Directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen

Starring: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne, Stefanie Powers, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Kruschen, Chill Wills, Jerry Van Dyke, Edgar Buchanan, Bruce Cabot

STORY

George Washington “G.W.” McLintock (John Wayne) is a wealthy cattle baron, landowner and towering presence in the territory. He's accustomed to solving problems, running his ranch and having people listen when he speaks.
There's just one person he can't manage.
His wife.
Katherine “Kate” McLintock (Maureen O'Hara) has been living apart from G.W., and when she comes storming back into town determined to get a divorce and take custody of their daughter Becky, the reunion isn't exactly tender. G.W. and Kate still possess enough chemistry to ignite the prairie—but neither one intends to admit that the marriage may not be as dead as they claim.
Meanwhile, young Becky McLintock (Stefanie Powers) returns home from college with an impeccably polished young suitor, Matt Douglas Jr. (Jerry Van Dyke), only to attract the attention of Devlin Warren (Patrick Wayne), the hardworking son of widow Louise Warren (Yvonne De Carlo). Soon one generation of McLintocks is fighting about marriage while another is rapidly heading toward it.
Around them, G.W. is simultaneously dealing with struggling homesteaders, opportunistic politicians, old friends, government officials and Native Americans being treated unjustly by the authorities. The result isn't the solemn mythology of The Searchers or the grandeur of The Big Trail.
McLintock! is having FUN.
It's sprawling, rambunctious Western comedy built around John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara doing something they did extraordinarily well together: FIGHTING.
And underneath all the yelling, jealousy, mud, horses and mayhem is the obvious fact that G.W. and Kate McLintock remain completely, hopelessly in love with one another.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS

JOHN WAYNE + MAUREEN O'HARA There are screen couples—and then there are John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.
By McLintock!, audiences already knew what happened when these two were put together.
Wayne's enormous physical presence met O'Hara's absolutely fearless refusal to be intimidated by it.
She could go toe-to-toe with him.
And that's essential.
Kate McLintock isn't standing quietly in the background while John Wayne runs the movie.
She comes after him.
Their combative chemistry provides the engine for much of the film.

THIS WAS A WAYNE FAMILY AFFAIR
And HERE is our enormous AINtoid.
John Wayne starred.
His son Michael Wayne PRODUCED the movie.
His son Patrick Wayne CO-STARS in the movie.
And John Wayne served as executive producer. AFI confirms Michael as producer, John as executive producer and Patrick as Devlin Warren.
That's not merely a John Wayne movie.
That's a Wayne family production.

MICHAEL WAYNE RAN THE SHOW BEHIND THE CAMERA
Michael Wayne wasn't receiving some ceremonial family credit.
He was the producer of a large, expensive Western production.
AFI reports Michael estimated the budget at roughly $3.5–$4 million, with production spending around $50,000 per day.
That's serious filmmaking.
And it makes the Batjac connection particularly meaningful.
John Wayne may have been the enormous star standing in front of the camera, but Michael Wayne was helping run the family filmmaking business behind it.

PATRICK WAYNE — THE OTHER WAYNE IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA
Patrick Wayne plays Devlin Warren, Louise's handsome son and Becky's eventual romantic interest.
Patrick had already appeared in several films associated with his father and John Ford, but McLintock! gives him a substantial role right alongside Dad.
And yes.
He was indeed a very handsome guy.
AIN ruling confirmed.

AND STEFANIE POWERS!
Before Hart to Hart made her one of television's most recognizable stars, Stefanie Powers was Becky McLintock.
She was only in her early twenties when McLintock! was made.
So television viewers discovering the movie today get one of our favorite Treasure Chest experiences:
“WAIT. IS THAT—?”
Yes.
That's Jennifer Hart.

YVONNE De CARLO — BEFORE LILY MUNSTER!
And here's ANOTHER one.
Yvonne De Carlo plays Louise Warren.
The following year, television audiences would meet her in an entirely different form:
Lily Munster.
The Munsters premiered in 1964.
So here she is immediately before one of television's most enduring roles—standing beside John Wayne.

BRUCE CABOT RIDES AGAIN
Our Angel and the Badman friend Bruce Cabot turns up here too as Ben Sage.
And classic-film fans know Cabot from King Kong.
We're beginning to learn something very quickly about Westerns:
Everybody knows everybody.
Watch enough of them and the supporting casts become one enormous repertory company.

CHILL WILLS!
And if you're building a Western channel, sooner or later Chill Wills is going to wander through the door.
Here he plays Drago.
That unmistakable gravelly voice and face appeared across decades of Westerns, and he was already one of Hollywood's most recognizable character actors by the time McLintock! was made.

