Zwei rechnen ab (1957)

Zwei rechnen ab: Directed by John Sturges. With Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet. Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

“Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis has the makings of a classic, and of course the story is one of the great ture legends of the Wild West. Burt Lancaster as the tough and unbending lawman and Kirk Douglas as the unpredictable semi-lawless cad are both great, and the best scenes are probably those with the two of them. The rest of the cast is reasonable, some of them really good, though maybe the all important bad guys lacked some kind of wild evil they might have needed (a Lee Marvin intensity). One of the bad guys, Johnny Ringo, is played by a nice guy actor, John Ireland, even though Ringo was never part of thie OK Corral story. It does have a young Dennis Hopper, which is fun to see (and Hopper hailed from Dodge City itself in real life).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStill, it looked like it would really be equivalent to u0026quot;Rio Bravou0026quot; and others from the same time period.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot so, not for me. And itu0026#39;s simply because of that whole range of different things that add up in a great movie and slip and slither in a decent one. For example, there are a number of interludes with horses walking through the big landscape and the corny theme song is sung through a new verse. I canu0026#39;t believe this was effective even at the time (music from 1957 in general wasnu0026#39;t so corny and fakey, including country music), but now it deadened the flow. Likewise the series of events didnu0026#39;t always seem to lead one to the next in a compelling way, as the interludes allowed a shift in location and sometimes a whole new situation to develop.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne problem (if this is a problem) is that itu0026#39;s based on facts. I think this made the movie makers add information and keep switching towns simply because it was the way it was and they thought they must. Maybe they did. Oddly, they got lots of the essentials wrong that might actually make a better movie if someone wants to take another crack at it (quick details at wikipedia). The final famous shootout is fun and well done but way too obvious with the good guys always getting their target and the bad guys missing, or hitting a leg.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo why the reputation? It isnu0026#39;t bad, and it is always compelling to see Douglas in particular in almost any film. The filming (by Charles Lang, one of the greats) is first rate, and so just watching, whatever the scene, is enjoyable.”