[.ca] Kiss Me Kate (1953)

From Amazon.com:
Cole Porter, Shakespeare, and 3-D: Not the usual recipe for an MGM musical, but hey--it works. Although it runs hot and cold, this 1953 take on Porter's delightful Broadway smash lets a chewy cast gorge on some terrific songs and show-biz in-jokes. Think of the plot as His Girl Friday in greasepaint: vain star Howard Keel wants to lure ex-wife Kathryn Grayson back to the boards with a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. The movie's weakness is too much Shakespeare, not enough backstage backbiting (and why are two of the best numbers, "So in Love" and Ann Miller's zippy "Too Darn Hot," confined to a prologue?). Then there's the tendency to throw things at the camera--3-D, what hath you wrought? The candy-store color design is great fun, and Tommy Rall and future dance titan Bob Fosse are turned loose for some sensational leaps. Now that's "Wunderbar." --Robert Horton

How to Win Back Your Wife:
I write this review in honor of Howard Keel's 85th birthday. "Kiss Me, Kate" is a lively, albeit dated musical with a slightly chauvenistic streak. It takes liberties with Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", but is more fun than reading the actual play. The estranged couple Fred Graham and Lilly Vanessi (Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson), have been divorced for a year at the time they take the lead roles in the Cole Porter musical. Based loosely on Alfred Lunt and his wife Lynn Fontaine, their behind-the-scenes bickering gets a little out of hand and occasionally, resulting in a well-defined lack of professional courtesy as they occassionally humiliate each other in full view of an audience. But they also have their glorious moments, such as a reminiscence that leads to the number, "Wunderbar".As did their first number, "So In Love", this number reveals a certain wistfulness at their estrangement from each other at the end. The subplot is the realationship between the play's secondary couple, Lois Lane(Ann Miller) and Bill Calhoun (Tommy Rall), a compulsive gambler who signs Fred Graham's name to an IOU. The play begins. The number,"Another Opening, Another Show" is heard only as an instrumental piece beforehand. But the numbers, "We Open In Venice" and "Tom, Dick or Harry" kick the show off magnificently. As a big fan of the late Ann Miller's dance numbers,the latter is probably my favorite. As Gremio and Hortensio, Bobby Van and Bob Fosse thrill us with their trademark moves. Keel sings a sumptuous ballad as his ex discovers that the flowers she thought were intended for her were intended for Lois. Through it all, Howard Keel is characteristically confident, uttering lines of unadulturated sarcasm as his ego occassionally gets the better of him. After being slapped by Lilly, he proves to be even more of a drama queen than any actress.Perhaps the sexiest scene in the film is when Graham removes the sausage links his ex-wife hides against her poitrine during one scne in the play. Kathryn Grayson, with her porcelain skin and heart-shaped mouth, is a living Madame Alexander Doll in the part of Lilly/Kate. She is comically, firey and able to stand up to her ex-husband and to the thugs that he uses to keep her onstage(Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore) when she threatens to leave after Fred humiliates her. Lippy and Slug appear to collect they debt they believe Graham owes them, and while not althogether academically inclined, they display some knowledege of the Bard and his works, although they look ridiculous in their onstage costumes. Willard Parks, as Tex Callahan offers Lilly a possible escape from her life in the theatre. But ultimately she is won back not by Fred's threats or humilation, but by the simple admission that he was wrong. While some may find the end to be disappointing, it should be remembered that it was Lilly who ultimately chose whether or not to give Fred a second chance, and Graham's beam of triumph and the twinkle in his eye at the end are worth more than any words-even those by the Bard himself-can say.

Should have included a Field Sequential 3-D version!:
Not that many people are aware of the Field Field Sequential 3-D . This is a 3-D TV system that uses special shutter glasses that can be purchased here through Amazon in a set that includes 3 DVD's using this process. This system Is the only way to view a 3-D film effectively on TV to date. The result is about 90% close to the effect you will see in a theatre showing.. like IMAX and Disney and Universal. These glasses are made of sturdy plastic and clear not these cardboard red and blue pieces of garbage, so you can view the film without constricted to seeing red and blue colors and with this system you will see more actual 3-D depth with the films true colors.. It's really amazing! For some add reason the big studios haven't adapted to include a separate version of a 3-D title in this great format. Films like: "House of Wax","Kiss Me Kate","Friday the 13th Part 3", "Robot Monster, "Cat Woman on the Moon", "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "Jaws 3" are all now in 2-D DVD, but were originally shown in 3-D and could have been included using the Field Seqential 3-D system on the same disc with the 2-D version. In Japan in the late 80's there were a few 3-D titles released using Field Sequential 3-D and can be found on e-bay converted to DVD and VHS. Why aren't the studios producing these now! I boycott any film DVD release that was originally intended to be seen in 3-D that's only presented in a 2-D version or anaglyph (Red and Blue Glasses). The studios should really be awaken to this great 3-D system.

