The Taming of the Shrew (1929)

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 contracted for 20,000 pieces of gold and some goats, the big day looms. The nuptials are celebrated but that’s just the opening skirmish in a marriage where the whip hand (quite literally) never stays with one of them for long. It’s a fairly loosely abridged version of the play but there’s still enough left to keep it witty, lively and energetic from start to finish with some grand looking settings and a better than competent supporting cast clearly all having some fun delivering some of the bard’s pithier dialogue. It’s pocket-Shakespeare at it’s most simply entertaining and engagingly showcases people who know how the talk and walk at the same time.