Cringe inducing and so STUPID

"People, people, people!" to quote Drago before he hit the mud for the umpteenth time.

It's a COMEDY! It's "The Taming of the Shrew" ("10 Things I Hate About You" for those under 25). I abhor the deification of the old, rich, anti-intellectual, antigovernment, rigidly individualistic white male and the quiet misogyny that accompanies it, but it was 1963!

1963 was two years after director Blake Edwards' repulsive, racist characterization of Mr. Yunioshi by Micky Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the 13th highest grossing film of 1961. Upon its release, the NYT review covered that with just "Mickey Rooney's bucktoothed, myopic Japanese is broadly exotic." The times were not yet a-changin'. "McLintock!" was released 9 days before JFK was shot, 3 months before the Beatles arrived in the US. It was a very different world.

Without even going into who did and who did not have disposable income to see movies in theatres in 1963, it's also a ROM-COM! Are there SMART romantic comedies?

If someone wants to bash the 52-year-old flick, s/he should be going after John Wayne's determination to beat his personal values (back to inflexible individualism again) into the audience, after Batjac, Wayne's production company which made it, and the producer, Michael Wayne (John's son), who hired TV Western director Andrew V. McLaglen, the man who would have told O'Hara to overact. Her work in Miracle on 34th Street, How Green Is My valley, The Quiet Man, The Parent Trap, and others does not show her to chronically overact. Stefanie Powers was just getting started in Hollywood and still learning her craft and role in the obviously male-run TV & film industry.

A good summation. In essence this is an extended slapstick comedy and if one isn't into this type of humor you're probably not going to like it.

Perhaps Maureen O'Hara over does it as "the shrew", but it is in keeping with the spirit and tenor of the film.

I wouldn't describe it as a great comedy-western, but it's enjoyable and has held up rather well over the years.

EXCELLENT REPLY!! I LOVE this movie and have seen it over TEN TIMES!! I think Maureen O'Hara and Stephanie Powers are a THOUSAND TIMES better actresses than MEryl Streep or Candice Bergen or any of those modern day actresses

For the haters of this movie, you obviously take yourselves and the value of your "insights" way too seriously. When I watch a film like this I don't look at it for hidden meanings or anything so cerebral...it's more like was it entertaining? YES is the only answer that applies. It's funny in both the slapstick and verbal aspects and is one of The Duke's best ever. As for the ladies in th movie, the only under used one was DeCarlo...would like to have seen more scenes with her.


"If you give a mouse a cookie...it's gonna want a glass of milk."

[deleted]