Cinema: Wall-to-Wall Range War

McLintock. A John Wayne western used to be as rigidly formalized as a Japanese No drama: sheriff v. badman, farmer v. cowman and all that. This latest epic shovels up songs, slapstick, civic spirit and a drawing room comedy cut to the size of a range war. It is dedicated to the proposition that where there’s a will, there’s a Wayne, or even several of them. McLintock is produced by Son Michael, 29, casts Daughter Aissa, 7, in a minor role, and features Heir Apparent Patrick Wayne, 24.

But, at 56, Big John is still king. As Cattle Baron George Washington McLintock, he rules a dusty duchy that includes a town, a railroad depot, and a couple of hundred square miles of the Mesa Verde. “I’m gonnna leave most of it to the nation for a park,” he says. The only thing G.W. can’t rule is his missus, Maureen O’Hara, who keeps bolting out of the herd and heading East, where she picks up the notion that she wants a divorce. Mesa Verde’s social horizons seem limited, since the highlight of the season is apt to be a free-for-all that ends with half the territory slugging it out hip-deep in a mudhole.

Before Maureen can slip away with Daughter Stefanie Powers to strike a blow for gracious living, McLintock takes Patrick on as a ranch hand. The youngsters’ romance blooms as soon as Stefanie disposes of her Harvard-educated suitor. Out in Marlboro country before the turn of the century, Harvardmen don’t amount to much—they are apt to sing and dance and run off at the mouth. “He says anyone who wants to sell at a profit is reactionary—that’s me!” Wayne growls.

After seeing to it that the old frontier does not become too New, McLintock has to settle matters with his wife (“What put that burr under your saddle?”). For the film’s showdown, Wayne and Actress O’Hara square off in the middle of town. Stripped to her shift, Maureen is dunked in a trough, turned bottomside up for a spanking, finally has to take a running jump onto the buggy to catch a ride home. But women need that. In Wayne’s West, a bit of rough-and-tumble is all it takes to keep a girl’s mind off divorce.