Film

McLintock!

Name: McLintock!
Genre: Western, Comedy
Released: 1963
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne, Stefanie Powers, Jack Kruschen

McLintock! is John Wayne playing loud, lovable, and thoroughly unbothered by subtlety — a cattle-baron comedy that swaps gunfights for pratfalls and lands its biggest laugh in a mud pit. It's broad, brassy, and unmistakably of its era, with O'Hara matching Wayne shout for shout. Watch it for the physical comedy and Wayne visibly having fun, not for grace or nuance.

TMDb rating

6.6

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The Quiet Man1952

Same Wayne/O'Hara sparring chemistry, courtesy of John Ford, but tenderer and funnier, with an Ireland that's practically a third character in the fight.

But Ford's romanticized Ireland leans hard into stage-Irish stereotypes that haven't aged gracefully.

Rio Bravo1959

Wayne at his most relaxed, trading barbs with Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson in a western that's basically a hangout movie with a jailbreak stapled on.

But It's slower and drier than McLintock's slapstick — more lounging than laughing out loud.

North to Alaska1960no page yet

Wayne again plays a blustery, big-hearted brawler, this time chasing gold and a woman across Alaska with the same rowdy, punch-happy comic energy.

But The jokes are broader and the plot even thinner than McLintock's, if you can believe it.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Little Big Man1970

Both films run on the same premise — a stubborn landowner squaring off against government men and Indigenous neighbors over territory — but where McLintock plays that history for broad comedy, this one drags it into daylight and asks what the joke actually cost.

Dustin Hoffman narrates a century of westward expansion with a satirist's eye, taking seriously everything McLintock jokes past — land, broken promises, and Native Americans.

But It's frequently bleak where McLintock is frothy, and the humor curdles into real horror by the end.

Support Your Local Sheriff!1969

James Garner sends up the whole western-comedy genre with sharper, drier wit than Wayne ever attempted, and the town's incompetence is the real punchline.

But There's no big brawl, no Wayne bluster — it's a gentler, more verbal kind of funny.

Cat Ballou1965

A spoof western with Lee Marvin pulling double duty, and a genuinely anarchic sense of humor about the genre's own myths and heroes.

But Its tone swings from slapstick to surprisingly dark, which can feel less steady than McLintock's straightforward silliness.

The War Wagon1967no page yet

Wayne and Kirk Douglas bicker their way through a heist-western with the same macho comic swagger and a great mismatched-buddies energy.

But The comedy here is incidental, bolted onto an action plot rather than being the whole point.

True Grit1969

Wayne's Oscar-winning turn shows what the same bluster looks like with real stakes and grief underneath — still funny, but not only funny.

But It trades McLintock's farce for something closer to an actual western, with real violence and consequence.

Adam's Rib1949

Tracy and Hepburn do the battle-of-the-sexes thing McLintock is chasing, except with genuine wit instead of a mud pit, and it's razor sharp throughout.

But No cowboys, no ranch, no punch-ups — this fight happens entirely in a courtroom.

Father Goose1964no page yet

Cary Grant plays a scruffy, cantankerous man forced to share space with a woman who won't be bossed, wrung for the same comic friction McLintock runs on.

But It swaps the American West for a tropical island, and Grant's grump is quieter than Wayne's roar.

The Taming of the Shrew1929no page yet

McLintock's whole engine — a loud man and a louder woman fighting their way toward reconciliation through public humiliation — is a direct descendant of the shrew-taming comedy, and this is close to where that engine first got bolted together for the screen.

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, real-life Hollywood royalty, throw crockery and insults at each other in an early-talkie comedy that's the ancestor of every 'she needs taming, he needs humbling' plot since.

But It's a creaky 1929 production with primitive sound and pacing that modern audiences often find genuinely tough going.

Yellowstone2018

Same shape entirely — aging cattle baron, land under siege from every direction, family loyalty as the real battleground — just with the comedy drained out and the stakes turned lethal.

John Dutton is McLintock without the jokes — a patriarch defending an enormous ranch from government agencies, developers, and his own family, played for blood instead of laughs.

But It's a multi-season commitment, grim and violent where McLintock is a lark, with none of the comic relief.