The USPS has issued a set of four stamps honoring great film directors and the films for which they are most remembered. The four selected are: John Ford (The Searchers), John Huston (The Maltese Falcon), Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), and Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot). We will be exploring the lives and work of these directors over the next several weeks. In this post LR Simon reviews My Darling Clementine (preview version).
The preview version of My Darling Clementine demonstrates the reason for John Ford’s mistrust of the studios. The final version of the film, which was the result of test audience comments and studio influence over production and post-production, was a success at the box office, but the preview gives the viewer a better idea of what Ford had in mind. The film tells a highly fictionalized version of the events leading Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) to become sheriff of Tombstone and the gunfight at the OK Corral.
In addition to this “in-progress” version of the film, the DVD with the preview features a documentary showing both the preview and final versions, with a narrator explaining who made which changes, and in some cases also why the changes were made. The viewer can compare the original scene introducing the fictional character “Chihuahua” (Linda Darnell) with the much-edited version from the final film. Another scene is shown with and without music. The final scene from the preview version is contrasted with the same scene from the final film and its added kiss.
Producer Darryl F. Zanuck made most of the changes to My Darling Clementine. No stranger to filmmaking, Zanuck understood Hollywood and the film business as well as anyone. Zanuck had produced several of Ford’s films for 20th Century Fox, including How Green Was My Valley, which Ford considered his favorite of his own films. Ford had already learned to edit in camera as much as possible by the time he made My Darling Clementine, so when the test audiences insisted on a kiss in the final scene, Zanuck had to call Fonda and Jane Darwell (Clementine) to shoot additional footage.
The contrast between the preview and final versions of My Darling Clementine provide film students an opportunity to see what can happen with a film once it leaves the director’s hands.
Watch the film's trailer here.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ford
Commentary track, How Green Was My Valley
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