The American West of John Ford is a 1971 television special about movie director John Ford's career narrated by John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. Footage of Wayne, Stewart, and Fonda talking with the aging Ford are interspersed with an array of clips from Ford's films spanning more than five decades, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , The Searchers , and Stagecoach , each of which is dealt with at some length.
John Ford was an American film director. He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). His four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record. One of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture.
Marion Mitchell Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed "Duke", was an American actor and filmmaker. He was among the top box office draws for three decades.
James Maitland Stewart was an American actor and military officer who is among the most honored and popular stars in film history. With a career spanning 62 years, Stewart was a major Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who was known for his distinctive drawl and down-to-earth persona, which helped him often portray American middle-class men struggling in crisis. Many of the films in which he starred have become enduring classics.
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The section on My Darling Clementine features Fonda and Stewart, both of whom played Wyatt Earp in Ford films, interviewing Ford about the director's claim that Earp himself had explained the strategy and chronology of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral to Ford and Harry Carey, complete with a sketched diagram, decades before Ford filmed a version of the melee with Fonda as Earp. Stewart's memorable poker scene as Earp in Cheyenne Autumn , which had nothing to do with the rest of the movie and has frequently been cut by exhibitors and television stations, is also discussed and illustrated with a clip.
My Darling Clementine is a 1946 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp during the period leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral. The ensemble cast also features Victor Mature, Linda Darnell, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt, Cathy Downs and Ward Bond.
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat.
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud, with Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policeman Morgan Earp, Special Policeman Wyatt Earp, and temporary policeman Doc Holliday on the other side. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and Wes Fuller ran from the fight. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. Wyatt is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat.
The hour long special was telecast on December 5, 1971 over the CBS television network. The show sometimes appears on Hulu under the title The Great American West of John Ford. The documentary also briefly features a whip-cracking Andy Devine during a comedic sequence with Wayne and Ford filmed in Monument Valley.
CBS is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major production facilities and operations in New York City and Los Angeles.
Hulu is an American entertainment company that provides "over-the-top media services". It is primarily oriented towards instant streaming of television series, carrying current and past episodes of many series from its owners' respective television networks and other content partners. Hulu is owned by Hulu LLC, a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Comcast, and AT&T. Through a proposed acquisition announced in December 2017, Disney is to acquire Fox's partial ownership, giving it a majority stake if the deal closes.
Andrew Vabre Devine was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in Western films. He is probably best remembered for his role as Cookie, the sidekick of Roy Rogers in 10 feature films. He also appeared alongside John Wayne in films like Stagecoach (1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won. He is also remembered as Jingles on the TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok from 1951 to 1958, as Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1937) and as the voice of Friar Tuck in the Disney Animation film Robin Hood (1973).
