The performances are brilliant, with Stewart adding greater depth to his standard nice guy persona and Wayne close to Red River/The Searchers meanness, yet his Tom Doniphon is also a man capable of heroism even at great personal loss to himself. Lee Marvin, still some years away from stardom, gives us a memorable display of sneering villainy as the swaggering Valance.
With The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ford showed he didn’t need the panoramic vistas of Monument Valley to make a great western; all he needed was a good story and talented actors and in Wayne and Stewart he had that and more.
McLintock! (1963)
The ‘60s saw the comedy western genre really come into its own - The Hallelujah Trail (1965), Cat Ballou (1965), The Scalphunters (1968) and Support Your Local Sheriff (1969), to name just a few. North to Alaska (1960) was John Wayne’s first comedy western but he topped it three years later with McLintock!, one of the subgenres finest.
The film pairs Wayne with Maureen O'Hara once again with the couple's stormy marriage the core of the film. As well as his wife, George Washington McLintock (Wayne) must also contend with his spoiled, citified daughter and a scheme to steal land from the local Indians.
But this isn’t really a film concerned about plot; it’s about fun, not just for the viewer but for the cast as well. Surrounded by family (Patrick Wayne co-stars, while eldest son Michael produces) and old friends like O’Hara, Chill Wills, and Bruce Cabot, Duke is having a ball and that translates to lots of laughs for the viewer, with the actor displaying superb comic timing.
Andrew V. McLaglen directed Wayne in five films but this, their first, is by far the best. McLaglen doesn’t need to do much, just make sure he has his camera pointed in the right direction to capture the fun but he does it well. He may have learned his craft from John Ford but there are some things that can’t be taught and his films have none of the poetry of Ford; they are workmanlike, solid but unexceptionally made, with his best films elevated by great scripts or performances, and it’s the performances that make McLintock! such a treat.
Not the greatest western ever made but definitely one of the best comedy westerns, this ranks alongside The Quiet Man as the most unashamedly fun movie Wayne ever made.
Article comments
1 - dino martin peters
Hey pallie, love your Dinodescription in "Sons of Katie Elder." Truly our Dino "breezes through on star charisma and charm alone." Never was, never will be anyone as cool as the King of Cool. Oh, to return to the days when Dino walked the earth!!