Grumio (Cyril Cusack) and Hortensio (Victor Spinetti) both long to wed the same beautiful young woman, Bianca. However, her father announces that she may not marry until her mean spirited sister Katarina is wed.
...ranks among the finest screen adaptations of a Shakespeare play ever made.
Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers
December 21, 2006
Fine Zeffirelli version with Taylor and Burton in good form.
Film4
May 24, 2003
High-spirited whoop-de-doo Shakespeare, not too adulterated, not too precious, and geared slyly towards an audience who may have read about this kind of marriage on the showbiz gossip pages.
Purists will doubtless be upset by this flick, but the bawdy humor is engaging, the photography and musical score work just fine, and the most famous married couple in the world at that time are really having a ball here.
Zeffirelli can't bring himself quite to the realm of radical Shakespeare. However, the film is a great vehicle for the two most famous stars of its era.
As for Mr. Zeffirelli's settings and the elaborate Renaissance costumes, they look very rich and mellow in the misty pastel colors that are used. But they, too, like Nino Rota's music, tend to monotony.
