1946 Classic, With Perfect Score on Rotten Tomatoes, Named Among Best Westerns of All Time
A list of the greatest Westerns of all time wouldn't be complete without a number of films from legendary Western director John Ford.
While John Wayne was a frequent collaborator with Ford, one of the director's best movies of all time doesn't include the Western legend. My Darling Clementine sits at No. 9 on the list of greatest Western movies of all time from Rotten Tomatoes.
"Canny and coolly confident, My Darling Clementine is a definitive dramatization of the Wyatt Earp legend that shoots from the hip and hits its target in breezy style," the ratings aggregator said.
What Is 'My Darling Clementine About?
The 1946 film is based on the biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart Lake.
"In the middle of a long cattle drive, Wyatt Earp and his brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find their cattle stolen, and one of the brothers is dead," reads the synopsis of the film from Rotten Tomatoes.
"Earp suspects the Clanton family, owners of the O.K. Corral, but wants his revenge to be legal. He becomes sheriff of Tombstone and forges a rough peace with an alcoholic gambler, Doc Holliday. Earp also takes a liking to Holiday's former girlfriend, Clementine."
The movie received a perfect 100% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes while the audience gave it an 85% on the ratings platform.
John Ford Met Wyatt Earp on Set
Ford, who directed a number of the best Westerns of all time like Stagecoach and The Searchers, claimed he met Earp when he was a young prop boy on silent films.
"I knew Wyatt Earp. In the very early silent days, a couple of times a year, he would come up to visit pals, cowboys he knew in Tombstone; a lot of them were in my company," he told film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich in 1967, per True West Magazine.
"I think I was an assistant prop boy then and I used to give him a chair and a cup of coffee, and he told me about the fight at the O.K. Corral. So in My Darling Clementine, we did it exactly the way it had been."
The historical accuracy of the film remains in question, though.
Related: 1954 Classic, Which Broke the Mold, Named 'Greatest Western Movie of All Time'
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 7:05 AM.