Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern, Alfred Lynch, Alan Webb, Victor Spinetti, Michael York, Natasha Pyne

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Summary: Based on Shakespeare's popular comedy play, the story follows Petruchio, the strutting male chauvinist suitor, who sets out to quell the fiery and shrewish nature of the young Katherina.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton star in this earthy, robust version of the classic Shakespeare comedy, which was director Franco Zeffirelli's first film. Michael York plays Lucentio, the young student who falls for comely Bianca (Natasha Pyne) and must recruit Petruchio (Burton) to wed her wild and violent older sister (Taylor) before their father will allow Bianca to entertain suitors. Watching two larger-than-life lovers like Burton and Taylor slug it out in their hilarious scenes of "courtship" is something even those with no fondness for Shakespeare can truly relish.

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The 1967 Franco Zeffirelli film of The Taming of the Shrewhad all the ingredients to make it a high point in Shakespearian cinema. In Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor it starred the most bankable couple in Hollywood history as the sparring leads in the Bard's quick-firing comic battle of the sexes; and in Zeffirelli, it had a director with a Shakespearian pedigree second to none. But the reality is that this is Burton's picture all the way. His Petruchio is a weighty performance of such intelligence that the whole film is thrown off-kilter whenever he is on screen and the other performers just can't keep up. Apart from Michael Hordern's wonderfully distracted Baptista, Burton is the only actor in total, effortless command of the language. Taylor's bosomy glamour and fiery spirit are ample compensations for her occasionally murderous treatment of Katharina's verse. Whether or not she is really tamed by the end is another matter: those legendary violet eyes suggest otherwise. Ultimately it's a rich, bawdy and colourful romp, with Burton at the peak of his powers.

The DVD includes the theatrical trailer, a "making-of" featurette and filmographies. --Piers Ford

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Making Of Featurette, Theatrical Trailer, Filmographies
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1967
Release Date:	March 19, 2001
Runtime:	117 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 10015
Keywords:	Classic, Book, General, Wide, Screen, Taming, Shrew, Drama, Based, Bisbectica, Domata
Genre:	Drama