If the John Birch Society decided to do a Western remake of The Taming of the Shrew and got Donald Trump to direct, you'd wind up with this film.And yet I like it. As the Duke and Maureen O'Hara have moved into middle age the sparks still fly when they are on screen together. G. W. McLintock (Wayne) settled this wild western country with his young wife Kate (O'Hara) years ago, and McLintock is now a wealthy rancher. But he has problems. First off the government has given large tracts of surrounding land to some poor people so they can farm. The problem is, the land is not fit for farming. However, some crooked government agents just tell the settlers that G.W. doesn't want farmers surrounding his ranch land. His long estranged wife Kate, is back in town saying she wants a divorce. And finally, McLintock's daughter has returned home after graduating college and her boyfriend is just not masculine enough to suit G.W. (Jerry Van Dyke as Matt Douglas Jr.). To boot, Matt's dad, a blowhard politician, is making romantic overtures to Kate.G.W. is confused. He can't figure out why his wife left him, and she can't really communicate her issues very well either, although she is very good at insulting him. He still loves her, and you can tell she still loves him, mainly by the look on her face when anybody talks about "the good old days" when she and G.W. were first starting out. The film has all kinds of messages I don't like - that women are just looking for a man to stand up to them and give them a good spanking. Although these scenes are played as broad comedy, it still sends a weird message fifty years later. Then there is G.W. intending to disinherit his daughter, his only child, so she can have the joy of noble poverty and building something up from nothing which will, of course, require a man back in the old west. Then there is a pheasant hunting - more like shooting - scene that just looks too real. I'm sure People Eating Tasty Animals might not mind, but PETA probably would.What's good about it? Anytime you get Maureen O'Hara and the Duke together you have screen magic. Then there is a great mud fight scene that may be silly but it is fun watching the Duke as G.W. trying to resist his temper when one of the settlers does something macho and stupid - and that's a high bar to reach in this film - and finds he just can't do it. Mass fighting between people who don't even have a grudge against each other and sliding into a nearby mudpit ensues. Think barroom brawl here, just outside. Then there is McLintock trying to retire his current cook and hire a settler widow woman in his place. But retirement doesn't mean what it does today. McLintock tells the old cook that he'll be part of the family, living in the house with everybody else, just not having to cook anymore. Sounds like a good deal to me. So McLintock is a good boss who is fair to his employees and apparently just doesn't turn them out in the street in their old age.Maybe Wayne could see that people might have a problem with the spanking and the pheasants and the mocking of the effeminate boyfriend, and so he put in a few scenes about the bad treatment of the Indians at the time to even things out.I'm no raging feminist, so for me to get offended there must be something offensive there. Yet I'd say take it in the context of the times, enjoy the magic of the Duke and Maureen O'Hara, and just look at it as not intending to be harmful and you'll probably enjoy it. After all, the Duke had to do a comedy every few movies or he'd just become a parody of himself. And besides, Dick York was telling Elizabeth Montgomery "no wife of mine is going to work!" in "Bewitched" until the late 1960s. Although I doubt he would have ever spanked her or she would have turned him into a newt.

Looking at the reviews on this site, it appears this film has many fans. I cannot understand why.First of all, the script has no charm. I loved Wayne and O'Hara in The Quiet Man, but here they are working with a script that more closely resembles a Road Runner cartoon (mug for the camera, hit someone over the head with the nearest object, then fall hilariously over your own feet!).Saying that the concept is based upon The Taming of the Shrew does not make it better.Everything that happens in the film is broadcast in advance. There are no surprises. Slapstick can be an art, but here there is no joy in it. I don't mean to belittle the opinions of others. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. But I found no genuine laughs in this movie. There are so many other worthy films out there.

The thought of former swashbuckling leading ladies Maureen O'Hara and Yvonne De Carlo duking it out over "Duke" John Wayne comes out a disappointment in this otherwise enjoyable comedy. Separated for two years, fighting married couple Wayne and O'Hara are reunited in his small rural community when their daughter (Stefanie Powers) comes home. The Duke's real-life son, Patrick Wayne, plays cook De Carlo's son, and falls for the fiery Powers, resulting in a two-generation battle of the sexes with more than a passing resemblance to "Taming of the Shrew".There's also an Indian raid, a group fight with men sliding down into a mud pit (ultimately joined by the perfectly clad O'Hara), drunken attempts for Wayne and De Carlo to get up the Tara-like staircase, and a slapstick finale where O'Hara, showing off a still lovely figure after being stripped (or ripped) down to her bodice, tries to escape from her husband while ensued by the entire town. This being De Carlo's only film with Wayne, I longed to see more of her, but this is more than just the "guest appearance" she is billed with, given half a dozen major scenes and some good verbal spars with O'Hara that give the impression that the two will end up buddies, especially since it appears that they are going to end up related anyway.Wayne always succeeded in comedy, especially in spoofing his western tough guy image, and he's very funny here. He also adds compassion for the Native American tribe fighting relocation to a reservation. O'Hara's a bit tougher here and overly hot-tempered, a bit quick to assume the worst about her dipsomaniac husband. But once she finds out the truth, she silently mutters an apologetic "oops" and becomes quite likable. Such professionals as Edgar Buchannan, Chill Wills and Jack Kruschen offer fine support, with "B" movie actress Mari Blanchard memorable in a tiny part as an obvious madame. (Interesting to note that I initially confused her for De Carlo, so imagine my surprise when she actually did show up as the younger Wayne's mama.) There's also a very funny sequence involving a rodeo contest with men racing on horses while having (in some of the cases) a year-old egg in their mouth. This results in an amusing scene where a pretentious politician named "Cuthbert" (Robert Lowery) really does end up with egg on his face.

All the "baddies" are bureaucrats and called Cuthbert and Douglas, and all the "good guys" cowboys, and called Jake and Curly and G.W. (OK, and Devlin); and a fine time is had by all.I'm about as un-Republican as it gets, but this is my favourite John Wayne movie by quite a distance. A few of the jokes are overplayed, but in general it's a-sprawlin', horse-talking', action-filled, spankin' good fun (with a few spankin's thrown in for good measure). The two hours just fly by, and they can be watched more than once.John Wayne proves he had a funny-bone, and Maureen O'Hara matches him word for word and blow for blow; and they're ably supported by a fine cast, the standout of which is Chill Wills as the bewildered sidekick and family retainer.The only real inequality about this movie is that it isn't remembered as 'hers' just as much as 'his'.And in the midst of all this rip-roarin', stereotyped fun, they even had time to portray the Indians as a proud people, shabbily treated by a triumphalist government. That, in my book, offsets its minor drawbacks enough to give it a 10.*This* was the birthplace of Rooster Cogburn.