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The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Following their triumph together in Best Picture nominee Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton again knocked it out of the park with their lusty and sumptuous version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew that has so much going for it, but what we go away with is the white hot chemistry between these two great stars.
For the uninitiated regarding one of the Bard's most celebrated works, in ancient Padua, a wealthy student named Lucentio arrives in order to romance Bianca, the fair young daughter of Baptista, who will not allow Bianca to marry until his older daughter, the shrewish hellcat named Katherine, marries first. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of takers despite the dowry being offered by Baptista. Lucentio and Hortensio, another guy who's nuts about Bianca approach Petruchio, a fortune hunter from Verona, to woo and wed Katherine.
I had to grin when during the credits we learned that screenwriters were Paul Dehn and Susso D'Amico "with acknowledgements to William Shakespeare", which was pretty funny since most of the dialogue is taken word for word from Shakespeare's work, even though there are some alterations in the story, they do work to the film's advantage. The original story spends a little more time with Bianca and her numerous suitors than this film did, I guess the change was made because they wanted the film to be more focused on the Burtons...very smart move.
It was a smart move because the off-the-wall, burn-a-hole-in-the-screen chemistry between Taylor and Burton that makes this movie sizzle. It may have been a different kind of chemistry, but Tracy and Hepburn might have been the only couple who challenged these two for making their movies appointment viewing just because they were in them. They're not all masterpieces but the eleven films that the Burtons made together should be watched, re-watched, studied, and revered.
This film takes a little too much time setting up the story, but once Taylor's Kate and Burton's Petruchio meet, almost 40 minutes into the film, it goes into the entertainment stratosphere. From probably my favorite movie wedding scene ever, to Petruchio's starving of his bride on her wedding night, to the journey there which finds Kate wading through mud in her wedding dress, this movie provides absolutely delicious entertainment throughout. I've seen other versions of this story and there's one thing about this story I have never understood and hoped I would find an answer here: We know that Petruchio is doing this for the dowry but why does Katherine agree? To help Bianca? She hates Bianca, but as I often do, I let it go in favor of the big picture, and what a great picture it is, even if it isn't exactly a study in political correctness or a shining endorsement for the Me Too movement, so be warned.
Even though they might be a tad too old for the roles, Taylor and Burton create another onscreen couple as entertaining as George and Martha. Burton is especially dazzling and Taylor works hard at covering up the fact that the role is a little immature for her. Michael York impresses in his third feature film appearance as Lucentio and Michael Hordern is a lot of fun as Baptista. Natasha Pyne was a little vanilla as Bianca, but since her role was reduced I guess it didn't matter much more. Franco Zeffirelli's direction is perfection. The IMDB reveals that Zeffirelli said making this movie was the most fun he had in his life and it shows. The film was remade as a ballet in 2016 and in 1948 it was turned into a Broadway musical called Kiss Me Kate, which came to the screen as an MGM musical in 1953. It was also remade again in 1999 with teenage leads and called Ten Things I Hate About You, but I'd stick to the original on this one.
Following their triumph together in Best Picture nominee Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton again knocked it out of the park with their lusty and sumptuous version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew that has so much going for it, but what we go away with is the white hot chemistry between these two great stars.
For the uninitiated regarding one of the Bard's most celebrated works, in ancient Padua, a wealthy student named Lucentio arrives in order to romance Bianca, the fair young daughter of Baptista, who will not allow Bianca to marry until his older daughter, the shrewish hellcat named Katherine, marries first. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of takers despite the dowry being offered by Baptista. Lucentio and Hortensio, another guy who's nuts about Bianca approach Petruchio, a fortune hunter from Verona, to woo and wed Katherine.
I had to grin when during the credits we learned that screenwriters were Paul Dehn and Susso D'Amico "with acknowledgements to William Shakespeare", which was pretty funny since most of the dialogue is taken word for word from Shakespeare's work, even though there are some alterations in the story, they do work to the film's advantage. The original story spends a little more time with Bianca and her numerous suitors than this film did, I guess the change was made because they wanted the film to be more focused on the Burtons...very smart move.
It was a smart move because the off-the-wall, burn-a-hole-in-the-screen chemistry between Taylor and Burton that makes this movie sizzle. It may have been a different kind of chemistry, but Tracy and Hepburn might have been the only couple who challenged these two for making their movies appointment viewing just because they were in them. They're not all masterpieces but the eleven films that the Burtons made together should be watched, re-watched, studied, and revered.
This film takes a little too much time setting up the story, but once Taylor's Kate and Burton's Petruchio meet, almost 40 minutes into the film, it goes into the entertainment stratosphere. From probably my favorite movie wedding scene ever, to Petruchio's starving of his bride on her wedding night, to the journey there which finds Kate wading through mud in her wedding dress, this movie provides absolutely delicious entertainment throughout. I've seen other versions of this story and there's one thing about this story I have never understood and hoped I would find an answer here: We know that Petruchio is doing this for the dowry but why does Katherine agree? To help Bianca? She hates Bianca, but as I often do, I let it go in favor of the big picture, and what a great picture it is, even if it isn't exactly a study in political correctness or a shining endorsement for the Me Too movement, so be warned.
Even though they might be a tad too old for the roles, Taylor and Burton create another onscreen couple as entertaining as George and Martha. Burton is especially dazzling and Taylor works hard at covering up the fact that the role is a little immature for her. Michael York impresses in his third feature film appearance as Lucentio and Michael Hordern is a lot of fun as Baptista. Natasha Pyne was a little vanilla as Bianca, but since her role was reduced I guess it didn't matter much more. Franco Zeffirelli's direction is perfection. The IMDB reveals that Zeffirelli said making this movie was the most fun he had in his life and it shows. The film was remade as a ballet in 2016 and in 1948 it was turned into a Broadway musical called Kiss Me Kate, which came to the screen as an MGM musical in 1953. It was also remade again in 1999 with teenage leads and called Ten Things I Hate About You, but I'd stick to the original on this one.