Kiss Me Kate (1953)

Directed by

George Sidney

Genre

musical film, romantic comedy

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 49m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 98 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two divorced actors are forced to perform together in a Broadway musical. Their offstage fighting spills onto the stage, and gangsters threaten to shut down the show.

grandlivelytheatricalplayfultensefast-pacedshowydynamicwry

What happens

Kiss Me Kate is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney from a screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley, based on the 1948 Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate by Bella and Samuel Spewack. The film stars Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, James Whitmore, and Kurt Kasznar, with Keenan Wynn and Bobby Van. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew, it tells the tale of formerly married musical theater actors Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, brought together to star opposite one another in the roles of Petruchio and Katherine in a Broadway musical version of Shakespeare's play. Already on poor terms, the two leads skirmish from the start. Their relationship eventually breaks into 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. Kingsley's screenplay was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award. The songs were by Cole Porter, with musical underscoring by Saul Chaplin and André Previn, who were nominated for an Oscar. Hermes Pan choreographed most of the dance routines. The film was shot in 3-D, using the most advanced technology 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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