Students of American frontier history will know from the title that this film has to do with a famous gunfight that took place in Tombstone, Ariz., between a small posse headed by United States Marshall Wyatt Earp and five members of the lawless Clanton gang. And students of motion picture patterns will deduce from that knowledge that this film is mainly a build-up to that showdown, which comes in blazing fury at the end. They will be right. Bosley Crowther, May 30th, 1957.

— You think you’re pretty tough, don’t ya, son? I never knew a gunslinger yet so tough he lived to celebrate his 35th birthday. I learned one rule about gunslingers. There’s always a man faster on the draw than you are, and the more you use a gun, the sooner you’re gonna run into that man.