The Taming of the Shrew
1967: Franco Zeffirelli

At the height (or depth) of one of Elizabeth Taylor’s brief and stormy marriages to Richard Burton came this tumultuous but exceedingly robust — even athletic — performance of The Taming of the Shrew. Hollywood pundits were quick to point out how the play did (or did not) reflect the fortunes of their troubled household, and one gets the impression that this celebrity exploitation was a large part of why the film was made in the first place.

Gossip-mongering aside, however, the play is a mix of good and bad. Taylor and Burton are not really well-matched: Burton was a stage-trained Shakespearean of enormous range, while Taylor was a film actress of fairly limited capacities. Burton’s diction is superb; Taylor’s is adequate at best, and marked with the flabbiness that often (but need not) attend American vowel pronunciation. But the volatility of the personalities and Zeffirelli’s imaginative direction impart to this a rather giddy energy that makes up for a great deal, and provides a very congenial introduction to Shakespeare for those who have not seen his plays on stage or film before.

The humor is largely physical, and of a slapstick sort; this does not depend especially on the disparity of diction in the principal actors. As always, Zeffirelli manages to bring interesting secondary characters into his production: Michael Hordern is the quintessential old man, out of his depth and a bit intimidated by his two daughters. Michael York makes an appearance — not the last he would do for Zeffirelli (he went on to do Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and a remarkably convincing John the Baptist in Jesus of Nazareth.)

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