Gunfight at the O.K. Corral bullion (about $ in today's dollars) was en route from Tombstone to Benson, Arizona, the nearest freight terminal. Bob Paul, who had run for Pima County Sheriff and was contesting the election he lost due to ballot-stuffing, was temporarily working once again as the Wells Fargo shotgun messenger. He had taken the reins and driver's seat in Contention City because the usual driver, a well-known and popular man named Eli "Budd" Philpot, was ill. Philpot was riding shotgun. Near Drew's Station, just outside Contention City, a man stepped into the road and commanded them to "Hold!" Three Cowboys attempted to
Hour of the Gun not only survives the gunfight, but is a major antagonist thereafter. Where "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" is more about the main gun battle, this film begins with the gunfight and moves forward from there. Because Hal B. Wallis had scripted everything in the earlier "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", Sturges was disappointed with that film. "Hour of the Gun" is more of a psychological "melancholy character study". James Garner also played the lead as Wyatt Earp in a different movie filmed more than two decades later, Blake Edwards's "Sunset" (1988), a comedy thriller based on the 1920s period during