- Directed by Gunsmoke veteran Andrew V. McLaglen, McLintock! belongs to the truly strange film subgenre of the comedy western. Despite the fact that there have been a handful of great westerns and about as many great comedies, I don't believe that there has ever been a great comedy western, although Blazing Saddles and ¡Three Amigos! have come closest. That the future director of a direct sequel to The Dirty Dozen, an implied sequel to Bridge on the River Kwai, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan favorite Mitchell would fail to make even a good comedy western is perhaps not surprising.
- McLintock!'s most valuable asset is certainly its talented cast, which includes John Wayne as the eponymous rancher G. W. McLintock, Maureen O'Hara as his estranged wife Katherine, Stefanie Powers as their rebellious daughter, Wayne's own son Patrick as a sincere laborer, and Yvonne De Carlo as his mother. Wayne tends to help every movie he's in, and it's no surprise that he even succeeds in making this wealthy, gruff, insensitive rancher seem interesting enough, even when he's drunkenly tumbling down the stairs. Talented character actors (Jack Kruschen, Chill Wills, Jerry Van Dyke, Strother Martin, Hank Worden) also abound, helping to smooth over some of the film's rough patches.
- But boy, those rough patches. For starters, there's a weird running joke that revolves around spanking. While the spanks directed at men are playful enough, those inflicted upon the women are downright humiliating. The film is also very weird in its portrayal of non-white characters (Perry Lopez, Michael Pate, H.W. Gim) in that it seems to be sympathetic towards them without granting most of them even an ounce of dignity. At any rate, the film's most memorable scene is a gigantic fracas that leaves its participants wallowing in a mud pit while the Native Americans depart because there isn't any whiskey. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about McLintock!.
