Review of Kiss Me Kate (1953) by Spencer S — 30 Apr 2010

Shakespeare With Jazz Hands.

I would say that the play this is based on is another one of those Shakespearian plays which is very good but still translates kind of badly into modern times. It's not exactly the most sexually equal play ever written, though depending on staging, one can read into it that Kate is not so subdued as she says. Still, the whole point of the thing is that the women don't get a say in their own lives. It's quite obvious that Kate hasn't the slightest interest in marrying anyone, and her father is the one who chose Petruchio for her. Bianca may be allowed to chose among her three suitors, but she isn't allowed to until after her sister is married off. Come to that, Petruchio's quite open about the fact that he's just in it for the money. Whether he falls in love with Kate is, realistically, unimportant to standards of the time. Marriage was a contract, and just because he was married was no reason to believe that he'd stop fooling around.

However, this is not a production of the play. It is a movie about a production of the Cole Porter musical, including having Ron Randell play Porter himself. Battling actors Fred Graham (Howard Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson), once married, are now to be Petruchio and Kate. She is going to marry cattle baron Tex Callaway (Willard Parker) just as soon as she can. He is having a flirtation with Lois Lane (Ann Miller)--really--who is also in a complicated relationship with Bill Calhoun (Tommy Rall), who is playing Lucentio. Only Bill has signed Fred's name to a substantial debt he owes to some unsavoury characters. This means enforcers Lippy (Keenan Wynn) and Slug (James Whitmore) come to the theatre to encourage Fred to pay. Fred then entangles them in a plot to make Lilli stay. And all of this while the production is going on. And I mean that literally--the story takes place on opening night.

I begin to wonder, watching this, if Nicole Kidman got her obnoxious squeals from her own viewing of this movie. Both onstage and off, Lilli makes little squeaking noises when her character is being hit or threatened or whatever. It's that, almost as much as her personality, which makes her a singularly unlikeable character. On the other hand, I'm not sure any of the other characters entirely count as likeable, either. Fred is conniving and perfectly willing to let Lilli be threatened at gunpoint to keep performing. (Though it's shockingly unprofessional of her to want to leave mid-performance.) Bill was awfully casual about signing Fred's name to his gambling debts, basing his assumption on the idea that Fred was rich and would apparently be willing to pay. Lois is a gold-digger who seems to be using Fred to advance her own career; she goes from a cabaret to Broadway. While Lippy and Slug are funny enough guys, they are also mob enforcers, and they're willing to hold that gun on Lilli. It's not outside the realm of probability that they'd use it, either.

While the music for this is good, the placement of some of the songs is a bit off. This is the only production of it I've seen, so I'm not sure where all the songs are supposed to go, but Lois's performance of "Too Darn Hot" in Fred's apartment is a little weird, especially because she's brought the entire band from the cabaret up to accompany her. It's also worth noting that the line "According to the Kinsey Report" was changed for the movie version, reference to that famous report's being considered a little racy for movie audiences. (Joe Breen probably blew a gasket at the very thought.) Despite the fiddling, though, quite a lot of the sexuality makes it onscreen unscathed in the grand old tradition of "hoping they won't notice." Lois's "Always True to You in My Fashion" basically says she's sleeping around, though the fact that it's actual sex gets kind of glossed over. Besides, the only thing which keeps it from being adultery--forbidden by the Code--is that she and Bill aren't actually married.

One of the problems I've always had with 3D is that filmmakers don't ever want you to forget that the movie is in 3D. The DVD on this one doesn't offer 3D as an option, but a lot of those tricks are still in the production. People are constantly throwing things at the camera, even when it doesn't really make sense for them to do so. It's irritating to watch. Now, of course, the original 3D craze was almost dead by the time this was released, which means few people ever actually saw it so, but that doesn't make it better. No matter which print you saw, it probably gets tiresome after a while. I know it does in 2D. "Oh, look--it's coming right at you!" Yes. Yes, it is. However, 3D works best, at least so far as I'm concerned, when it just gives a little added depth to the scene. When it's used as a part of the film, not just as a gimmick. Maybe filmmakers will learn how to do that, but until they do, that's all 3D will be. A gimmick.