Mustache or Not, a Good Man in a Fight--or Card Game

“Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp / Brave, courageous and bold...”

So went the theme song from the TV show about the Old West’s best-known lawman. Just how brave, courageous and bold, however, depends on whose movie version you believe.

Mostly, Hollywood has portrayed Wyatt Earp as a stuffy do-gooder, but a guy who stood up to lawlessness when lawmen shot first and asked questions later. Yet Hollywood never gets tired of the story of Earp and his brothers, as they faced down the Clanton gang at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz., on Oct. 26, 1881. This season features “Tombstone,” starring Kurt Russell. When “Wyatt Earp” hits screens this summer, Kevin Costner will become the latest to play the legendary peace officer. Here’s how the versions most readily available on video stack up.

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TITLE: “My Darling Clementine”

YEAR: 1946

DIRECTOR: John Ford

RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: Henry Fonda.

Doc Holliday: Victor Mature.

Morgan Earp: Ward Bond.

Old Man Clanton: Walter Brennan.

Billy Clanton: John Ireland.

PLOT: The Earps, driving cattle to California, stop in Tombstone, only to have their cattle rustled and a brother killed. They become the local law and shoot it out with the Clantons at the O.K. Corral.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Straight arrow who mixes righteous anger with a sense of humor and his own mortality.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Sensitive, Shakespeare-spouting surgeon--with a bad cough.

BEST LINE: Clanton to his son, after a humiliating encounter with Earp: “When you pull a gun, kill a man.”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Stark, spare, violent but not graphic.

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: * * * * *

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TITLE: “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”

YEAR: 1957

DIRECTOR: John Sturges

RUNNING TIME: 122 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: Burt Lancaster.

Doc Holliday: Kirk Douglas.

Billy Clanton: Dennis Hopper.

Morgan Earp: DeForest Kelly.

Johnny Ringo: John Ireland.

PLOT: Earp saves Holliday from a lynching; Holliday follows Earp to Tombstone, where his brother Virgil is marshal, to deal with Clanton gang at the O.K. Corral.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Tough, preachy boy scout.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Killer dentist with a death wish--and a bad cough.

BEST LINE: Doc to Wyatt: “Both of us live with a gun. The only difference is that badge.”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Stagey, predictable, flat.

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: * * *

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TITLE: “Cheyenne Autumn”

YEAR: 1964

DIRECTOR: John Ford.

RUNNING TIME: 145 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: James Stewart.

Doc Holliday: Arthur Kennedy.

Cardsharp: John Carradine.

Trouble-making cowboy: Ken Curtis.

PLOT: In the midst of an elegiac film about the last migration of the Cheyenne, there is a 15-minute comic scene involving Earp and Holliday playing poker in Dodge City.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Cagey old coot.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Avuncular, pipe-smoking sidekick.

BEST LINE: Earp to cowboy he’s just shot in the foot: “Don’t any of you cowpokes ever wear socks?”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Brief.

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: *

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TITLE: “Hour of the Gun”

YEAR: 1967

DIRECTOR: John Sturges.

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: James Garner.

Doc Holliday: Jason Robards.

Ike Clanton: Robert Ryan.

Vicious gunsel: Jon Voight.

PLOT: After the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Clanton has his henchmen murder Earp’s surviving brothers; Earp, in turn, kills off Clanton’s gang.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Stolid, self-righteous, humorless--the opposite of the usual James Garner character.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Likably cynical wisecracker--with a bad cough.

BEST LINE: Clanton to crooked sheriff: “If this were back East, I’d make the law. Out here, the best I can do is buy it.”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Violent, uninspiring (it opens the movie, rather than closing it.)

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: *

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TITLE: “Sunset”

YEAR: 1988

DIRECTOR: Blake Edwards

RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: James Garner.

Tom Mix: Bruce Willis.

PLOT: Wyatt comes to Hollywood in 1929 as adviser to a Tom Mix film about his life; gets involved in murder mystery involving studio exec and Hollywood madam.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Straight-talking, charismatic old-timer who’s still quick on the trigger.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Not applicable.

BEST LINE: Cheryl to Earp: “Will you sleep with me?” Earp: “I’m old enough to be your father.” Cheryl: “You’re old enough to be my grandfather.”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Nicely staged, with a sense of jeopardy and drama.

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: * *

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TITLE: “Tombstone”

YEAR: 1993

DIRECTOR: George Cosmatos.

RUNNING TIME: 130 minutes.

CAST:

Wyatt Earp: Kurt Russell.

Doc Holliday: Val Kilmer.

Virgil Earp: Sam Elliott.

Curly Bill: Powers Boothe.

Johnny Ringo: Michael Biehn.

PLOT: The Earps move to Tombstone, having retired from law enforcement. But they face off against the cowboys at the O.K. Corral. The cowboys come after them, so Wyatt kills them.

WYATT EARP CHARACTERISTICS: Confident, argumentative--and a hustler.

DOC HOLLIDAY CHARACTERISTICS: Bon vivant killer gambler with wit, charm--and a bad cough.

BEST LINE: Wyatt to Ike Clanton (with a gun to Ike’s head): “Your friends might get me in a rush, but not before I turn your head into a canoe.”

HOW’S THE GUNFIGHT? Graphic; surprisingly intimate.

SHOOT ‘EM-UP RATING: * *