Kiss Me Kate (film)

Kiss Me, Kate
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Sidney
Produced by Jack Cummings
Written by Dorothy Kingsley
Starring Kathryn Grayson
Howard Keel
Ann Miller
Music by Cole Porter (songs)
Saul Chaplin (score)
André Previn
Conrad Salinger
Cinematography Charles Rosher
Edited by Ralph E. Winters
Production
company
Release date
  • November 5, 1953 (1953-11-05) (New York)[1]
  • November 26, 1953 (1953-11-26) (US)
Running time
 109 minutes
Country United States
Language English
French
Italian
Budget $1,981,000[2]
Box office $3,117,000[2][3]

Kiss Me Kate is a 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name.

Inspired by The Taming of the Shrew, it tells the tale of musical theater actors Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who were once married, and are now performing opposite each other in the roles of Petruchio and Katherine in a Broadway-bound musical version of William Shakespeare's play.

Already on poor terms, the pair begin an all-out emotional war mid-performance that threatens the production's success. The only thing keeping the show together are threats from a pair of gangsters, who have come to collect a gambling debt from the show's Lucentio, Bill Calhoun. In classic musical comedy fashion, slapstick madness ensues before everything is resolved.

Dorothy Kingsley's screenplay, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, was adapted from the musical's book by Samuel and Bella Spewack. The songs were by Cole Porter, with musical underscoring by Saul Chaplin and André Previn, who were nominated for an Academy Award. Hermes Pan choreographed the dance routines.

The movie was filmed in 3-D, using the most advanced methods of that technique then available. Devotees of the stereoscopic 3-D medium usually cite this film as one of the best examples of a Hollywood release in polarized 3D.[4]

Plot

Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, a divorced couple, meet at Fred's apartment to hear Cole Porter perform the score for his musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, to be directed by Fred and called "Kiss Me Kate". Lois Lane arrives to audition for the "Bianca" role ("Too Darn Hot"). Lilli decides against performing the lead character "Katherine", opposite Fred in the male lead "Petruchio", as she is leaving to marry a rich Texas rancher. She changes her mind when Cole and Fred manipulate her by offering Lois the lead role.

Lois's boyfriend, Bill Calhoun, is playing "Lucentio" in the play. He leads a gambling lifestyle, which results in owing a local gangster $2,000, but he has signed the IOU in Fred's name. Lois laments his bad-boy lifestyle ("Why Can't You Behave?").

After a fiery confrontation during rehearsals, Fred and Lilli get together in her dressing room and reminisce about happier times ("Wunderbar"). Fred later sends flowers and a card to Lois, but his butler mistakenly gives them to Lilli. Lilli is overcome by this romantic gesture and fails to read the card ("So In Love (Reprise)").

The play opens, with Fred, Lilli, Lois and Bill performing an opening number ("We Open In Venice"). In the play, Bianca, the younger daughter of Baptista, wishes to marry, but her father will not allow it until his elder daughter, Katherine, is married. Bianca has three suitors – Gremio, Hortensio and Lucentio – and each of them tries to win her over. She is prepared to marry anyone ("...any Tom, Dick or Harry...").

Petruchio arrives, seeking a wife ("I've Come To Wive It Wealthily In Padua"), and when he hears of Katherine, he resolves to woo her. Katherine hates the idea of getting married ("I Hate Men"). When Petruchio serenades Katherine ("Were Thine That Special Face"), Lilli is so moved by Fred's heartfelt delivery that she finally reads the card from the flowers, having kept it next to her heart. She sees that it is addressed to Lois, and attacks Fred/Petruchio mercilessly on stage, ad-libbing verbal abuse. As the curtain comes down, Fred has had enough, and spanks Lilli/Kate. Backstage, Lilli phones her fiancé, Tex Calloway, to come and immediately pick her up.

Lippy and Slug, a pair of thugs, arrive to collect the IOU from Fred. Fred decides to accept the IOU and convinces Lippy and Slug that he needs them to keep Lilli from leaving the show so it will be successful enough for Fred to pay the debt. Lois has learned that Fred has taken responsibility for the IOU and she comes to thank him, but each time she begins to thank him for not being angry about Bill forging his name, Fred kisses her to prevent Lippy and Slug from learning about his deception. Lilli and Bill walk in on the scene and become furious.

