The Taming of the Shrew

Movie Review: The Taming of the Shrew

Year of Release: 1967
Country of Origin: Italy, USA
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Michael York, Victor Spinetti, Cyril Cusack

Plot outline: Brutish, fortune-hunting scoundrel Petruchio tames his wealthy shrewish wife, Katharina (IMDb).

In settings that fairly teem and tumble with Renaissance décor, vegetable stands, street singers, heavily robed merchants and clowns, Burton's hairy Petruchio sweeps grandly onto the operatic scene with the obvious intent of being funny quite as much as that of getting a wealthy wife. And Taylor's powerful Katharina hauls off and swats him with as much desire to set the customers whooping and howling as to discourage his matrimonial quest. Under Zeffirelli's gleeful urging more than his restraining, the Burtons race madly through the first part of the movie, committing physical violence on each other with a minimum exhaling of Shakespeare's words. After they've finally exhausted their energies ... and ours, we are treated to more slamming and banging on a slightly lower level of the decibel scale, as Petruchio goes about the standard business of domesticating his bosomy shrew. It is in their extravagant overacting and in the evident fun they have that the sheer theatrical gusto and rollicking sport of this movie reside. But I find it all grows a bit tedious. After we've examined Burton's great red beard, Taylor's amazingly revealing yet deftly restraining decolletage, and listened to them toss about the language without much clarity or eloquence, it seems time to have done with clowning and settle down to a bit of comedy - comedy of a slightly adult order. The Burtons never do. Neither do the other performers. They all seem to want to be clowns, popping their eyes, flaring their nostrils, slapping their bellies and pulling their hats down over their ears. Michael Hordern as Katharina's father is the best of the lot. Cyril Cusack as Petruchio's guzzling servant, and Alfred Lynch as the bug-eyed pumpkin who comes to town with Michael York's romantic Lucentio, are the worst. Natasha Pyne as the fair-haired Bianca, who has to wait until her sister is wed before she can enjoy matrimony, is convincingly eager, at least. As for Zeffirelli's settings and the elaborate Renaissance costumes, they look very rich and mellow in the misty pastel colors that are used. But they, too, like the music, tend to monotony. (NYT)

My judgement: ** out of 4 stars