons between "The Walking Hills" (*** out of ****) and John Huston's timeless classic "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" are inevitable, but the two movies differ drastically. Drawing comparisons between "The Walking Hills" and S. Sylvan Simon's "Lust for Gold" (1949) with Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino is more appropriate. Both films went into release in 1949, but "The Walking Hills" came out in March while "Lust for Gold" premiered in June. Interestingly, Edgar Buchanan appeared in both releases. Western novelist Alan Le May, who wrote both "The Searchers" and "The Unforgiven," penned the screenplay with one-time only scenarist Virginia Roddick providing additional dialogue.

"The Walking Hills" opens with a foreword: "A border town—like so many in the Southwest it's split in two by the international line and has two names. Calexico in America and Mexicali on the Mexican side." In the first ten minutes of this concise little epic, Sturges and Le May introduce us to the chief characters and the premise. Dave Wilson (William Bishop of "Coroner Creek") appears on the streets of Mexicali dressed handsomely in a coat, trousers, and a Stetson. He is minding his own business as he steps beneath the awning of a façade of businesses facing the street. He lingers in front of a hamburger joint where he spots Chris Jackson (Ella Raines of "Cry 'Havoc'") flipping burgers. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Dave and Chris, two men watch them from across the street. The first one is a detective, Frazee (John Ireland of "Red River"), and the second one is King (Houseley Stevenson of "Four Faces West"). Later, we learn that Dave is on the run as the result of a card game in a hotel room where a man died in a fight with Dave. Dave thought the man was drawing a pistol from his jacket. He struck the man. The man toppled out of his chair and fell on a beer bottle and the bottle punctured his heart. Gee, they must have had some pretty stout beer bottles back in 1949. Anyway, Dave has been on the lam and Frazee and King has been shadowing him since he left Denver. King fears that Dave will slip across the border before Frazee can buttonhole him, but Frazee isn't so sure that Dave is their prey. King argues that the look on Chris' face when she saw him convinced him that Dave was the guilty party.

Anyway, Dave wanders over to the Tequila Bar & Grill and spots a horse in a trailer and learns from the driver of the truck, Cleve (Charles Stevens of "Last Train from Gun Hill"), that the animal belongs to Jim Carey. Cleve explains that Jim is ". . . waiting for his mare to be cleared through quarantine." The barkeep tells Dave about a penny ante poker game in the back room. Dave enters the game as Willy (Edgar Buchanan of "Texas"), an unshaven prospector, observes that Jim Carey (Randolph Scott of "Comanche Station") dreams of breeding a winning race horse. Willy resumes telling a story about lost treasure when Dave sits down. "Like I was saying there was five wagon in that train and they headed right into them walking hills." We learn that the walking hills are sand dunes that provided a short cut through the desert. According to Willy, this happened about a 100 years ago and the wagon train disappeared forever and nobody with it was ever seen or heard from again. Willy elaborates that the wagon train made up a gold shipment coming out of Mexico loaded with upwards of $5-million dollars. Jim remarks that everybody knows about the lost wagon train.

A young, footloose cowboy, Johnny (Jerome Courtland of "Cripple Creek"), agrees with Willy that the walking hills pose a menace to anybody that dares to travel through them. Recently, he rode through them and his horse stumbled on a wagon wheel and threw him. Johnny observes that the wheel was a skinny, narrow wheel, not like the big-wheeled borax wagons or the wide-tired kind that are ideal for desert wayfaring. Silence hangs over the room and everybody exchanges glances. Frazee has joined them, and he asks Johnny if he could find his way back to where he fell. Initially, Johnny is puzzled, "Hey, what's the matter with you guys? Did I pull something?" Jim refuses to let anybody leave the room and Frazee makes the attendant Bibb (Russell Collins of "Bad Day at Black Rock") lock the door to the room. They decide to embark as a group to scour the desert where Johnny fell off his horse. They are paranoid that somebody will leak their discovery so they leave later that evening so as not to attract attention and ride into the desert. Temporarily, Frazee loses interest in his quarry, Dave, because a million dollars appeals more to his sense of greed.

The rest of "The Walking Hills" takes place in the desert amid the shifting sand dunes as the group of men struggle to locate the gold while weathering a vicious sandstorm and their own greed. Le May characterizes each individual so that they stand apart from each other. Scott plays his usual, tight-lipped hero. In the end, three of them die and Dave and Chris ride off. Although they don't find the $5 million in gold, our heroes locate a saddle bag with $10-thousand to split amongst themselves. There are a couple of surprises and Sturges maintains a modicum of tension throughout this suspenseful, 78-minute, black & white saga.

