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Shakespeare on Film: Kiss Me Kate
Shakespeare to music? Yep. MovieMaker continues its summer of Shakespeare on Film with George Sidney's Kiss Me Kate
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
d. George Sidney
Produced in garishly colored 3-D, five years after the original stage musical became a Broadway smash, George Sidney’s Kiss Me Kate combines Cole Porter’s songwriting genius with energetic backstage comedy. It opens as Porter (played by Ron Randell) helps blazered actor-director Fred Graham (Howard Keel) persuade fearsome ex-wife Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson), to star in their new show, Kiss Me Kate, as “a perfect shrew” opposite the Bianca of Lois Lane (the leggy Ann Miller), Fred’s current squeeze.
We cut to opening night, with time before the curtain rises to leave several plot strands dangling.
The four principals launch into their musical Shrew as “Shakespearean portrayers,” a play-within-a-play device that acknowledges Shakespeare’s Induction, and Sam and Bella Spewack use small chunks of his dialogue to bridge the gaps between musical numbers. Bianca’s “Tom, Dick or Harry” disposes briefly of the younger sister subplot and showcases Miller’s supercharged dancing. Porter channels Katharina’s violent temper into “I Hate Men,” a wittily damning inventory of twentieth-century male failings, vigorously delivered by Grayson. Keel shows off his emphatic baritone, strapping physique and uncomplicated charm as one of Petruchio’s most famous lines, “I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua,” becomes the title of an appropriately rousing number, and the new husband’s rueful question, “Where Is the Life That Late I Led?” becomes his cue to sing the praises of “Momo from Milano” and many other ex-girlfriends. Compared to these showstoppers, the off-stage numbers are mostly fine, if conventional, love duets, presenting Fred/Lilli and Bill/Lois as the “Can’t live with or without you” couples beloved of vintage Hollywood comedies.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by shakespeare quotes on 2/13/10 at 12:57 pm
Sounds like a great show for Michael Alig to attend when he gets out.
- Comment by jan on 7/21/10 at 2:53 am
Ann Miller is her usual energetic and delightful self, plus you get to see some superb dancers who made very few films at all, and they are all at the top of their form: Tommy Rall, Jeannie Coyne, Bob Fosse, Carol Haney and Bobby Van... Tiffany jewelry >
- Comment by bagsuperman on 9/24/10 at 3:02 am
Great post!Where Is the Life That Late I Led?” becomes his cue to sing the praises of “Momo from Milano”.
- Comment by Schmuck Zubehör on 10/19/10 at 8:24 am
Shakespear is cool, Shakespear is classy :)
- Comment by budapeste on 2/25/11 at 1:21 pm
Romeo and Juliet Zefirelli is beautiful movie.
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