(based on 2 ratings)

George Washington McLintock (John Wayne) has a saddlebag full of trouble. The owner of the largest ranch in the territory, which also includes a mine and a lumber mill that he built up himself, should be a happy, fulfilled man, but he isnt. His wife, Katherine (Maureen OHara), walked out on him two years ago without a word of explanation and has been living back east and running in very fancy circles. Hes getting older, a fact of which hes constantly reminded as friends around him decline in health. Hes being challenged by their sons, eager to make their mark on the territory, and by the homesteaders who are pouring in with the support of the government, hoping to farm on land thats just barely adequate for cattle to graze on; hes got government officials underfoot, including an inept Indian agent (Strother Martin) and a corrupt land agent (Gordon Jones); the thick-headed, longwinded territorial governor, the honorable Cuthbert H. Humphrey (Robert Lowery), and the government back east are trying to push the Indians -- whose chiefs are some of McLintocks oldest enemies and his best and most honored friends -- by shipping them off to a reservation, where theyll be cared for like old women; and to top it all off, Katherine is coming back to secure a divorce and take custody of their 17-year-old daughter, Rebecca (Stefanie Powers), whos been at school back east and no longer likes anything to do with the West, any more than her mother does. All of that -- plus the presence of a young hired hand (Patrick Wayne) whos interested romantically in McLintocks daughter -- is the setup for a sprawling comedy Western with serious overtones, part battle-of-the-sexes and part political tract. McLintock! was made mostly to keep John Waynes production company solvent in the wake of the losses incurred from the production of The Alamo. Wayne needed a film that could be made quickly and have mass appeal, and he got more than he bargained for in James Edward Grants screenplay, which owed a little to both +The Taming of the Shrew and The Quiet Man. Shot in the spring of 1963 and premiered in late November of that year, McLintock! proved to be one of the stars most popular and successful films of the 60s. It was a prized possession of the Wayne estate and was held unavailable for all of the 80s and beyond until they missed the copyright renewal in 1991 -- after that, it emerged in numerous substandard videocassette and DVD editions. There was an authorized VHS edition from MPI in the early 90s, and there were legitimate showings on WTBS, but until 2005 there was no decent quality DVD version. Late that year, Paramount Home Video, working under license from the Wayne estate, released a beautiful letterboxed DVD edition loaded up with extras. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide