Hour of the Gun and says goodbye to his unlikely friend, telling him this time he really is returning to Tombstone. As he leaves, though, Earp admits that he's leaving the Southwest altogether, intending never to be involved in law enforcement again. This is the second film by John Sturges about these events, following the fictionalized film from ten years earlier, "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", which had featured Burt Lancaster as Earp and Kirk Douglas as Holliday. However, Ike Clanton is killed at the end of the earlier film (during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral itself). In "Hour of the Gun", Clanton
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral later, Virgil ran for the office on November 12, 1880 but lost to Ben Sippy. However, on June 6, 1881, Sippy asked for a two-week leave of absence. The city soon discovered $3,000 in financial improprieties in Sippy's records. A few days later Virgil was appointed as town marshal in his place. At the time of the gunfight, Virgil was both Deputy U.S. Marshal and town marshal. The city suspended him as town marshal after Ike Clanton filed murder charges, and after he was wounded in an assassination attempt on December 29, 1881, Wyatt replaced him as Deputy U.S. Marshal.