In this production of The Taming of the Shrew it was Richard Burton's way of letting his wife Elizabeth Taylor in on his world, the world of the classics. He's wonderful as Petruchio and she acquits herself well as the shrewish Katharine.
Michael Hordern is the harried father of the lovely Bianca and her older sister, the beautiful, but independent Katherine. The sisters, Natasha Pyne and Elizabeth Taylor are as different as they come. Young Michael York is most interested in Pyne, but Hordern wants to see the older daughter married off at first. But Taylor scares off would be suitors.
Enter Richard Burton who's a roguish fortune hunter, but Hordern is quite willing to overlook that if he'll just take Taylor off his hands. The rest of the film concerns both Burton and York's parallel quests for their mates.
The Taming of the Shrew is probably best known to today's audience as the basis for Cole Porter's biggest Broadway success, Kiss Me Kate. Yet it's still stands well on its own as William Shakespeare's most rollicking comedy and a medieval treatise on feminism. Yet even when it's over, you're not quite sure just how submissive of a medieval wife Elizabeth Taylor will be.
Director Franco Zefirelli recreated medieval Padua with a great eye for detail. In that wedding, I'm sure he must have gotten Richard Burton good and plastered for the scene. Burton was one of the most legendary imbibers in screen history, but that scene was way too real to be just acting.
Laurence Olivier supposedly once told Richard Burton that he had a choice of being the greatest classical actor of his generation or a movie star. Too which Burton is supposed to have replied that he wanted both. I think he succeeded with The Taming of the Shrew.
Michael Hordern is the harried father of the lovely Bianca and her older sister, the beautiful, but independent Katherine. The sisters, Natasha Pyne and Elizabeth Taylor are as different as they come. Young Michael York is most interested in Pyne, but Hordern wants to see the older daughter married off at first. But Taylor scares off would be suitors.
Enter Richard Burton who's a roguish fortune hunter, but Hordern is quite willing to overlook that if he'll just take Taylor off his hands. The rest of the film concerns both Burton and York's parallel quests for their mates.
The Taming of the Shrew is probably best known to today's audience as the basis for Cole Porter's biggest Broadway success, Kiss Me Kate. Yet it's still stands well on its own as William Shakespeare's most rollicking comedy and a medieval treatise on feminism. Yet even when it's over, you're not quite sure just how submissive of a medieval wife Elizabeth Taylor will be.
Director Franco Zefirelli recreated medieval Padua with a great eye for detail. In that wedding, I'm sure he must have gotten Richard Burton good and plastered for the scene. Burton was one of the most legendary imbibers in screen history, but that scene was way too real to be just acting.
Laurence Olivier supposedly once told Richard Burton that he had a choice of being the greatest classical actor of his generation or a movie star. Too which Burton is supposed to have replied that he wanted both. I think he succeeded with The Taming of the Shrew.