What 1946 John Ford Western stars Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp in the town of Tombstone?

The 1946 John Ford Western starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone is My Darling Clementine.

The film dramatizes the events leading to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, with Fonda’s Earp becoming Tombstone’s marshal after his brother James is murdered. Victor Mature plays Doc Holliday, while Walter Brennan portrays Old Man Clanton, leader of the rival Clanton family. The story draws loosely on Stuart Lake’s 1931 biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.

Despite its historical setting, the movie takes major liberties. The film dates the gunfight to 1882, although the real confrontation occurred on October 26, 1881. Clementine Carter is a fictional character, and the Earps were not cattle-driving cowboys as shown in the opening. Doc Holliday was a dentist, not the surgeon depicted in parts of the story, and he survived the actual gunfight.

Much of the film was shot in Monument Valley, about 500 miles from Tombstone. Its title comes from the traditional song “Oh My Darling, Clementine,” heard over the opening and closing credits. The Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry in 1991.