My..Clementine (1946) VS Gunfight..O.K. Corral (1957)

The Ford version is, of course, a classic in it's own right.

But, for the story and possible accuracy, I much preferred the Sturges version.
I loved the character development in the Sturges version, which showed real 3-dimentional humans beings  with human feelings.
It seemed as though there was even some connection between even the Earps and the Clantons.

In the Ford version--which was probably not even supposed to represent what really happened--Walter Brennan was the only Clanton who represented all the Clantons. It seemed that even Ike (Grant Withers) was an afterthought. 

But, there was no "Old Man Clanton" in the Sturges version--just brothers who had both good and bad qualities. I liked this more fully human presentation. For example, Billy Clanton (a young Dennis Hopper) only very reluctantly sided with this brothers. And, then, there was an older Clanton brother who really didn't want to fight at all and ran out...
 
I also noted a clear love and affection between the Earp brothers.
Witness how truly broken up Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) was when his younger brother, Jimmy (Martin Milner) did the "his rounds" for him and was shoot by the Clanton's by mistake, thinking they were shooting Wyatt to get rid of him.

Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) was also very good. And, what would this story have been without a needful and possessive Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet): Doc used Kate and Kate used Doc throughout the movie.   

I liked Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) much better.
In that movie, the relationship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday sort of evolved--both liked the cut of the other's gib.
I see no building relationship between the two in My Darling..

In Gunfight, we seem to get more of Doc Holliday's background (true or not). He came from a Georgia Plantation and was educated--with the help of his family--as a dentist (not a physician as in My Darling..). He seemed to have lost everything in the Civil War (yet never served himself). After developing his cough, he became a gambler and a killer (with both knives and guns).  In fact, Wyatt Earp called him "a killer" but allow him to stay in Tombstone if he would not kill anyone in a bar with a gun or a knife.   

The whole Earp family seemed to be lawmen--not cattlemen as shown in My Darling..)
Part of the movie, Gunfight seemed to occur in Tombstone, AZ and part in Dodge City, KS which was hard for me to follow since they are hundreds of mile apart.

If I remember correctly, Dr. Holliday died in Tombstone during the gunfight in My Darling.., but I remember seeing Jason Robars, Jr. (as Dr. Holliday) dying as an older man in another movie.

In Gunfight, the Clantons and the Earps seemed to be on a talking basis.
In fact, the only thing I can see to cause the shootout was the fact that the Clantons were cattle rustlers. The gunfight seemed to over the Earp's  federal orders (after he became a federal marshal) to the Clantons to get rid of the stolen cattle (take them south of the Mexican boarder). Ike Clanton could have none of this. (According to the wiki article below, the Claton gang represented "a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys" while "All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys, who objected to the Earps' interference in their illegal activities."

The Clanton's set up a situation that made the fight "personal"...beyond being just a law enforcement issue. 
This story has been changed so many time that almost everything is open to interpretation.
But, at its heart, maybe it represents a symbolic battle Lawmen versus Outlaws in the old West. 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral

"The shootout has come to represent a period of the American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories."

How many Western movies have used this theme as a model?  Name a few.

P.S. I also like old western movies and TV shows in which Frankie Lane sang the theme song. 
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) was one of those movies.

www.imdb.com/name/nm0481840/?ref_=nv_sr_1#soundtrack

Blowing Wild (1953)
Man Without a Star (1955)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Rawhide (TV series)

teleadm--
As I've said before, I use to live in Tucson and we often took visitors to Tombstone, southeast of Tucson.
It is hard to imagine that it was ever much of a town, but it's all there, with Boothill and everything.

A place near there is far more scenic, Chiricahua National Monument, where Cochise once led his tribe of Apaches.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiricahua_National_Monument