McLintock! (1963): watch the full film free, legally

G.W. McLintock's Mesa Verde ranch

McLintock! is a 1963 American Western comedy directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and produced by Batjac Productions, John Wayne's company. Filmed in Technicolor and Panavision, it stars Wayne as cattle baron George Washington "G.W." McLintock and Maureen O'Hara as his estranged wife, Katherine. Patrick Wayne, Stefanie Powers, Jack Kruschen, Chill Wills and special guest star Yvonne De Carlo co-star. The story is loosely based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1895, G.W. lives on the Mesa Verde ranch, where he is both the town's namesake and a friend to Sheriff Jeff Lord, store owner Jake Birnbaum, local indigent people and Comanche Indians. He is opposed by town bureaucrat Matt Douglas, Indian agent Agard and Governor Cuthbert H. Humphrey. Katherine left two years earlier without explanation to become a socialite in the East, while their daughter Becky has been away at school.

G.W. warns arriving homesteaders that the dry Mesa Verde is suitable only for cattle ranching, since previous farmers failed amid scarce water sources. Devlin "Dev" Warren, a young settler supporting his widowed mother Louise and sister Alice, asks G.W. for work. After drifter Bunny Dull urges him to beg, Dev reacts angrily to the humiliation. G.W. respects his frankness and hires both Dev and Louise, who becomes the ranch cook. Katherine then returns seeking a divorce. When G.W. refuses, she moves into the ranch and takes charge, including over Louise.

Homesteaders, Comanche and family disputes

Running Buffalo brings Comanche people into town to meet a train carrying their newly released chiefs. Sheriff Lord settles them near the homesteaders despite Douglas's objections. A mistaken belief that the Comanche have abducted a young woman brings the homesteaders close to lynching Running Buffalo. G.W. and his men intervene, and Katherine joins G.W.'s side when a brawl breaks out.

Becky comes home with Matt Douglas Jr., a would-be suitor whom G.W. calls "Junior." Katherine encourages the match largely to irritate her husband. Four Comanche chiefs also arrive, among them Chief Puma, G.W.'s former enemy who became his blood brother. The chiefs face a hearing on whether their people will be relocated to a reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and G.W. agrees to speak for them.

Dev soon clashes with Becky after calling Junior a dude. His boxing ability becomes apparent when he protects Birnbaum's assistant, Davey Elk, in a fistfight. Becky and Junior taunt him, and Dev insults Becky after she kisses Junior before a formal engagement. Becky asks G.W. to shoot Dev. G.W. uses a harmless starter's pistol to frighten him instead, but Dev, believing his life is at risk, spanks Becky with a coal shovel. At the hearing, G.W. delivers Puma's plea to Governor Humphrey, who ignores it. The Comanche chiefs are ordered jailed until their removal to Fort Sill.

Wayne's comic Western experiment

John Wayne developed the script to express his disapproval of Westerns that negatively represented Native Americans, his opinions on marital abuse and his discontent with political corruption from either party. The film deliberately contrasted with earlier Wayne pictures in which he had little creative control, including John Ford's The Searchers. Comedy and slapstick possibilities were central to its use of a Western setting.

Wayne offered the directing job to Andrew McLaglen, son of his longtime co-star Victor McLaglen. It was the first film fully produced by Wayne's son Michael, while Patrick Wayne played Dev. Shot at Old Tucson Studios west of Tucson, Arizona, and at San Rafael Ranch House south of Patagonia and Nogales, Arizona, the production had an estimated budget of $3.5 million to $4.0 million. Wayne insisted that Yvonne De Carlo receive a supporting role after her husband, Bob Morgan, was injured while making How the West Was Won.

The film grossed $14.5 million in North America and earned $7.25 million in United States theatrical rentals. Andrew McLaglen said it "put me in the big time." Bosley Crowther described the scenery as opulent, the outdoor action and color as lush, and questioned whether good intentions were enough for lusty farce. Emanuel Levy later called the film significant as the beginning of Wayne's effort to impose his general views on his pictures.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “McLintock!”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.