In order to keep Lilli from leaving, Slug and Lippy appear on stage, disguised as Petruchio's servants. They have no acting ability, but still manage to amuse the audience. Petruchio sets about "taming the shrew", but later reminisces about his days of philandering ("Where Is The Life That Late I Led?").

During the play's intermission, when Tex arrives to rescue Lilli from the theatre, he is recognized by Lois, with whom he once went on a date. When Bill is angered by Lois' behavior, she admits that though she loves Bill, she cannot resist the advances of other men ("Always True To You In My Fashion").

The gambling debt is cancelled by the untimely death of Slug and Lippy's boss, so they stop interfering with Lilli's mid-performance departure from the theatre. Fred tells her that she truly belongs in theatre, and also reveals his true feelings for her. She departs anyway, with some remorse, leaving a dejected Fred to be cheered up by Slug and Lippy ("Brush Up Your Shakespeare").

The final act of the stage play begins, with Bianca marrying Lucentio. The rejected suitors, Gremio and Hortensio, meet two new girls ("From This Moment On"). At the finale, the show is temporarily halted when Lilli's understudy goes missing. Suddenly, Lilli reappears on stage, delivering Kate's speech about how women should surrender to their husbands ("I'm Ashamed That Women Are So Simple"). Fred is bowled over, and the play reaches its triumphant finale ("Kiss Me Kate"), with Fred and Lilli back together as a real couple.

Cast

Lilli's understudy, Jeanie, is mentioned several times, but never appears.

Musical numbers

  1. "So in Love" - Lilli and Fred
  2. "Too Darn Hot" - Lois
  3. "Why Can't You Behave" - Lois
  4. "Kiss Me, Kate" - MGM Studio and Orchestra Chorus
  5. "Wunderbar" - Lilli and Fred
  6. "So in Love (Reprise)" - Lilli
  7. "We Open in Venice" - Lilli, Fred, Lois, Bill
  8. "Tom, Dick or Harry" - Lois, Gremio, Bill, Hortensio
  9. "I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua" - Fred
  10. "I Hate Men" - Lilli
  11. "Were Thine That Special Face" - Fred
  12. "Finale Act One (Kiss Me, Kate)" - Chorus
  13. "Where Is the Life That Late I Led" - Fred
  14. "Always True to You in My Fashion" - Lois and Bill
  15. "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" - Slug and Lippy
  16. "From This Moment On" - Lois, Bill, Hortensio, Gremio
  17. "Finale" - Fred and Chorus

Comparison with stage version

The film does not differ greatly from the stage version, but there are some significant changes.

The opening scene in Fred's apartment, and the brief appearance of an actor playing Cole Porter, is added; it provides more of the background to Lilli and Fred's troubled relationship.

Nearly all of Porter's rather risqué lyrics had to be "cleaned up" to avoid the wrath of the censors, thus dulling much of the comedy and making the results rather bland. "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", the most suggestive song in the score, was cut in half, and its position changed. In the stage version, the gangsters, Slug and Lippy, inadvertently find themselves on stage, and entertain the audience with their tribute to Shakespeare. In the movie, they sing the song while backstage to cheer up a depressed Fred following the departure of Lilli.

The opening chorus ("Another Op'nin', Another Show"), which was sung in full in the play to convey the excitement felt backstage on an opening night, was reduced in the movie to an orchestral musical bridge, perhaps because the original did not match the changed storyline incorporating the appearance of Cole Porter.

"Too Darn Hot" was also sanitized, and its position changed. It was originally sung by Paul, Fred's African-American dresser, and a group of chorus actors relaxing backstage between the two acts of the musical, and had no bearing on the plot. In the movie, it is sung by the show's Bianca, Ann Miller, in the opening scene, where it is claimed that the song was originally intended for the stage musical, but was cut. The lyrics are shortened and the reference to the Kinsey Report is removed.

"So in Love" is sung as a duet by Fred and Lilli in the opening scene. In the stage version, they sing it later, individually. In the film, Lilli's new fiance is a naive Texas cattle baron. In the stage version, he is a domineering East Coast government official. The song "From This Moment On", from Porter's musical Out of This World, was added to the film version of Kiss Me, Kate, sung by the newly wed Bianca and Lucentio, and her rejected suitors.

