Hour of the Gun

Infobox Film
name = Hour of the Gun


image_size =
caption =
director = John Sturges
producer = John Sturges
Mirisch-Kappa (Production company)
writer = Edward Anhalt
Douglas D. Martin's novel:
"Tombstone's Epitaph"
narrator =
starring = James Garner
Jason Robards
Robert Ryan
music = Jerry Goldsmith
cinematography = Lucien Ballard, ASC
editing = Ferris Webster
distributor = United Artists
released = flagicon|USA November 1, 1967
New York City
runtime = 100 min
country = USA
language = English
budget = $1,800,000 (estimated)
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:23319
imdb_id = 0061787

"Hour of the Gun" is 1967 Western film about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, 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.

Production

The movie is a sequel to John Sturges's own more 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.Elder, Bruce. - Review: [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:23319~T1 "Hour of the Gun"] . - Allmovie. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02] "Hour of the Gun" is more of a psychological "melancholy character study". [Brenner, Paul. - Plot Synopsis: [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:23319 "Hour of the Gun"] . - Allmovie. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02]

Garner also played the lead as Wyatt Earp in a different movie filmed twenty-one years later, Blake Edwards's "Sunset" (1988), a comedy thriller based on the 1920s period during which Earp was a technical adviser for silent films. The film's music is composed by Jerry Goldsmith. [Full cast and crew: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061787/fullcredits "Hour of the Gun"] . - IMDb. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02]

"Hour of the Gun" was filmed in the state of Durango, Mexico; at Estudios Churubusco Azteca (studio) in Mexico City, México D.F., Mexico; San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico; and in Torreón, Coahuíla, Mexico. [Filming Locations: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061787/locations "Hour of the Gun"] . - IMDb. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02 ]

Cast

*James Garner - "as" - Wyatt Earp
*Jason Robards - "as" - Doc Holliday
*Robert Ryan - "as" - Ike Clanton
*Albert Salmi - "as" - Octavius Roy (prosecuting attorney)
*Charles Aidman - "as" - Horace Sullivan (defense attorney)
*Steve Ihnat - "as" - Andy Warshaw (Clanton man)
*Michael Tolan - "as" - Pete Spence (new Tombstone city marshal)
*William Windom - "as" - Texas Jack Vermillion
*Lonny Chapman - "as" - Turkey Creek Johnson
*Larry Gates - "as" - John P. Clum
*William Schallert - "as" - Judge Herman Spicer
*Bill Fletcher - "as" - County Sheriff Jimmy Bryan
*Karl Swenson - "as" - Dr. Charles Goodfellow
*Austin Willis - "as" - Anson Safford
*Monte Markham - "as" - Tucson Sheriff Sherman McMasters
*Richard Bull - "as" - Thomas Fitch (attorney)
*Sam Melville - "as" - Morgan Earp
*Frank Converse - "as" - Virgil Earp
*Jon Voight - "as" - Curly Bill Brocius (Clanton man)
*Robert Phillips - "as" - Frank Stilwell

Reception

Bruce Elder, at Allmovie, calls Garner's portrayal of Earp as "taciturn, emotionally repressed, deeply troubled and torn", but criticizes Edward Anhalt's script as being too strict to historical facts and confining the actors, especially Garner. Eleanor Quin at Turner Classic Movies (TCM) calls it "Sturges' finest film"; and says that it is a "conflict between moral righteousness and the temptation of personal revenge".Quin, Eleanor. [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=17592&category=Articles "Hour of the Gun"] . - Turner Classic Movies. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02] Roger Ebert, "Chicago Sun Times", says: "Garner turns in one of his best performances." [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19671024/REVIEWS/710240301/1023 "Hour of the Gun"] . - "Chicago Sun Times". - October 24, 1967. - Retrieved: 2008-06-02]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0061787|title=Hour of the Gun
*
*tcmdb title|id=17592|title=Hour of the Gun