In his memoirs, Frank Capra talks of working on Circus World with John Wayne and the latter's screenwriter, James Edward Grant. Grant delivered a pithy summary of what made a successful Wayne film - something along the lines of gags, flags and a girl with big boobs the Duke could put over his lap and spank. That's very much the tone and story of this film, which Grant wrote (and was made just before Circus World) - but there are a few other Wayne films like it, notably The Quiet Man, Donovan's Reef and North to Alaska.
This is meant to be a comic version of Taming of the Shrew which actually would be a fantastic idea - but this isn't really Taming of the Shrew, although it's got some of the same elements. It's more a comedy of remarriage - Wayne is the kind of unofficial mayor of a small town, a successful cattleman, who is estranged from wife Maureen O'Hara. She returns to town as their daughter Stefanie Powers comes home from school. Powers is a little hoity toity and interested in smarmy Jerry Van Dyke but soon comes to her senses and goes for honest, dull Patrick Wayne. O'Hara is very hoity toity but soon winds up in mud and getting spanked and is a good egg.
It's a little long at over two hours but does have a breezy charm and genuine family feel - Wayne is very comfortable, and if his son is wooden at least it's his son; the Duke and O'Hara always had good chemistry, and people like Chill Wills do their schtick. It's fun to see Yvonne de Carlo pop up as a threat to O'Hara - two survivors of 50s technicolor, right-wingers getting along well with the Duke.
The film's a bit offensive by today's standards - a friend referred to it as a "rape comedy", and there are jokes about women getting black eyes and comically drunken Indians. Although to be fair Wayne and his friends get up to antics on behalf of the Indians being exploited by local agents, which is surprisingly PC.
The movie has more serious dramatic flaws - Wayne and O'Hara became separated for a reason and that reason isn't really resolved (you can't imagine these two being happily married after the final curtain - the same issues are going to rear their head). De Carlo's character probably should've been a genuine threat instead of a pretend one. The romance between Wayne and Powers is really undercooked. The script could've been tightened.
But if you're in the mood for a John Wayne comedy (and he made surprisingly few of them) - this will fit the bill.
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