In 1957, director John Sturges made a slick, Technicolor version of the story baldly titled Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt and Kirk Douglas as Doc. Lacking the artistry and textures of Ford’s film, it’s nonetheless a satisfying commercial entertainment, vitalized by its star power. With this muscular hit behind him, Sturges went on to make two of the most devoutly revered “guy flicks” of all time: The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963). (If he, instead of Robert Aldrich, had directed The Dirty Dozen [1967], then he would have made all three of the 1960s’ triumvirate of mega-macho movies.) It seemed logical when Sturges signed on to direct Hour of the Gun, his second picture about Wyatt and Doc, and another opportunity to provide the action, gunplay, and heroics he’d delivered so successfully before. Well, two very unexpected things happened. Instead of a straightforwardly rousing, profit-minded epic, Sturges made a demanding, elegiac meditation on violence and its lingering residue. The film was also a surprise in that it begins where most Wyatt Earp movies finish: at the O.K. Corral. The shootout opens the picture rather than serve as its cathartic peak. An unofficial sequel to Sturges’s 1957 crowd pleaser, the movie takes its renowned characters past the central event of their lives and probes the dark aftermath. Its tone of low-key introspection didn’t appeal to audiences or critics of 1967, but the result now looks mightily impressive and far superior to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It’s hard to accept that the same man directed both movies. Hour of the Gun is one of the relatively few fine westerns of the 60s. It’s a transitory work that connects the 50s-style thinking man’s westerns, like The Gunfighter (1950) and High Noon (1952), with the new Hollywood’s genre-busters, such as The Wild Bunch (1969) and McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971).

excerpted from John DiLeo’s
Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery
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