I watched Mclintock last night, and it was actually really easy to find similarities to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. It starts with the leading lady. Her name in the play is Katharine; in the movie? Katherine. She is a wild woman, uses short, snappy responses, and is particularly stubborn and ornery with G.W. Mclintock, her husband (played by John Wayne). In one scene, their housekeeper says something to Katherine, and she looks at Mclintock with disgust and says, "Are you going to stand there with a stupid look on your face while the hired help insults your wife?" This reminded me of Katherine in Taming of the Shrew; her responses are so feisty and biting. For example, in the first act of the play, Petruchio says, "Good morning, Kate, for that's your name, I hear," to which she responds, "Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing. They call me Katharine that do talk of me."
The western movie was all about Katherine being stubborn, feisty, shrewish, and especially short towards her husband, G.W. Mclintock. It also shows a lot of the interaction these two had, and although they were already married at the beginning of the movie (in contrast to Petruchio and Katharine), I couldn't help but make connections between the two performances.
