Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 Western film directed by John Sturges, starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.
Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) is on Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo's track, when he meets Doc Holliday in Fort Griffin, Texas. Holliday refuses to tell him where the outlaws have gone. In a saloon, Holiday kills a man in self-defense and he is arrested. A crowd comes up to the jail to lynch him, but Earp helps him to escape. Earp goes back to Dodge City, where he meets Holliday again. He asks him to leave the town, but he refuses.
Sturges would later make a quasi-sequel to the film, Hour of the Gun, featuring James Garner as Earp, Jason Robards as Holliday and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton, which dramatized the events following the Gunfight, including the Earp's murder trial, the Cowboys' attacks on Virgil and Morgan Earp and the subsequent Earp vendetta ride.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral provides examples of:
- Artistic License – History: Enough to get its own page.
- Ballroom Blitz: A group of cowboys enters Dodge City's ballroom and they interrupt violently the party that was going on.
- Based on a True Story: Based on the real-life Gunfight at the O.K. Corral that took place in 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. It takes heavy artistic liberties with the facts, though, as displayed on the Artistic License – History page.
- Blade Enthusiast: Doc Holliday likes using knives, as shows in his introductory scene, where he throws numerous knives at a door. He later kills a man with a backhanded throw.
- Casting Gag: John Ireland (Johnny Ringo) previously played Billy Clanton in My Darling Clementine.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Neither Holliday nor Earp stay with their love interests.
- Dirty Coward: Cotton Wilson sides with Ike Clanton during the gunfight, but he chooses to run away when things go bad. An outlaw shoots him in the back.
- Dissonant Serenity: A group of cowboys comes into Dodge City and starts shooting up the town. Doc Holliday calmly continues to play blackjack because he's on a winning streak. His opponent isn't so calm.
- Domestic Abuser: Doc Holliday regularly insults, threatens, and grabs his girlfriend. She fears physical violence from him, even to the point of him killing her. He doesn't but the fear is there.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: The Earps get this as they're doing this to avenge the death of their older brother versus a personal feud.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Clantons get this as well. They had nothing to do with the murder of Wyatt's brother in real life (it was his younger one not older in real life) and it happened after the gunfight at the OK Corral.
- In the Back:
- Ed Bailey is going to shoot Doc Holliday in the back, but Holliday turns around quickly and throws a knife at him.
- Cotton Wilson is shot in the back by an outlaw when he is trying to flee from the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- I Owe You My Life: Wyatt Earp saves Doc Holliday's life in Fort Griffin. Holliday wants to repay him. He helps Wyatt Earp to catch the bank robbers, but he thinks this is not enough to repay his debt. When Shanghai Pierce and his cowboys shoot up the town, he helps Wyatt Earp again and then tells him that his account is paid in full.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Doc Holliday kills Ed Bailey in self-defense: Bailey was going to shoot him in the back.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Why both Holliday and Earp's relationships fail. Though in Holliday's case, it was probably for the best.
- Love Martyr: Kate is in love with Doc Holliday despite the fact that he verbally and physically abuses her.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The incorruptible and idealistic Wyatt Earp becomes friends with Doc Holliday, a cynical gambler.
- Odd Couple:
- The incorruptible and idealistic Wyatt Earp becomes friends with Doc Holliday, a cynical gambler.
- Laura Denbow and Wyatt Earp for a short time before the latter chooses to help his brother in Tombstone.
- Posse: Wyatt Earp deputizes Doc Holliday to pursue bank robbers, because all his deputies have gone with another posse.
- Professional Gambler:
- Doc Holliday makes money this way.
- Laura Denbow is a rare case of female gambler.
- Redhead In Green: Laura Denbow's hair is red and she always wears green clothes.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ike Clanton and his henchmen kill James Earp. In retaliation, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday kill Ike Clanton, Finn Clanton, Billy Clanton, Johnny Ringo and the McLowerys during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- Secretly Dying: Everyone knows that Doc Holliday has a bad cough but few realize how bad it is.
- The Sheriff: Cotton Wilson is a corrupt sheriff, whereas the heroes are incorruptible town marshals.
- Sibling Team: The Earp brothers fight crime together in Tombstone.
- Team Power Walk: Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers on the way to the final gunfight. They made that walk in Real Life, and every O.K. Corral telling includes it.
- Torches and Pitchforks: A lynching mob is after Doc Holliday because he killed Ed Bailey. Wyatt Earp helps him to run away.
- U.S. Marshal: In the end, Wyatt Earp tells Ike Clanton that he has been made a U.S. Marshal.
- Wet Blanket Wife:
- In the beginning, Kate Fisher, Doc Holliday's girlfriend, tries to persuade him to flee with her, instead of confronting Ed Bailey. In the end, she tries to persuade him not to help the Earp brothers.
- When Virgil Earp asks his brother Wyatt to come to Tombstone, Laura Denbow, Wyatt's love interest, tells him that he should not go, because it is too dangerous.
- Before the gunfight, Virgil's wife also tries to persuade the Earp brothers not to confront Ike Clanton and his henchmen.