EDGAR BUCHANAN!
And THEN we get Edgar Buchanan as Bunny Dull.
Television audiences may immediately recognize Buchanan as Uncle Joe Carson from Petticoat Junction.
So we're getting John Wayne fans, Maureen O'Hara fans, Hart to Hart fans, The Munsters fans and Petticoat Junctionfans all wandering into the SAME Western.

SEO TREASURE CHEST.

STROTHER MARTIN IS HERE TOO
Look carefully.
Strother Martin plays Agard.
Several years later, Martin would deliver one of the most famous lines in movie history as the Captain in Cool Hand Luke:
“What we've got here is failure to communicate.”

OLD TUCSON!
NOW THIS ONE IS SPECIAL.
AFI confirms that McLintock! filmed extensively at Old Tucson, Arizona, along with other Arizona locations.
And the production didn't merely show up and use whatever was there.
It changed Old Tucson.
AFI reports that the production built thirteen new structures and altered the town's main street for the film.
That's an extraordinary AINtoid because Old Tucson evolved partly through the productions that filmed there.
The Western movie wasn't merely photographed on the location.
The movies helped BUILD the location.

THEY BUILT A RAILROAD STATION BESIDE A REAL WORKING RAILROAD
Here's some wonderful production insanity.
The filmmakers constructed a railroad-station set beside actual Southern Pacific railroad tracks.
There was one small complication.
THE TRAINS WERE STILL USING THEM.
AFI reports that the production repeatedly had to move its movie train out of the way for actual Southern Pacific traffic.
Imagine today's production meeting:
"We're ready to shoot."
"Hold please."
"Why?"
"Actual train."

THAT is an AINtoid.

JOHN WAYNE WANTED DIFFERENT NATIVE AMERICAN PERFORMERS
Here's a particularly interesting production detail.
AFI reports that Wayne said he recruited Native American actors in Arizona because television Westerns had made the Hollywood performers regularly cast as Native Americans too familiar to audiences.
Whatever we think today about the movie's representation—and some elements absolutely belong to the conventions and attitudes of its era—that production decision gives us an interesting window into how Wayne was thinking about Western casting in 1962.

THE MOVIE WAS MADE IN TECHNICOLOR AND PANAVISION
And McLintock! looks completely different from our little 1934 Wayne Westerns.
AFI confirms:
Technicolor.
Panavision.
127 minutes.
Compare that to Blue Steel.
We've traveled from compact black-and-white B-Westerns to an enormous widescreen color production.
Same John Wayne.
Completely different Hollywood.

ANDREW V. McLAGLEN HAD WESTERNS IN HIS BLOOD
Director Andrew V. McLaglen was the son of actor Victor McLaglen, one of John Ford's great stock-company performers and Wayne's memorable co-star in films including The Quiet Man.
So once again, we're looking at generations of Western filmmaking overlapping.
The sons weren't merely inheriting famous names.
They were making movies themselves.

JAMES EDWARD GRANT — ANOTHER WAYNE REGULAR
The screenplay was written by James Edward Grant, who had a long creative association with Wayne.
And we JUST encountered Grant:
He wrote and directed Angel and the Badman.
There it is again.
One movie leads to another.
One filmmaker leads to another.
The AIN rabbit hole continues.
WILLIAM H. CLOTHIER BEHIND THE CAMERA
Cinematographer William H. Clothier photographed McLintock! in glorious widescreen color.
Clothier became one of the great photographers of Western landscapes and worked repeatedly with Wayne and Ford.
So although Archie Stout has finally gotten a night off from our Absolutely Westerns collection, we're still in very distinguished photographic hands.

THE GREAT MUD SLIDE
And then there is THE MUD.
The film's enormous mud-brawl sequence is exactly the kind of scene where McLintock! stops pretending to have dignity and simply becomes a giant Western playground.
Men.
Women.
Mud.
Fights.
People sliding downhill.
Everybody eventually looking ridiculous.
It's not subtle.
It isn't supposed to be.
It's FUN.

ABOUT THAT FAMOUS SPANKING...
Yes.
We have to talk about it.
The climactic chase culminates in G.W. publicly spanking Kate with a coal shovel.
It was played for broad comedy in 1963 and became one of the movie's most famous sequences.
Viewed today, audiences may react very differently to the gender politics and physical comedy than audiences did six decades ago.
And that's okay.
AIN doesn't have to pretend older movies were made yesterday.
Part of watching historical film is seeing what audiences once found funny, romantic, heroic or acceptable—and recognizing where culture has changed.
We preserve the movie.
We provide context.
The viewer decides.

THE FILM WAS A HIT
Despite mixed contemporary critical reaction, audiences showed up.
AFI reports that McLintock! ranked sixth in box-office grosses for December 1963.
John Wayne was still John Wayne.