Gunfight at the O.K. Corral central figure in the gunfight. It was only discovered much later that "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal", based on eight interviews with Earp, was largely fictional. The book and later Hollywood portrayals embellished Wyatt's reputation and magnified his mystique as a western lawman. Morgan Earp had no known experience with gunfighting prior to their arrival in Tombstone. While Wyatt was Pima County Deputy Sheriff on July 27, 1881, Morgan Earp took over his job as shotgun messenger for Wells Fargo. Morgan also occasionally assisted Virgil and at the time of the gunfight was wearing a deputy city marshal's badge and drawing
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film) battle." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" deemed the film "just what its title suggests — blood-thirsty, empty-headed and good fun of its sort." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" called it "carefully and lavishly mounted, but it is ultimately overlong and overwrought. Leon Uris's script dulls the final scene of action by the introduction of too many minor climaxes, which never blend." The film was a big hit and earned $4.7 million on its first run and $6 million on re-release. Its Dimitri Tiomkin score, featuring the song "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", with lyrics by Ned Washington, sung by