McLintock

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.

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.

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!"

Lively star Western vehicle in comedy vein, patterned after NORTH TO ALASKA (1960) and with a "Taming Of The Shrew"-like plot that recalls THE QUIET MAN (1952; with the same leads) – both of which, incidentally, I haven't watched in a long time!

As John Wayne grew older, his films settled into being safe and unassuming family fare – which this one certainly is, making it undeniably the least of the Batjac films released on DVD so far! Through all these films, he managed to surround himself with reliable talent on both sides of the camera – many of whom were already a part of "The John Wayne Stock Company". The script by James Edward Grant, Wayne's favorite writer, provides plenty of amusing situations which are gleefully met by the cast (particularly Chill Wills, Jack Kruschen and Strother Martin) – including a free-for-all in the mud, a fist-fight during a town celebration, a drunken encounter with a flight of stairs and the come-uppance of both female members (Maureen O' Hara and Stefanie Powers) of the McLintock family at the hands of the Waynes (father John and son Patrick respectively) – though the ponderous subplot involving the Comanches' last stand (headed by Michael Pate) feels somewhat incongruous alongside the brawling and the slapstick and should, perhaps, have been dropped altogether.

The supplements are of a similarly high quality as the rest of the Paramount "Batjac" releases: the Audio Commentary here is especially engaging for the way it places the film in the context of both Wayne's career and the revisionist attitude the Western genre would go through immediately afterwards; interestingly, as was the case with HONDO (1953), it's also mentioned that John Ford was asked to direct some sequences when the films' respective director became indisposed! Incidentally, I'll be watching the similarly boisterous DONOVAN'S REEF (1963) soon – a film that has eluded me all these years despite being a perennial on Italian TV! – and which proved to be the last of the innumerable collaborations between Wayne and Ford...

This is the Duke at his two-fisted, brawling best, along with Maureen O'Hara, who lights up the screen, in `McLintock!' a rousing western/comedy directed by Andrew W. McLaglen. John Wayne is George Washington McLintock, cattle baron and owner of just about everything around for as far as the eye can see. He owns cattle, mines and lumber, and even the town is named after him. And he's a fair man and a good employer to boot, who pays a fair wage for a good day's work. He even hires a young man, Devlin Warren (Patrick Wayne), who has come in with a group of homesteaders who have been given land by the government and plan to farm the Mesa Verde, even though, as McLintock warns them, it's impossible to farm at 6000 feet above sea level. In the meantime, young Devlin has to support his mother, Louise (Yvonne De Carlo) and his sister, Alice (Aissa Wayne). So G.W. even hires Louise to be the cook for his outfit. McLintock is The Man in these parts, and he earns the respect he is accorded by most of the good citizens of the territory. But he has one problem, and it's a big one; and it comes in quite a package: His estranged wife, Katherine (O'Hara), who has just come back to town to settle a certain issue with her husband. And the fireworks begin the minute she steps off the train.

The main bone of contention has to do with their daughter, Becky (Stefanie Powers), who will be returning home from college soon. Katherine wants to take her east to live; G.W. in having none of it. And shades of `Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,' that's his final answer. The real rub is that G.W. still loves Katherine, and he still doesn't know what put the burr in her saddle and caused her to leave him two years earlier. It's also obvious that Katherine still loves G.W., but she apparently can't get past whatever it was that caused the split in the first place. But her eyes sparkle whenever Drago (Chill Wills), G.W.'s right hand man, brings up the `good ol' days,' and she's reminded of when they started out with nothing but each other and a lot of love and courage.

There's a touch of `Taming of the Shrew,' in this story, and near the end Wayne and O'Hara virtually reenact one of their own scenes from `The Quiet Man,' all of which adds up to a couple of hours worth of good, old fashioned fun. This movie never pretends or aspires to be anything other than what it is, which is good, wholesome entertainment that features some memorable characters, lots of humor and some classic lines. The Duke is trim and healthy and never swaggered better, and O'Hara, in a green dress against which her gorgeous red hair absolutely glows, makes you wonder if there's ever been a more beautiful actress ever to grace the silver screen. And the two of them have a chemistry together that ranks right up there with the best pairings the movies ever had to offer. The Duke may be in command, but he certainly has his hands full with that fighting Irish wildcat, O'Hara. Together, they've created some moments on screen that will live forever.

Adding to the merriment is an all-star supporting cast that includes Jerry Van Dyke (Matt, Jr.), Hank Worden (Curly), Bruce Cabot (Ben), Jack Kruschen (Jake), Edgar Buchanan (Bunny), Perry Lopez (Davey Elk), Michael Pate (Puma), Strother Martin (Agard), Gordon Jones (Douglas), Robert Lowery (Governor Humphrey), H.W. Gim (Ching), Edward Faulkner (Young Ben), Chuck Roberson (Sheriff), Mari Blanchard (Camille), Leo Gordon (Jones), Bob Steele (Train Engineer) and Big John Hamilton (Fauntleroy). McLaglen sets the pace and keeps this vintage Wayne/O'Hara vehicle right on task, which makes `McLintock!' a classic in it's own right. It's a timeless film that captures the attitude and freedom of a time gone by that simply does not exist anymore in this, our `advanced' era of political correctness, which often stifles the very freedom it espouses. And watching this movie, it makes you wonder about the `progress' we've made in the past thirty years or so. As far as movies go, this one is magic, and it proves that they just don't make ‘em like they used to. I rate this one 9/10.