Hour of the Gun (1967)

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  • HOUR OF THE GUN

    DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY JOHN STURGES
    ORIGINAL MUSIC BY JERRY GOLDSMITH
    MIRISCH CORPORATION/ MIRISH-KAPPA RODUCTION
    UNITED ARTISTS



    Photo with the courtesy of lasbugas


    Information from IMDb


    Plot Summary
    Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton-gang in a fight.
    In revenge Clanton's thugs kill the marshal's brother.
    Thus, Wyatt Earp starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.


    Full Cast
    James Garner ... Wyatt Earp
    Jason Robards ... Doc Holliday
    Robert Ryan ... Ike Clanton
    Albert Salmi ... Octavius Roy
    Charles Aidman ... Horace Sullivan
    Steve Ihnat ... Andy Warshaw
    Michael Tolan ... Pete Spence
    William Windom ... Texas Jack Vermillion
    Lonny Chapman ... Turkey Creek Johnson
    Larry Gates ... John P. Clum
    William Schallert ... Judge Herman Spicer
    Bill Fletcher ... County Sheriff Jimmy Bryan
    Karl Swenson ... Dr. Charles Goodfellow
    Austin Willis ... Anson Safford
    Monte Markham ... Tucson Sheriff Sherman McMasters
    Richard Bull ... Thomas Fitch
    Sam Melville ... Morgan Earp
    Frank Converse ... Marshal Virgil Earp
    Jon Voight ... Curly Bill Brocius
    Robert Phillips ... Frank Stilwell
    Edward Anhalt ... Denver Doctor (uncredited)
    Walter Gregg ... Billy Clanton (uncredited)
    David Perna ... Frank McLowery (uncredited)
    Jorge Russek ... Deputy Latigo (uncredited)
    Jim Sheppard ... Tom McLowery (uncredited)


    Writing Credits
    Edward Anhalt


    Cinematography
    Lucien Ballard


    Trivia
    Prior to production, United Artists had made it quite clear to director John Sturges
    that none of the primary roles were to be filled by the actors who played
    the same characters in Sturges' previous Wyatt Earp film, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
    Wanting to distinguish this film from the previous one,
    they demanded different actors be cast in the roles.
    However, Sturges believed that the roles of Virgil and Morgan Earp
    from the previous film were small enough that the same actors
    who played them could do it again without harming the film's uniqueness.
    The studio agreed and allowed Sturges to cast John Hudson (Virgil Earp)
    and DeForest Kelley (Morgan Earp).
    Unfortunately, Hudson had retired from acting in the early '60s
    and was unwilling to do the role. Kelley, on the other hand,
    was currently working on the TV series Star Trek and was
    unable to break away to play Morgan Earp.
    Thus, both Earp brothers were recast.


    Goofs
    Factual errors: When Curly Bill Brocius is shot by Wyatt Earp, only a tiny entrance wound is shown in his forehead as he falls over, even though Earp fired a shotgun. A shotgun blast would have blown Brocius's head apart.


    Factual errors: In fact, when ambushed, Virgil Earp was shot in his left elbow, but in the movie he has immobilized his right arm.


    Factual errors: In the O.K. Corral duel time, the county sheriff was John Behan, not Jimmy Bryan according to the movie.


    Revealing mistakes: When Virgil Earp is ambushed while doing his rounds he is shot by Frank Stilwell using a double barrel shotgun. In spite of the distance between him and Stillwell in the Barber Shop (the width of a street) there are no pellet strikes in the building he is standing in front of.


    Factual errors: The opening scenes shows a railroad station in Tombstone. There never has been a railroad station in Tombstone. The nearest station to Tombstone was and is Benson.


    Factual errors: The film has the gunfight taking place on a perfect warm sunny day. It was actually overcast, cold with snow on the ground.


    Factual errors: In the gunfight it shows only Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury in the OK Corral and the Earps outside. In reality the gunfight took place in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral. In that lot were the Earp party, Billy Clanton, the McLaury's, Ike Clanton and Billy Claibourne along with two horses.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    Durango, Mexico
    Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico (studio)
    San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico
    Torreón, Coahuíla, Mexico

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Hour of the Gun is a 1967 Western film starring James Garner
    and depicting Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday during their 1881
    battles against Ike Clanton and his brothers in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,
    and the gunfight's aftermath in and around Tombstone, Arizona.


    The film is based on the book Tombstone's Epitaph by Douglas D. Martin,
    with a screenplay by Edward Anhalt, and directed by John Sturges.
    This film attempts more historical accuracy than most motion picture
    accounts of the events, and explores what happened
    after the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.


    The film stars, James Garner as Wyatt Earp, Jason Robards as Doc Holliday,
    and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton.


    The movie can be seen as a sequel to John Sturges's fictionalized film
    from ten years earlier, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,
    which had featured Burt Lancaster as Earp and Kirk Douglas as Holliday.
    Where Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is more about the main gun battle,
    this film begins with the gunfight and moves forward from there.
    Because Hal B. Wallis had scripted everything in the earlier
    Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Sturges was disappointed with that film.


    Hour of the Gun is more of a psychological "melancholy character study"


    User Reviews

    A Lesser-Known 'Earp' Movie
    15 June 2006 | by ccthemovieman-1 (United States)
    Here is yet another Wyatt Earp story. I wasn't aware of this version until early in the

    Quote

    summer of 2005. I thought I had seen them all. Judging by the amount of reviews in here, I wasn't alone in not knowing about this film. I am glad I got it, but It was just okay; nothing special.


    None of the three top characters: James Garner as Earp, Jason Robards as "Doc Holliday" or Robert Ryan as "Ike Clanton" can match up to their best of their counterparts in other Earp films.....but they were still pretty good and certainly three famous actors. The only one who might have been a little out of place was Robards, who played a little too subdued "Doc."


    Still, the similarities are there in all the Earp movie versions including this one: the gunfight at the OK Corral, the courtroom trials, the train scene near the end, Holliday's illness, etc. One thing missing from this is any love interest, which actually was nice to have left out for once.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • I think very highly of this film, although I'm aware of it's flaws. Jason Robards seems to be sleepwalking through his Doc Holiday role and is too old for the part anyway.
    The Goldsmith score is one of Jerry's best - which is high praise indeed.
    The original title was "The Law in Tombstone" and the studio-released B&W still set is identified by the letters "LT".
    There was a paperback novelization of the script, which may have been from an earlier draft or the writer, Robert Krepps, fleshed it out on his own. At any rate, the book is much more graphic and concludes with a big fight between Wyatt and Doc and a host of Clanton men. As long as they were going to chuck history aside, they may have well done it big time.


    We deal in lead, friend.

  • After the recent posting, I threw on "Hour of the Gun". Wonderful wide screen compositions by director John Sturges, world class Goldsmith, fine acting from Garner and outstanding supporting cast - whatever happened to Monte Markham?
    Robards took the flashiest western role ever - Doc - and turned him into a zombie.



    We deal in lead, friend.

    Edited once, last by Gorch: wrong name ().

  • very much darker movie and a shorter gunfight than john sturges other take on the gunfight at the ok corral