This isn't my favorite John Wayne film...but it's in my top 5. And what makes it so very good is its comic elements and the woman that was probably John Wayne's best leading lady -- Maureen O'Hara. O'Hara was stunningly beautiful and she had a spunky personality that worked so well in any film with John Wayne. Many prefer their "The Quiet Man", which is a lovely film, but I like this film.Here, John Wayne, beginning to show his age, plays a big rancher who has an off-again/on-again relationship with his wife. He does play the powerful rancher, but one who is basically a good man.Marueen O'Hara, at her spunky-best, plays his wife. She's back at the ranch because their daughter is returning from the East.John Wayne's son, Patrick, whom I always rather liked, plays a young farmer (not rancher) who goes to work for McLintock and, of course, falls in love with McLintock's daughter. Patrick is excellent here. Patrick's screen mother (Yvonne DeCarlo) is also hired, to cook at the ranch house...and be a little romantic competition for O'Hara. DeCarlo is very good here.Stefanie Powers, an actress I pretty much forgot about, plays Wayne's and O'Hara's daughter.Jack Kruschen plays a friend of the family and store keeper. Always a good character actor, he's especially good here, being rather sensitive to everyone else's needs.Chill Wills is a key supporting actor here, playing Wayne's rather domesticated sidekick. Generally, I very much disliked Wills in almost every film he was ever in. But, once in a blue moon, when he restrained himself just a bit, he could be very engaging...and he is that here. I really enjoyed this performance.Jerry Van Dyke is quite entertaining here as another love interest her for Powers, albeit a "city slicker" type. To be honest, II always thought he was talented than his brother.Also in the cast are supporting actors (many of whom were in many John Wayne movies): Edgar Buchanan, Bruce Cabot, Perry Lopez (who though actually Puerto Rican played a "modern Indian" who suffered from racial prejudice), Strother Martin, Michael Pate, (ex-cowboy star) Bob Steele, and others.The brawl about 45 minutes into the film is probably the funniest darn brawl ever filmed for a Western, and, to a large extent, the actual actors did some of their own stunts, including both Wayne and O'Hara who slide down a hill in slick clay-mud. It's a hoot.Another particularly good scene is when Wayne explains to his daughter why she isn't inheriting the huge ranch. It's a particularly good soliloquy by John Wayne.So what you really have here is a romantic comedy, which just happens to be a Western. However, there's still plenty of action -- cattle ranching, fighting, and an Indian uprising. It's a great film, and one of John Wayne's most entertaining.I have the Blu Ray version put out by Paramount, and it is wonderful color and clarity.

If John Ford had ever directed a Disney film, it might have looked something like MCLINTOCK!, an amiable comic romp starring John Wayne in the title role & the striking Maureen O'Hara as his wildly unpleasant wife. The movie, at just over 2 hours, is perhaps a bit too long and features one too many subplots, but is still rollicking entertainment, directed with a lot of finesse by Andrew V. McLaglen. Wayne & O'Hara, in the fourth of their five screen pairings, obviously have a lot of chemistry. They're dynamite together. The film focuses on their battles to either divorce or get back together. It moves from one to another with a lot of speed. The exceptionally bright supporting cast includes Stefanie Powers, Edgar Buchanan, Chill Wills, Bruce Cabot, Jack Kruschen and Yvonne DeCarlo. Wayne's son Patrick also has a sizable role and Strother Martin is a scene-stealer as an ineffectual government man. Somehow, the always annoying Jerry Van Dyke is given a fairly prominent role. The high gloss cinematography is by William H. Clothier.

The first time I saw McLintock! was the evening of 22 November 1963, which was several hours after JFK was assassinated. My late wife and I decided we needed a good comedy, McLintock! had received excellent reviews and it was opening at a convenient drive-in so we could take our year-old son.Sure enough we really enjoyed every moment of the film. Even in late 1963 it was no longer politically correct to show spanking as entertainment. My wife did not mind because we both felt daughter Becky and estranged wife Katherine McLintock richly deserved their spankings.What I note is that McLintock! was the last film to show the spanking of an adult woman by a man as comedy. Earlier in 1963 Duke Wayne spanked Elizabeth Allen to cinch their engagement in Donovan's Reef. In 1961's Blue Hawaii Elvis spanks a very wet Jenny Maxwell to prove to her someone cares enough. So, McLintock! ended that era.Earlier in McLintock! 20something Becky (played to perfection by Stephanie Powers) gets a deserved and needed spanking from ranch hand Dev (played by Patric Wayne). The climax is G.W. McLintock (Wayne) spanking Katherine (Maureen O'Hara). She had been demanding a divorce because she had found "lipstick" on GW's collar circa 1894.In the scene when Becky and Dev announce their engagement she has left a vivid lip print on his cheek.Probably in that era women did not wear cosmetics on their lips which would leave a mark as a result of a kiss. Also, such lip color would have been termed "lip rouge" since the term "lipstick" did not come into use until WWI circa 1917. But why let history get in the way of a great comedy.Minutes ago I finished watching a commercial anniversary DVD. I must have watched that a few times a year since I bought it. This movie always makes me fell entertained and happy.

Perhaps not the film for those with a humour bypass or with political correctness issues but for the rest of us we can have a good old belly laugh at a movie that doesn't and isn't meant to be taken seriously.McLintock is an interesting character,on the surface an overbearing womanising drinker but underneath a good natured man with a heart of gold.He is tolerant of his daughter's choice of husband (a hard working but penniless young dirt farmer)He is also determined that the local native Americans have a square deal even though he has had some dust ups with them in the past.He enjoys a game of chess with the Jewish store keeper,a much valued friend who in the past gave McLintock and his then young family credit to survive a bad winter.If the film reflects Wayne's politics its done with a good humour.Unusually for a Wayne western nobody gets killed.Apart from a few punch up bruises the only injuries suffered are several punctured posteriors courtesy of Maureen O'Hara's hatpin.The plot concerns McLintock's estranged wife coming home to collect their daughter and to get a divorce.Like"The Quiet Man" the issue is settled by Wayne's character chasing our Maureen all around the town causing all sorts of mayhem then giving her a good spanking.He did the same to Elisabeth Allen in "Donovan's Reef".Oh well,if it works go for it,I wouldn't try it on my darling wife mind you.Old favourites Chill Wills and the delectable Yvonne de Carlo make welcome appearances,likewise the cameo from Leo Gordon was sublime.Gordon was one of the great western badies nobody had more shades of villainy,not even Lee Marvin.His previous appearance with Wayne was in "Hondo"He really surpasses himself,a loathsome horrible piece of work.Here he plays more stupid than bad as the worried father concerned with his daughter's whereabouts.Trying to hang the native American he holds responsible is not a good idea.She then turns up with a young cowboy in tow all fluttering eyelashes and feigned innocence.The rest is pure magic.Wayne grabs Gordon's shotgun repeatedly poking him in the stomach with it saying the immortal words 'Pilgrim,you've caused me considerable inconvenience,I haven't lost my temper in forty years,there was a time I would have hit you,I'm not going to now,the hell I'm not'The rest is history.With a nod to political correctness I'll give it eight stars,the hell I will make that ten.