My Darling Clementine

Hondo,

Thanks for sharing that. It was fun reading through the cast, seeing "old, familiar" names like Ward Bond and Jack Pennick (and of course the star Henry Fonda, and others like Walter Brennan and Francis Ford, whose name would mean nothing to me except for all that extra stuff on The Quiet Man DVD, about him being John Ford's brother).

And just does how one get on an e-mail list that notifies one of releases such as this?

Chester

thanks hondo for this information when do i get to kill you only kidding just now this is another movie i will have to wait 3 - 6 months for it to be released in my zone. don't worry still love you guys well sometimes at least :lol:

cheers smokey

oh hondo,

how can you be so bad and make me wait till you have watched it . thanks will wait for your report on the movie.

will have a great day with the little bloke, will think of you if we have a fine hot day so stay near your fire and stay warm

catch up with you soon

cheers smokey

Hondo,

Is it possible to find out how much you had to pay for this masterpiece?

Chester

hondo,

have a jolly good weekend, get the popcorn out and sit back and watch your movie, and you can tell us all about it by monday

happy watching

cheers smokey

Hondo,

Don't you just LOVE DeepDiscountDVD.com?? Best prices in town, and I don't even have to leave my house for it, and as you mentioned, also no sales taxes or shipping charges. What could be better?

Chester

They still have those bat doors from the "Clementine"-Saloon at the museum at Goulding's in Monument Valley - anybody ever been there? The town of Tombstone was built close to Goulding's (where the main road actually divides and leads up to the valley) - the same place where many Ford scenes were filmed, like a portion of the fort in "Yellow Ribbon".

As always, Ford never talked much about his films - but in the case of Clementine, he was really quiet. I guess it's because the film is regarded as a masterpiece - and not as a film that was chopped up by a studio. Why? It was filmland's wonderboy Darryl F. Zanuck who did the changing, and he was no fool. What he did is very well documented in the book "Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck" which has Zanuck's writings and orders, word by word. Ford mentioned the changing of the end to Peter Bogdanovich, and that he was forced into it.
Hondo, the set - the town of Tombstone - was pulled down after the filming (note that Ford put in some fake cactus that doesn't grow in Monument Valley). What you can find today is the exact spot, and the only thing left in Monument Valley is, as I said, the bat doors at the museum.

Hi Hondo, Chester and Itdo

Before I start can I say that I consider John Ford's 'My Darling Clementine' one of his finest pictures and very similar to 'Young Lincoln' which besides also starring Henry Fonda also had a number of similarities particularly in the dance and grave scenes.

However-

As you rightly say Itdo Ford never spoke much about My Darling Clementine even when pressed to name his favourite pictures.

Ford prided himself on his meticulous adherence to history particulary in his westerns and always followed the historical facts. A close inspection of the entire film reveals that in this case his knowledge of the Earps, and even stranger when Ford states that he counted Wyatt Earp among his personal friends and actually had Earp's rifle, was lacking somewhat.

apparantly James Earp was the eldest of the brothers not the youngest and could not have been killed in a cattle rustling incident as the Earps did not own cattle in Tombstone. He was killed in 1881 and not 1882.

By the time of the gunfight in October 1881 Old Man Clanton was dead.

None of the Earps had been shot prior to the gunfight and all emerged unscathed from the resulting battle although both Morgan and Virgil were subsequently killed in seperate incidents.

The biggest alteration to history is when Ford killed off Doc Holliday when he actually died from tuberulosis in a Colarado sanitarium in 1885.

In 'John Ford's American West' Ford explained how he came to film the actual gunfight and placed the emphasis on the arrival of the stagecoach. He explained that Wyatt Earp had told him about the gunfight and how he had planned his entire strategy on the arrival of the stage and the ensuing dust being enough to give him covering fire.

Watching 'My Darling Clementine' you can understand the later 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' and the statement 'when the legend becomes fact print the legend'.

Regarding the cutting Ford was a great believer in cutting with the camera, and on occasions he would hold his hand in front of the camera thus self cutting. This ensured that the editor was left with very little film to play with.

Darryl Zanuck however in scenes reminiscent of The Barbarian and the Geisha got the film and took out a number of scenes. Jane Darnell as the madam of the whorehouse was particully savaged to little more than a cameo role.

When Ford found out what Zanuck had done he was most displeased and felt that the picture had been taken away from him.

Others felt that the clash was a simple matter of Ford adopting a deliberate well ordered structure as opposed to Zanucks impatience and that his resulting fast structure had destroyed the rhythm of the picture.

Although the film received good reviews it was not considered to be a classic and its supporters while being complimentary about the direction and the beauty of the picture dismissed it as at worst horse opera and at best as a rip roaring saga.

His critics weren't so complimentry one found the film to be 'a slow poke cowboy epic ruined by Ford's pictorializing', while another claimed: that Ford's happy preoccupation with style reduced his material to a sentimental legend of rural America'

Taking your point in an earlier post Itdo the film is an art form to be enjoyed. Documentaries are for fact, and I will now repeat what I said earlier, right wrong or indifferent factual or legend I find Ford's
westerns very watchable and I do like 'My Darling Clementine'

Regards
Arthur

Well, call me Johnny-Come-Lately, but a year later, we have finally purchased and watched My Darling Clementine. Costco had DVD 2-packs, and this one had My Darling Clementine coupled with The Ox-Bow Incident. The other one I bought had How Green Was My Valley and The Grapes of Wrath. Each pack was $13.99 plus tax.

We really enjoyed watching MDC, and seeing some good ol' favorites from John Wayne movies, and also just from many of the old movies we have watched. It's interesting that you should mention the different endings, Hondo, because as we watched the ending in the pre-release version, even Christopher commented that John Wayne would at least have swept Clementine into his arms and kissed her before leaving .

At the beginning of ours, it says -

This version of John Ford's My Darling Clementine was copied from a 1946 nitrate preview print. It contains additional footage not in the general release version as well as a different soundtrack.

Our DVD probably has the general release version, but we couldn't find the remote control for the DVD player , so couldn't watch any special features, and by default watched the pre-release version.

We appreciate you guys talking about it here; we might not ever have bought it, but are glad we did.

Chester

Hi all,
I didn't know before about two versions of the film. Here My Darling Clementine is available on DVD but without special features.