Some of these changes may seem surprising to present sensibilities; an example is the change of the line "according to the Kinsey Report" (in "Too Darn Hot") to "according to the latest report". In the stage version, the word "bastard" is used a handful of times, but this is deleted in the film, replaced with, for example, "you louse". However, the scene where Fred spanks Lilli, which some might now consider controversial, was retained.

Another change was made to placate studio management, rather than censors. In "We Open In Venice", the line "not stars like L.B. Mayer's are we" was changed to "Shakespearean portrayers are we". Louis B. Mayer had been forced out as head of MGM a year and a half before this film's release.

Reception

The movie had a mostly positive reception. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Kiss Me Kate "one of the year's more magnificent musical films ... a beautifully staged, adroitly acted and really superbly sung affair—better, indeed, if one may say so, than the same frolic was on the stage."[5] Variety opened its positive review by stating: "Metro's reputation for turning out top calibre musical pictures is further enhanced with 'Kiss Me Kate.' It's Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' done over in eminently satisfying fashion via a collaboration of superior song, dance and comedy talents."[6] Harrison's Reports called it "a lively and highly entertaining blend of comedy, music, dancing and romance."[7] John McCarten of The New Yorker was more dismissive, writing that it "does have some engaging tunes, but the book of the original has been so thoroughly laundered that little of the comedy, which ran to fairly bawdy stuff, remains, and Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel, as a bickering theatrical pair compelled to play opposite each other in Shakespeare, are lacking in vital juices."[8] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post disliked the changes made to the stage version such as the reduction of "Another Op'nin" and "I'm Ashamed That Women Are So Simple," calling the film "a grand musical with lots of pleasures to recommend it. But if you're familiar with what they had to work with, you'll not be enthusiastic, a form of criticism with which not all agree, but in this case I don't see how it's to be avoided."[9] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "The execution generally—sets, costumes, dance numbers, the Cole Porter songs—is pleasing, but the direction lacks flair and the film seems somewhat over-long."[10]

Although Kiss Me Kate is often referred to as the first 3-D musical, Those Redheads From Seattle, also a 3-D musical, was released by Paramount Pictures on October 16.[11][12][13][14]

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $2,011,000 in the US and Canada and $1,106,000 elsewhere, meaning a worldwide gross of $3,117,000.[15] However, due to high production costs, it incurred a loss of $544,000.[2]

Punctuation

The name of the play has a comma missing after "Me".

References

  1. ↑ "Kiss Me Kate - Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study .
  3. ↑ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1954', Variety Weekly, January 5, 1955, correcting 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1953', Variety, January 13, 1954
  4. ↑ "Young Fosse, Vintage `Kate'". Nytimes.com. 2000-07-07. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  5. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (November 6, 1953). "The Screen In Review". The New York Times: 23.
  6. ↑ "Kiss Me Kate". Variety: 6. October 28, 1953.
  7. ↑ "'Kiss Me Kate' with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Ann Miller". Harrison's Reports: 174. October 31, 1953.
  8. ↑ McCarten, John (November 14, 1953). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker: 136.
  9. ↑ Coe, Richard L. (November 27, 1953). "'Kiss Me, Kate' Is 3-D'ed at Capitol". The Washington Post: 22.
  10. ↑ "Kiss Me Kate". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 21 (242): 40–41. March 1954.
  11. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (1953-11-06). "Movie Review - Kiss Me Kate - THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Kiss Me Kate,' an Inviting Film Adaptation of Stage Hit, Has Debut at the Music Hall - NYTimes.com". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  12. ↑ George Perry Updated 17 January 2001 (2001-01-17). "Films - review - Kiss Me Kate". BBC. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  13. ↑ "Variety Reviews - Kiss Me Kate - Film Reviews - - Review by Variety Staff". Variety.com. 1952-12-31. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  14. ↑ "Kiss Me Kate : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  15. ↑ Sheldon Hall, Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History Wayne State University Press, 2010 p 147

Further reading

  • Monder, Eric (1994). George Sidney:a Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313284571.
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