Jerry Van Dyke

John Wayne stars as Cattle baron George Washington McLintock, who fights with his wife, his daughter, and political land-grabbers, finally "taming" them all.

McLintock! -- Cattle baron, banker and model citizen George McLintock has the world in the palm of his hands. The only thing missing is his wife who left him two years earlier. In an effort to get his life back, he saves an impoverished widow and hires her as his cook--welcoming both her and her two children into his home.

Who will be the next Mrs. Corbett? Will it be the chic designer? The Miss Montana Pageant hopeful? The headstrong lady across the hall? It's a big decision for any boy to make for his recently widowed dad! Like father, like son. You'll like 'em both when renowned child actor and future Oscar winner Ronny Howard portrays Eddie and Glenn Ford is his dad. Vincente Minnelli (Gigi) directs, using his flair for vivid colors and balancing the film's humor with the real sense of loss a family feels over a loved one's passing. Shirley Jones, Dina Merrill and Stella Stevens portray the prospects under Eddie's self-appointed scrutiny. The amiable Courtship continued years later with a same-titled TV series starring Bill Bixby.

Wayne shows off his funny side in this 1963 western, a comedy inspired by The Taming of the Shrew. Starring as wealthy cattle baron G.W. McLintock, Wayne shows a real sense of comic timing in several scenes filled with slapstick humor. After his wife (Maureen O'Hara) and daughter leave him for the East, McLintock attempts to win them back. The dynamics between O'Hara and Wayne are the strong suit of this film, the actors having worked together previously on The Quiet Man. As this is by no means a revisionist western, McLintock's chauvinistic attempts to "tame" his wife fit within the problematic ideology of the larger western genre. The ultimate example of this comes at the end of the film when McLintock settles his marital dispute by publicly "spanking" his wife in what is now a notorious cinematic moment.