MacLintock

Directed by Andrew MacLaglan, this rip-roaring John Wayne-Maureen O'Hara comedy lets them do what they did best.

Wayne plays George Washington McLintock, a brawler and he-man in typical Western setting. O'Hara plays his feisty wife and Stefanie Powers their bratty daughter, Becky. Patrick Wayne, son of Big John, plays Becky's intended, a young man who looks like he'll wind up just like her pa.

'McLintock' is fast, furious, and funny. About as far from PC as you can get, this Western take on The Taming of the Shrew is bawdy and boisterous, and the casting is perfect. John Wayne was a man's man in the 'gotta do what he has to do' mould and this role was perfect. O'Hara - his best co-star - is also superb.

I've always been a John Wayne fan and a fan of this movie in particular. When it came out in 1963, there was a television special on the making of "McLintock!" that showed the filming of the famous muddy fight sequence. That got me wanting to see this film even more.

In today's "politically correct" atmosphere, the spanking scenes would seem to some as barbarian. But it was played as broad comedy and remains broad comedy. Maureen O'Hara gave (verbally) as she got.

40 years ago, during the telecast of JFK's funeral, the flag-draped casket and caisson were shown passing by a movie theater. On the marquee: "McLintock!"

I recently watched McLintock! (1963) on Prime. The storyline follows a lawless Wild West filled with Native Americans, bandits, corrupt officials, and ranchers trying to make a living. McLintock is a rancher who decides enough is enough and sets out to keep the peace among the locals.

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen (The Wild Geese), this film stars John Wayne (True Grit), Maureen O'Hara (Miracle on 34th Street), Patrick Wayne (Big Jake), Stefanie Powers (Herbie Rides Again), and Jack Kruschen (The Apartment).

This is a fairly cliché, straightforward western with a mediocre storyline. However, the characters are fun, and the fistfight scenes are amazing. McLintock's back-and-forth with his wife provides a light-hearted and entertaining subplot. John Wayne delivers his character perfectly; his drunk scenes are hilarious, and his legendary spanking scene adds to the humor. Unfortunately, there aren't any real shootouts or over-the-top action scenes that stand out.

In conclusion, McLintock! Is a straightforward western with enough fun scenes to make it worth watching for fans of the genre. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I am a John Wayne fan, but have never heard much "buzz" about this movie. Indeed, I hesitated over it a number of times before renting it for my family's weekly movie. I almost introduced it apologetically.

No worries, though! This movie is CLASSIC John Wayne. There are SO many elements to like in it. You get some good and timely philosophical comments about self-reliance versus dependency, some other good points on what goes into a marriage; but then there are truly funny comic moments, scenes, lines. Very un-PC, very memorable.

In fact, this movie has so many great lines it will require more viewings. We re-ran several as it was.

Put that together with a uniformly strong supporting class, and I think you've got vintage Wayne.

Whatever you think of John Wayne's politics, they were never better expressed more convincingly or with more entertainment than they are in McLintock. At first glance this film is a rough house western version of The Taming of the Shrew. But it is far more than that, it is the closest thing we have to a film manifesto of the world as John Wayne saw it.

As G.W. McLintock, the Duke is the American dream personified. The man who came west and by dint of his own sweat and labor built a cattle empire. He did it without the government's help and note how he tells the settlers the government doesn't 'give' anything away. One of the three people identified as villains in his world view is land agent Gordon Jones. He's a liberal in McLintock, peddling the view that government help is the answer to all of our problems.

McLintock rather broadly satirizes other people who Wayne considers liberals. The know-it-all college kid Jerry Van Dyke, the tanglefooted bureaucrat Indian agent Strother Martin, the oily politician Robert Lowery these people get quite a going over.

Wayne doesn't 'give' anybody anything. As he says to son Patrick Wayne in my favorite line in all John Wayne movies, "I don't give jobs, I hire men." That's a creed he followed in real life as well.

Sad to say though the world isn't as simple as McLintock would have us believe. McLintock takes place in the age of the robber barons and those folks were not as noble in character as G.W. McLintock. Maybe the world ought to be like it is in McLintock, but it ain't.

McLintock is one grand piece of entertainment though. The comedy is as broad and unsophisticated as you would find in any John Ford film and with good reason as Wayne and Director Andrew McLaglen learned the movie trade from him.

In addition to dealing with the assorted 'liberals' mentioned above, the Duke has some domestic concerns. Wife Maureen O'Hara has left him, but is back over where their daughter Stefanie Powers will reside. Maureen is playing the same role she did in Rio Grande and later on in Big Jake, the estranged wife who circumstances force her back with Wayne. In the case of McLintock though these are circumstances that Wayne makes on his own with some inspiration from The Taming of the Shrew.

The cast is populated with a grand cast of regulars from previous Wayne films like Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Hank Worden, Leo Gordon, Michael Pate, and some already mentioned.

Jack Kruschen makes his one and only film appearance in a Wayne film here. He does very well as the kindly, benevolent and obviously Jewish storekeeper. He's got an important function also here, as another self made American success story in the same film.

Yvonne DeCarlo got cast in this film after her husband who was a stunt man was injured badly on another film. She had heavy duty medical expenses and Wayne was not about charity. But he was legendary for taking care of fellow performers giving them a pay day in his films if they needed it. He didn't give jobs, he hired men and women. Yvonne is Pat Wayne's mother in the film who Maureen suspects of being Wayne's mistress when she's hired as a housekeeper.

We also get an economics lecture from the Duke as well. He works for "every man who goes to a butcher shop and wants a T-Bone steak." And Pat Wayne works for him. It's what makes the capitalist system go.

If you take some of the politics expressed with a critical eye, McLintock is fabulous entertainment, one of the Duke's best films.