Keel is keen!:
Grayson is good, but Howard Keel steals this show. He shines in the role of the egomaniacal stage ham. His voice and his presence are perfect for the role. Ann Miller and Tommy Rall provide all the dance moves you could ask for in a great musical. If you are a fan of musicals, this is a must for your collection. The DVD also provides some fun behind the scenes information.

A Rollicking Production From MGM's "B" Unit:
So popular were MGM's musicals during the "golden" decade that ran from 1944 to 1954 that one production unit was not enough to satisfy the demand for this genre. Modern viewers may find this hullabaloo a little hard to understand, but in an era where the overwhelming majority of films were still shot in black and white, MGM's glorious Technicolor productions were always considered a bit of a visual treat for audiences jaded by more typical "film noire" fare. Perhaps the waning popularity of musicals beginning in the late 1950's had something to do with the upsurge of colour in other film genres, as well as a decline in the colour quality of film musicals themselves (of which Kiss Me Kate is a good example) as studios cut costs by abandoning glorious three step Technicolor for the much duller one step colour processes such as Ansco. Kiss Me Kate, a Broadway stage hit, was turned over to the studio's so called "B" Unit; a lower budget knock off of the "A" Unit headed by Arthur Freed and headed by such stellars of the film musical world as director Vincente Minnelli, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, etc. Minnelli's search for perfection was legendary so it comes as no surprise that he would run up production costs, which became more of an issue in the problematic years of the early 1950's. So MGM increasingly relied on the "B" Unit to keep up with the demand for musicals while at the same time not breaking the bank. George Sidney was one of the favourite directors of the "B" Unit with a reputation for getting excellent results with sparser resources, such as time and money. Sidney achieved his results by fostering an "esprit de corps" atmosphere amongst his crew and cast. One of the hallmark of Sidney helmed films is that everyone seems to be having a good time and Kiss Me Kate is an excellent example of this. Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Ann Miller and the rest of the cast all turn in wonderful performances in spite of their lesser marquee appeal compared to the "big guns" of the "A" Unit. They are helped along immeasureably by Cole Porter's splendid score, one of the very best to make its way to celluloid. Some viewers complain that this DVD is not in the widescreen format. This film was shot in 1953, the same year that Fox introduced Cinemascope. Kiss Me Kate was one of the last major musicals to be shot in the old standard format, and it was soon realized that the novelty of 3-D would never be able to compete with widescreen. Viewers who claim to have seen Kiss Me Kate in widescreen probably saw a bit of mischief perpertrated by unscrupulous studio moguls who in their rush to get on the widescreen band wagon stooped to trimming the tops and bottoms of 35 mm film in order to achieve the 16:9 format. I think the process was called SuperScope and had a mercifully brief life as viewing audiences didn't appreciate seeing their stars minus their feet and the tops of their heads lobbed off. No use in complaining about poor colour quality. Ansco was a bit of a disaster, being unstable in addition to it's other shortcomings. We should be grateful for what we have. That the film version of Kiss Me Kate lacks the bite of the stage version is because of puritanical censorship codes that were rigorously enforced until well into the 1960's, and cannot be blamed on the film's creative team. All in all, Kiss Me Kate is musical and comical riot from start to end and probably stands as the high light of George Sidney's illustrious career.

"So In Love" With Kiss Me Kate!!!!:
This is one of the greatest musicals ever!!!! Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller..............what a cast! And wonderful songs, such as "Wunderbar", "So In Love", "I Hate Men", "We Open In Venice", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".............the list goes on and on! I reccomend this to any musical fan. You'll be "So In Love" with it too!!!