McLintock!

By no means one of John Wayne's best films, McLintock! remains one of the Duke's most beloved. While time has not been kind to the gender politics in this 1963 effort from director Andrew McLaglen, it still offers rollicking and raucous entertainment that easily earns that exclamation point in the title. John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara's palpable chemistry is well served by this frontier adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, with Wayne as cattle baron George Washington McLintock and O'Hara as wife Kate, who wants both a divorce and to take their daughter back East. In the battle of the sexes, you couldn't ask for better sparring partners who stand toe-to-toe and give as good as they get (although Wayne gets the upper hand in a drawn-out, cringe-worthy climactic brouhaha). McLintock! does boast perhaps the quintessential John Wayne scene, in which he puts a troublesome “Pilgrim” in his place (“Somebody ought to belt you right in the mouth. But I won't….the hell I won't”). For years, this was unavailable on home video—adding to its cult cachet—but now after numerous substandard public domain DVD releases, it's great to have these new DVD and dazzling Blu-ray editions. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)[Blu-ray Review—May 20, 2014—Paramount, 127 min., not rated, $22.98—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 1963's McLintock! features a fine transfer and a TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include a stitched-together audio commentary (by film critic Leonard Maltin, film historian Frank Thompson, John Wayne's producer son Michael Wayne, director Andrew McLaglen, and costars Maureen O'Hara, Stefanie Powers, and Michael Pate), the behind-the-scenes segments “The Batjac Story: The Legacy of Michael Wayne” (16 min.), “Maureen O'Hara and Stefanie Powers Remember McLintock!” (14 min.), “A Good Ol' Fashion Fight” (11 min.), “The Corset: Don't Leave Home Without One!” (8 min.), and “2-Minute Fight School” (2 min.), a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a nice extras package makes this the preferred version for those who don't already own the bare-bones Olive release from 2013.]