# Western Fans: Explain "Clemintine" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096 "2004-04-09T02:23:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/1 "2004-04-09T02:23:05Z")
I have only seen snippets of this movie. And, I do not know the history of Wyat Erp and the OK Corral. But, how/why can a Miner 49 (of the San Francisco gold rush) be in Tombstone AZ? Maybe some pilgrim can set me straight (he turns, spits on the ground). Well? You boys gonna pull them pistols, or whistle “Dixie”? 😉 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/2 "2004-04-09T02:31:19Z")
[Clementine](http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/clementine.html)! ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/3 "2004-04-09T02:48:09Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > [Clementine](http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/clementine.html)! Yeah, that’s the ticket, doc! They were excavating in a cavern, in a canyon, excavating by a crater; lived a miner 69er and his daughter roboto, Clementine (Roberto Clemente, you say?) Oh my darlin’, … Now, if anyone else has a reply that isn’t too spaced out… 😉 I can share with you the movie cast Henry Fonda. - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/4 "2004-04-09T03:11:54Z")
Simplest answer: the title is a conceit of John Ford’s. If you go to [IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038762/), you’ll see that, ta da! Cathy Downs played the part of “Clementine Carter.” > [@](#): > > Ford makes much of the visit of a pretty graceful lady named Clementine searching for her presumably long-lost love, none other than the consumptive Doc Holliday, now, devoted to the bottle and hidden under a huge white handkerchief… (Victor Mature gives a touchy performance as the wild and reckless Doc seeking death)… > > Holliday sways between two kinds of women - the Eastern, fair and respectable Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs), and the wild dark-eyed dancing girl “Apache” Chihuahua… (Linda Darnell-one of the sirens of the 1940s whose rose-at-twilight looks seemed to stimulate every cameraman.) There’s a girl named Clementine so they can play the song and give the movie the title. If you want to go farther than that, there’s this from Roger Ebert’s [Great Movies](http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/clem.html) page: > [@](#): > > "My Darling Clementine’’ must be one of the sweetest and most good-hearted of all Westerns. The giveaway is the title, which is not about Wyatt or Doc or the gunfight, but about Clementine, certainly the most important thing to happen to Marshal Earp during the story. There is a moment, soon after she arrives, when Earp gets a haircut and a quick spray of perfume at the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor. Clem stands close to him and says she loves `the scent of the desert flowers.'' `That’s me,’’ says Earp. ``Barber.’’ ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/5 "2004-04-10T02:57:44Z")
Ebert is dead wrong. The movie is NOT about Clementine – she’s actually a fairly minor character, other than having her name as the title. She’s there primarily so that there can be an entirely unrealized romance between her and Wyatt (Henry Fonda.) Incidentally, the film has a truly evil and wonderfully wicked villain, played by Walter Brennan – an astounding performance. BTW, a miner (a '49er) could certainly have a daughter alive in 1881. The song doesn’t say that she was born in '49, only that the father emigrated to California in '49. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/6 "2004-04-10T10:47:59Z")
I always thought of the concept of Clementine (the song) as a metaphor for for Earp’s moral code as conceptualized by Ford and manifested by Fonda. It was simplistic but very widespread. It dealt with death and acceptance of it. I always thought that Ford put the character name in to reinforce the the metaphor created with the song and title. Just a thought. TV ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/7 "2004-04-10T11:02:51Z")
Ford liked the use of “old West songs” as symbols in his films. The title “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” came from a song popular on the plains. In another film he had John Wayne constantly humming “Pretty Redwing” throughout the film, another song that was popular in dance halls and the like. In yet another the song was “Buffalo Gals.” As I remember Wayne was the one who sang it there also, but I could be wrong. Perhaps it was a throw back to the singing cowboy, but I feel the songs meant more than that. They were key symbols in Ford’s films. They set the pace and gave clues to the feeling that under lay the film. TV ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/western-fans-explain-clemintine/239096/8 "2004-04-10T15:29:33Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > I always thought of the concept of Clementine (the song) as a metaphor for for Earp’s moral code as conceptualized by Ford and manifested by Fonda. It was simplistic but very widespread. “Hmmm,” [the Vogon] said, “_counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor…_” He considered this for a moment, and then closed the book with a grim smile. “Death’s too good for them,” he said.