FILM REVIEW OF ''HOUR OF THE GUN'' (1967)

"Bad Day at Black Rock" director John Sturges revisits the Wyatt Earp/Ike Clanton feud in "Hour of the Gun" with James Garner and Jason Robards that he began in 1957 with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the Hal B. Wallis production of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral." Although Sturges' "Hour of the Gun" (**** out of ****) boasts greater visual and historic realism than "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," this sequel of sorts veers off course toward the end and two-time Oscar-winning scenarist Edward Anhalt of "Becket" contrives scenes that are not historically accurate principally for the sake of dramatic license to provide audiences with closure. Unlike the Paramount release that featured Rhonda Fleming as Wyatt Earp's love interest, Sturges dispenses with women altogether in this United Artists release and confines himself to the feud. The practically all male cast features lean, rugged Robert Ryan as Earp's chief real-life nemesis Ike Clanton and in his second motion picture lanky Jon Voight of "Midnight Cowboy" fame. Indeed, as much as possible Anhalt and Sturges have tried to stick with history. For example, the dialogue in the courtroom sequences came verbatim from the actual transcripts. Moreover, unlike previous Wyatt Earps, James Garner is allowed to play the legendary lawman without a halo. This Earp wants to kill out of brotherly vengeance than take the villains in to stand trial. After all, the tagline for the film reads: Wyatt Earp - hero with a badge or cold-blooded killer? Known for the affable screen characters that he played over the years, Garner makes a great change of pace as a vengeful Earp in a taut, grim-faced performance unlike anything that he had done before and not again until he starred in Vic Morrow's spaghetti western "A Man Called Sledge." The action opens on the main street of Tombstone as our black-clad in business suited heroes: Wyatt Earp (a mustached James Garner), Doc Holiday (two-time Oscar-winner Jason Robards of "Once Upon a Time in the West"), Morgan Earp (Sam Melville of "Big Wednesday"), and Virgil Earp (Frank Converse of the TV show "Movin' On") march down to the O.K. Corral after Ike Clanton's gunmen have assembled for the fateful showdown. The shoot-out is over in a mere matter of minutes. During the shooting, Ike Clanton ducks into a photography shop and sits out the gun battle. Morgan takes a slug in the shoulder while Virgil receives bullet in the leg. After the gunfight, County Sheriff Jimmy Ryan (Bill Fletcher of "5-Card Stud") and his deputy Frank Stilwell (Robert Phillips of "The Dirty Dozen") confront the Earps and Holiday. Ryan tries to arrest them. "Not today, tomorrow, or ever," growls Wyatt. "You don't have jurisdiction in the city of Tombstone. If you did, you couldn't make it stick if you did." Clanton parades the bodies of his dead through Tombstone and charges that the Earps murdered them. In court, however, Judge Herman Spicer (William Schallert of "Will Penny") concludes otherwise based on factual evidence, and the Earps and Holiday are exonerated. Clanton's gunmen, principally Curly Bill Brocius (Jon Voight), Andy Warshaw (Steve Inhat of "Madigan"), and Stilwell ambush Virgil Earp at night while he is checking doors. Virgil is crippled for life and cannot run for city marshal so Morgan replaces him. Morgan wins the election, but before he can serve, the same three Clanton gunmen blast him in the back with a shotgun while he is playing billiards. Wyatt accuses Clanton's men of homicide but he cannot furnish a witness and the killers go free. Meantime, the honest citizens of Tombstone get Wyatt an appointment as Deputy U.S. Marshal and warrants to serve on those Clanton men alleged to have participated in the shootings of Wyatt's brothers. Wyatt hires Tucson lawman Sherman McMasters (Monte Markham of "Guns of the Magnificent Seven") to help him out while Doc decides to observe the letter of the law and join Earp's posse. Doc recruits a couple of gunmen, Turkey Creek Johnson (Lonny Chapman of "Baby Doll") and Texas Jack Vermillion (William Windom of "Cattle King") and they pursue Clanton's killers.

The joy of watching any John Sturges western lies in the choreography. Sturges is one of the few directors who can make the simple act of men crossing a dusty frontier street look like very cool. Mind you, he knows how to block a scene so that everybody is shown moving around for a purpose. Sturges' movies are full of these cinematic maneuvers. Sturges stages all of the shoot-outs with his customary aplomb. "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" differs drastically from "Hour of the Gun." "Gunfight" qualified as a more bombastic western than the subdued "Hour of the Gun." Sturges has eliminated any love interest for Earp in "Hour of the Gun" so this biographical western is all about business. The photography, the settings, and the atmospheric help make this western outstanding. Sturges generates suspense with Wyatt Earp's moral decline; his willingness to let his personal feelings overwhelm his judgment. Jerry Goldsmith's evocative music seems inseparable from the gritty action. Jason Robards is both brilliant but ironic as the morally unscrupulous gambler who provides commentary on his friend's moral lapses.

An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's top-notch biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text about Sturges.