A wise Indian once asked, "Where's the whiskey?" He sought
the answer all across the frontier, practically risking his neck. He found many
parties, but alas, no whiskey. His spirit now wanders, restlessly, and it has
been said that you can still hear him asking for a nip when the wind blows.
Tragic.
McLintock!, pronounced with either a -tick or -tock at the end,
depending on who you ask, is a western-inspired retelling of William
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The shrew here is the lovely
Maureen O'Hara who plays Katherine "Katie" McLintock. Against her
better judgement, Katie returns home to her cattle baron husband, G.W. McLintock
(John Wayne), only to try to scoop up her daughter (Stefanie Powers) and take
her away from the "uncivilized" life and men (particularly Patrick Wayne) on the frontier. Unfortunately,
things don't go so smoothly for Mrs. Uppity, because the frontier life is too
much fun to give up.
McLintock! doesn't take its plot too seriously. It knows that when the
story starts to slack off it's time to throw in some slapstick, and there's
plenty of slapstick to enjoy. The brawl in the mud pit is pretty iconic, and so
is the ending when the typical gun duel in the middle of the street is replaced
with a much-needed spanking. The spanking may irk those who like to throw
buzzwords around, but eh... it was fun to see Maureen running around in her
knickers.
McLintock! is available at the Franklin County Library!
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