Kiss Me Kate

William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew (ca. 1593) centered around the stormy courtship between the fortune-hunting Petruchio and Katherine, a headstrong woman. After a lengthy battle of the wills, the couple come to love each other and Katherine accepts her role as submissive wife. Kiss Me Kate incorporates Shakespeare's text in the "onstage" portions of the film, and parallels the play's romantic themes in the relationships of the two couples.
       A December 9, 1951 New York Times news item reported that British producer Sir Alexander Korda was negotiating for the film rights to Kiss Me Kate, and that Alfred Drake, who had created the role of "Fred Graham" on Broadway, might be cast. According to October 1952 and March 1953 items in Hollywood Reporter's "Rambling Reporter" column, Red Skelton was set for a leading comic role. A March 6, 1953 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that director George Sidney was conducting camera tests with Ann Blyth, but this May have been an erroneous reference to Ann Miller. A June 1953 news item in Hollywood Reporter reported that Sidney would appear in the film in a bit part. Modern sources claim that producer Jack Cummings originally intended to cast British actor Laurence Olivier as Fred. A April 13, 1953 Hollywood Reporter news item adds Reginald Owen to the cast, but he was not in the film. Hollywood Reporter news items also include June Lyden, Edith Motridge, Frank Calfont and Herman Belmonte to the cast, but their appearance in the final film has not been confirmed.
       All of the songs in the film were taken from the 1948 Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate, with the exception of "From This Moment On," which was originally written for the 1950 Cole Porter musical Out of This World. According to information in the film's MPAA/PCA file at the AMPAS Library, the PCA required numerous alterations to the Broadway musical's often suggestive lyrics, such as changing a reference to the Kinsey Report on sexual behavior in the song "Too Darn Hot" to "the latest report." A October 29, 1953 item in Hollywood Reporter's "Rambling Reporter" column observed that a reference to former studio head L. B. Mayer had been omitted from the film version of the song "We Open in Venice." Porter had previously been portrayed onscreen by Cary Grant in the 1946 Warner Bros. film Night and Day (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1941-50).
       According to modern sources, Bob Fosse, who played the suitor "Hortensio," was given permission to choreograph a segment of the number "From This Moment On." In a modern interview, Fosse recalled, "My big break-and the turning point of my career-came when the studio let me choreograph a little dance for myself and Carol Haney in the film Kiss Me Kate. It only lasted forty-eight seconds, but it changed my life." Fosse ended his contract with M-G-M shortly after making this film and went on to an acclaimed career as a choreographer and director.
       Kiss Me Kate was M-G-M's second venture, following Arena, into stereoscopic, or "3-D," filmmaking. In his autobiography, Dore Schary, M-G-M's head of production, recalled that he had concluded after watching Arena that 3-D was "a freak entertainment...marked for extinction." Schary wrote that he bowed to pressure from studio executives, including Loew's sales executive Joseph Vogel, "who had invested $500,000 in the purchase of the plastic eyeglasses," to make the film in 3-D. To protect the studio in the event of poor audience response to the 3-D version, however, Kiss Me Kate would also be released in the standard two-dimensional, or "flat," format, which was the format of the print viewed. In an November 8, 1953 Los Angeles Times interview, director Sidney stated, "My cameraman, Charlie Rosher, and I had to compose every shot three different ways at the same time," Sidney recalled. "What would be good for one width would not be good for another. It was tricky, but we got around it by building more tops on sets, more floor and more sets in forced perspective to enhance the depth."
       According to contemporary news items, M-G-M test-marketed the 3-D version of Kiss Me Kate in October 1953 by previewing each version of the film in three cities and comparing the grosses. Three cities received the 3-D version, and three received the standard 2-D version with stereophonic sound. After the first week of this experiment, the 3-D version was doing approximately forty percent better than the flat version. On November 4, 1953, Hollywood Reporter's "Trade Views" column proclaimed, "This almost two-for-one business in favor of goggle-wearing ticket buyers indicates that 3-D is not dead, not dying, nor is it even sick." The following day, however, the "Trade Views" column reported that M-G-M had skewed the results of the marketing test by focusing additional, intensive publicity efforts on those venues showing the film in 3-D. The Saturday Review (of Literature) review commented, "The fact that the test is being made at all is enough indication that Hollywood has already soured on this particular process." Both versions were released, and exhibitors were allowed to choose which format they would present. The 3-D version was initially more popular, and a November 23, 1953 Daily Variety news item stated that ninety-five percent of the orders from foreign distributors were for 3-D. According to a October 21, 1953 news item in Variety, the management of New York's Radio City Music Hall wrestled with their decision, weighing issues of "practicality"-the narrower viewing angle for 3-D films meant that approximately 300 seats on the sides of the theater could not be used-and the "psychology" of public opinion. Radio City ultimately decided to show the 2-D version.
       The 3-D version continued to lead in grosses, by a much smaller margin, but by January 1954 the public's infatuation with the new technology had begun to wane. Under the headline "3-D Casualties on Increase," an January 8, 1954 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that Kiss Me Kate had reverted to the standard 2-D version, adding that the Loew's State theater in downtown Los Angeles had pulled the 3-D version after one week and reversed its promotional strategy by running ads exhorting viewers to "see it without special glasses." Kiss Me Kate was M-G-M's last 3-D film.
       In March 1977, the original 3-D version of Kiss Me Kate had a special engagement at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles, marking the film's first 3-D showing in almost twenty-five years. The 3-D version of the film finally had its New York premiere in April 1980. According to a March 31, 1980 Hollywood Reporter news item, M-G-M supplied an original 35mm Technicolor 3-D print from its archives for the engagement.
       Kiss Me Kate received an Academy Award nomination for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and marked Kathryn Grayson's last project for M-G-M. A modern source credits Walter Lundin as special effects supervisor. A television version of Kiss Me Kate aired on NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame on November 10, 1958, with Alfred Drake and Patricia Morrison, the stars of the original Broadway production. The musical was also broadcast as an ABC television special on March 25, 1968, featuring the then husband-and-wife team of Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence. Other film versions of The Taming of the Shrew include American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.'s 1908 film, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Florence Lawrence and Henry Solter.