McLintock!

"The John Wayne estate being one of the more recalcitrant movie organizations of its kind, they've allowed McLintock! to fall out of copyright and, since the rushed release of a videocassette edition in 1993, have refused to release the movie on either laserdisc or DVD; and since 1998, they've left the latter format's release to pirate outfits such as Goodtimes. Whatever their reasons, it's not doing the public any favors. As a ten-dollar release in an era when most DVDs were priced around 24 dollars, Goodtimes' edition of McLintock! was barely adequate, made from what looked like a panned-and-scanned television print; it wasn't as bright or sharp as the image or sound on the authorized videotape release from MPI, but it was passable, for the money. Standards have changed, however, and prices have come down, and the Goodtimes version of McLintock! no longer seems such a bargain or quite so adequate. The picture can look fuzzy and grainy at times, with dirt and marks (mostly vertical lines) on the source print showing up occasionally as well. The 12 chapters cover the action reasonably well, and if one can tolerate an image that's about on a par with a poor mid-'60s local television presentation. The film starts up automatically, and the menu and chapters must be accessed manually. There is no significant annotation or other embellishment. One can only hope that someday the Wayne estate makes this and other pirate releases irrelevant by issuing a proper DVD edition of the movie."