The Taming of the Shrew

2/20/2025

Boy but there’s some fun chemistry on offer here as the original cinema golden couple take on one of Shakespeare’s best romantic comedy plays and use their new found voices to make it count. Mary Pickford is the shrew, Douglas Fairbanks her suitor “Petruchio”. Now make no mistake, this isn’t a love match, it’s more a sort of trade off so “Hortensio” (Geoffrey Wardwell) can fulfil his entirely reciprocated affections for “Bianca” (Dorothy Jordan). She can’t marry til her elder sister is, and - well that’s where “Petruchio” comes in. It’s fair to say that “Katherine” isn’t remotely interested in her would-be beau, her father’s wishes nor her sister’s happiness - but that seems to simply energise her newly emerging gadfly so with, as was the status a woman back them, their betrothal duly cont