Question

It can be erotic, but what happened in this pic was nothing more than torture.

There's quite a bit of difference - In All of Me and The Secretary, the ladies enjoyed it. In Cattle Annie the girl was an outlaw and was too young to shoot or hang. But in McLintock the respective ladies were beaten with a metal coal shovel for displeasing men. At least in Love Crimes the two were alone in a bedroom, but both the McLintock spankings were public. And in Federal Protection, the girl nagged the guy to spank her with the riding crop, then reneged after two whacks cos - wait for it - it hurt!!!

I thought what Glen Campbell did to Kim Darby in True Grit while the Duke looked on was excessive, but McLintock went way too far.

You think spanking is an acceptable recourse? It's not! In reality, that coal shovel would have caused unbearable pain, and perhaps even permanent skin damage. Not funny!

I’m sorry to have offended you. I simply gave facts about the movie to further demonstrate that this film cannot be viewed from a modern perspective. While the women made their men unhappy, the displeasure was not simply a result of a little quirk that annoyed the men. The women’s behavior was also ridiculous to others, and negatively affected them and potentially those around them. –I’m not trying to justify hitting anyone with a coal shovel; I’m attempting to present the attitude with which the film was and should be viewed in order to fully appreciate it.

Regarding Maureen O’Hara’s comments on the film, I used phrases such as “I believe she said something like” because at the time, I did not have Ms. O’Hara’s actual words, and to misrepresent them would have been wrong. I have both seen her comment on this film in an interview and read her words in her autobiography. Now that I have the book in front of me, I can give direct quotes: She says of McLintock! “There are so many great scenes in the picture.” After discussing the fight scene in the mud, and the several fabulous and dangerous stunts she does in the chase scene at the end, she writes, “Of course, the scene finally ends with Duke getting a good lick in by throwing me over his knee and spanking me with a hand shovel. I’m always asked, ‘Did it hurt?’ It sure as hell did. My behind was black and blue for days.” She was black and blue-as anyone would be after being on the receiving end of a spanking with a coal shovel. It was in the interview, if I recall correctly, that she positively, in plain terms, stated that Wayne spanked her with the coal shovel. As movie audiences can see, her costume was the last shreds of her underwear, so there was no room for padding of any kind. This is not true in the case of Stephanie Powers; she was wearing a full period dress. Although I cannot be sure of the “padding” used in this movie, it was a common practice to put a board in the petticoats of the dress for a spanking scene in order to protect the actress. Obviously, she had the easier job-or maybe not-she had to act more.

It is nearly impossible to watch this movie from a modern perspective. Although the women’s rights movement was becoming more active in the 60’s, many people, including women, were wary of it. This was a nostalgia film – a return to the past & “the good ole days,” so naturally it reflects the beliefs of those times. We should not watch an older film in which a mother teaches her daughter to serve her husband, that men are infinitely smarter (and thus always right), and that all women always belong only in the home, and focus the entire time on how wrong that is. Of course it is wrong, but did the people of the time believe that is was wrong? (In most cases) No. It’s simply not fair to tear a movie apart because it reflects the beliefs of our ancestors. For example, one cannot read Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and complain about how Kate “grovels at Petruchio’s feet” at the play’s end. Women in Shakespeare’s time were basically worth nothing without a husband. Also, hopefully a reader would be able to look past Kate’s final speech and recognize that it would be nearly impossible for her to go from completely independent to entirely subservient because her husband, Petruchio, tames her using his method of killing her with kindness. It is very possible that Kate has grown to love Petrucio and wants to please him. Also, because she is intelligent, she knows that life will be easier and her marriage will be happier if she does as he asks, especially in public. I have known people to condemn this great work by the master playwright because they do not like the ending, or they do not look beyond the surface. (I used this play as an example because McLintock! Is loosely based off of TTotS.)
It is my hope that the audience can watch the movie (and read the play, if any member is so inclined) from that perspective. And it is my belief that the movie will then be more enjoyable.

As I said before, I’m sorry to have offended you. This is my opinion, supported by facts. I suppose, in a case like this, we’ll have to respectfully agree to disagree.

Now that you mention it, I now recall that the Liz Taylor - Richard Burton Taming of the Shrew included a spanking scene that Shakespeare never wrote about.

The words in the Shakespeare play "The Taming of the Shrew" do not include mention of a spanking. Nevertheless, on stage -- even in modern times -- some productions of the play do include a scene where Petruchio spanks Katharine. Here's why:

William Shakespeare, as good a wordsmith as ever walked the earth, was great with dialogue but notoriously stingy with stage directions. Aside from the simple words "Enter" and "Exit," there are few stage directions to be found in any Shakespearean works. Compare this with George Bernard Shaw, whose plays abound in meticulous instructions as to what each character is to look like, their height, their ages, their clothing, and every other minor detail you can think of. Some of Shaw's stage directions consume an entire page.

For this reason, Shaw is pretty much "set in stone" -- but not Shakespeare. As I mentioned, "The Taming of the Shrew" HAS been staged with a spanking scene included, and in fact I have personally seen a production of a Shakespearean play which included a spanking scene, though it is not mentioned in his prose.

When I was a youngster, my mother took me to see the Sadler Wells Ballet on tour, when they staged their production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Right about in the middle of the show, Hermia and Lysander are having their famous argument, and in one, deft move, Lysander grabs her over his knee and spanks her. Shakespeare never wrote that; but by default, he did give all future producers of his plays license to interpret them as it suited them.

Cheers,
Dan





English subtitles are a MUST on all DVD releases!