John Wayne (“The Searchers”, “The Shootist”) stars in this light-hearted and pleasant Western comedy, although Wayne’s films usually can have a funny moment or two that’ll put a grin in your face but here we don’t rely on cowboy gunslinging, we rely on Wayne’s charm.

Wayne stars as G.W. McLintock, who is a cattle baron and the richest man in the territory, in this loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Strew”. He must battle greedy landowners, a weasely Indian agent, his headstrong wife Katherine (Maureen O’Hara “The Parent Trap”) and his equally headstrong daughter. What happens in it isn’t incredibly clever or highly amusing but it is fun.

John Wayne does not play charming people but he plays them charmingly (in their own way). Here we see him give another one of his generally dislikeable characters a reason to like them by saying lines in the manner only Wayne can. Every time I see him in a movie I feel a sudden level of respect for him, not just for his contributions to Western movies but cinema in general. Maureen O’Hara provides a reasonable amount of laughter as Katherine McClintock. The other characters aren’t too impressive but it doesn’t really matter.

If you’re looking for a movie that isn’t too deep and you won’t have to pay that much attention to find it amusing then “McClintock!” isn’t a bad choice in the slightest. Despite the fact it isn’t particularly funny, it is still worth the watch because not only do we get to see John Wayne do something a bit different but it is done in such a nice way that you can’t complain. It’s worth checking out if you are a John Wayne fans and those not particularly fond of more traditional Westerns might find this more accessible.