- Factual errors: Doc Holliday did not die at the O.K. Corral. He died six years later from tuberculosis.
- Factual errors: In the film, "Old Man" Clanton (Walter Brennan) is shot and killed after the gunfight. In actuality, "Old Man" Clanton died in August 1881 - before the gunfight - and was not a principal in the gunfight itself or in the events immediately prior to the gunfight.
- Factual errors: The film shows Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) and John "Doc" Holliday (Victor Mature) meeting for the first time in Tombstone, AZ. In reality, Earp and Holliday were good friends by the time they came together in Tombstone, as they had met years earlier at Fort Griffin, TX.
- Factual errors: Wyatt Earp was never the town Marshal of Tombstone. Virgil Earp was.
- Factual errors: No mention is made of Tom and Frank McLaury (both of whom were killed in the gunfight), Billy Claiborne (who was at the gunfight, but ran out), and Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo (neither were in the gunfight, but were Clanton Gang members).
- Factual errors: The ages of the Earp brothers is reversed. In the movie, James is in his late teens, Virgil is in his twenties, Wyatt is about thirty, and Morgan is well into his thirties. In actuality, at the time of the OK Corral gunfight, James was 40, Virgil was 38, Wyatt was 33, and Morgan was 30.
- Factual errors: In the film, the OK Corral gunfight happens in 1882. It actually happened on October 26, 1881.
- Factual errors: The gunfight took place in the afternoon, not in the morning.
- Continuity: When Wyatt is playing poker, Chihuahua puts her leg up on a chair showing her dark stockings. A few minutes later, when Wyatt catches her signaling the gambler, he pulls her outside and pushes her in a horse-trough and she's no longer wearing stockings.
- Factual errors: The movie shows James Earp killed (murdered) with his marker showing "born 1864 died 1882". However, James Earp was actually born in 1841 and died in 1926 of natural causes. It was Morgan Earp who was murdered on 18 March 1882.
- Factual errors: The movie shows Virgil Earp killed (murdered - shot in back) by Old Man Clanton. However, in actuality, Virgil survived being shot from ambush on 28 December 1881, but never fully recovered from the wound in his left arm. He lived until 1905, succumbing to pneumonia at age 57.
- Continuity: At the beginning of the film when Wyatt Earp is preparing for a shave, the lather is yet to be applied by the barber. A second after the gunshot strikes the mirror, Earp's entire chin is lathered, even though the barber is still "preparing" to apply it.
- Errors in geography: Monument Valley is used as background in many of the scenes, and the town of Tombstone is depicted as located near Monument Valley and within view of the mesas and buttes there. In reality, the town of Tombstone, Arizona is located approximately 340 miles south of Monument Valley, far too distant for any of Monument Valley's mesas and buttes to be visible.
- Factual errors: There was not a Clanton brother named Sam.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Doc Holliday was supposed to be a surgeon in the movie. In fact, he was a dentist. On March 1, 1872, the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia, conferred the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery upon twenty-six men, one of whom was John Henry Holliday.
- Continuity: Before Doc begins to operate on Chihuahua, without anesthesia, a cloth is placed in her mouth and she's told to "bite real hard." A moment later, when the scene has cut to a longer shot, and Doc has started, we hear Chihuahua cry out "Oh ma!" She couldn't have spoken with the cloth in her mouth.
- Revealing mistakes: During the shootout, which supposedly occurs at "sun up", the men's shadows are shorter than the men themselves, indicating the scene was shot much closer to noon.
- Continuity: In the beginning of the movie, Wyatt Earp visits the Barber shop. The new chair gives problems and the barber mentions that the chair was installed only last week. Towards the end of the movie Wyatt visits again the barber shop but this time it has an old chair and the barber tells that he has ordered a new chair that will arrive next week.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Factual errors: SPOILER: The film has Ike, Phin and Sam Clanton being killed in the gunfight. Neither Phin nor Sam were present (Phin died on Jan. 5, 1905). Ike was at the gunfight, but ran out of the fight claiming he was unarmed. He was killed in a shootout on June 1, 1887, six years after the gunfight.
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