Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Simon Chandler | ... | Lucentio | |
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Anthony Pedley | ... | Tranio |
John Franklyn-Robbins | ... | Baptista | |
Frank Thornton | ... | Gremio | |
Sarah Badel | ... | Katherine | |
Jonathan Cecil | ... | Hortensio | |
Susan Penhaligon | ... | Bianca | |
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Harry Waters | ... | Biondello |
John Cleese | ... | Petruchio | |
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David Kincaid | ... | Grumio |
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Bev Willis | ... | Baptista's Servant |
Angus Lennie | ... | Curtis | |
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Harry Webster | ... | Nathaniel |
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Gil Morris | ... | Philip |
Leslie Sarony | ... | Gregory |
Baptista has two daughters: Kate and Bianca. Everyone wants to wed the fair Bianca, but nobody's much interested in problem child, Kate. Baptista declares that he won't give Bianca away in a marriage until he's found a husband for Kate, so all the suitors begin busily hunting out a madman who's willing to do it, and they find Petruchio: a man who's come to wive it wealthily in Padua. And Petruchio marries Kate with a plan to tame her, while everybody else begins scheming to win Bianca's hand. Written by Kathy Li
I recently studied this play in Brit Lit, and I definitely think that even though this version might be a little slower than the Zefferelli version, it is better. The Zefferelli version reverts back to the physical, cheap humor that Shakespeare obviously steers clear of, because in his day there were a number of those kinds of plays out there, but they were cheap, superficial plays. Also, Zefferelli leaves out the falcon soliloquey. I think that John Cleese is just a genius with comedy, and I am also a big fan of Frank Thorton. Besides that, I think that the makers of this film understood the real themes of Taming, and tried to portray them in the movie, as opposed to Zefferelli, who added extraneous things to make it more "amusing", but thus led it further away from Shakespeare's true meaning.