‘Doc’ *** (1971, Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, Harris Yulin) – Classic Movie Review 8,726

Director Frank Perry turns his hand to the useful 1971 spaghetti Western ‘Doc’, about sharp-shooting poker gambler Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach), his friend Marshal Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin), and Kate Elder (Faye Dunaway).

The late, lamented, highly talented director Frank Perry (The Swimmer, David and Lisa, Diary of a Mad Housewife) turns his hand to the 1971 ‘Doc’, a useful spaghetti Western about sharp-shooting poker gambler Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach), his friend Marshal Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin), and Kate Elder (Faye Dunaway). Doc and Earp of course have to battle the Clanton gang in Tombstone, Arizona.

Perry is after a tough, realistic picture of the West and its heroes, and a fresh exploration of the personal conflicts. An unheroic picture of the heroes sees an effete Earp getting badly beaten and Doc severely sick with coughing bouts. If the result is even further from the truth than the Gunfight at the OK Corral legend, it is still an intriguing, carefully made, effective movie, with all three stars excelling.

Almeria, Spain, stands in for Tombstone, Arizona.

The writer is Pete Hamill and it is Perry’s first film not scripted by his wife Eleanor Perry, whom he divorced in 1970.

Also in the cast are Michael Witney as Ike Clanton, Denver John Collins, Dan Greenburg, Penelope Allen, Hedy Sontag, Bruce M Fischer, James Green, Richard McKenzie, John Scanlon, Antonia Rey, John Bottoms as Virgil Earp and Philip Shafer as Morgan Earp.

UK versions are cut by five seconds to remove a cockfight scene.

Frank Joseph Perry Jr. (August 21, 1930 – August 29, 1995)

Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941)

Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941)

Harris Yulin (November 5, 1937 – June 10, 2025)

Harris Yulin’s breakthrough film role was Wyatt Earp in Doc (1971). He dated co-star Faye Dunaway from 1971 to 1972. He was married to actress Gwen Welles until her death in 1993. His second marriage was to Kristen Lowman (married 2005). He died of cardiac arrest on 10 June 2025.

He appeared in Night Moves (1975), The Midnight Man (1974), St Ives (1976), Scarface (1983), Another Woman (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Looking for Richard (1996), Bean (1997), The Hurricane (1999), Training Day (2001) and Rush Hour 2 (2001).

The cast

The cast are Stacy Keach as Doc Holliday, Faye Dunaway as Kate Elder, Harris Yulin as Wyatt Earp, Michael Witney as Ike Clanton, Denver John Collins as The Kid, Dan Greenburg as The Tombstone Epitaph editor Clum, John Scanlon as saloon owner Bartlett, Richard McKenzie as Tombstone Sheriff John Behan,  John Bottoms as Virgil Earp, Ferdinand Zogbaum as James Earp, Penelope Allen as Mattie Earp, Hedy Sontag as Alley Earp, James Greene as Frank McLowery, Antonia Rey as whore Concha, Philip Shafer as Morgan Earp, and Fred Dennis as Johnny Ringo.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,726

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