Page 32 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

An Auspicious Opening I 21

A Long Lapse; Theatrical Interlude

If nothing else, the couple (who would shortly separate) established
the play's twentieth-century identity: a perfect showcase for a hus-
band-wife acting team, causing audiences to wonder if the two
employed Shakespeare's poetry to allow their public a sneak peek
into the stars' real-life relationship. The Taming of the Shrew
became the vehicle of choice for the greatest husband-wife stage
team of the thirties and forties, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne.
Drawing on the knockabout quality Doug and Mary introduced
while wisely sensing that the public would forever after expect such
antics, the classy couple accommodated to public taste by includ-
ing sight gags, a first for this duo. The stars thus introduced high-
brow audiences to low-jinks comedy, in the process making
vaudevillian shtick acceptable in elegant theaters nationwide. In so
doing, they cemented the association of cinematic slapstick with
this Shakespearean piece.

"Some Chat With Her"
The Taming of The Shrew
Verona Productions, 1967; Franco Zeffirelli

In the mid-sixties, The Taming of the Shrew seemed a natural for
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The two met on the set of her
epic Cleopatra. Dick (onetime serious Shakespearean actor and B-
list Hollywood star for more than a decade) was rushed in as a
replacement for the departing Stephen Boyd, who sensed disaster in
the air. When their infamous offscreen affair eventually culminated
in wedlock (each was married to another when they met), Liz and
Dick existed in a twilight zone between postscandal notoriety and
born-again respectabilty. They starred in a superficial soap opera,
The Sandpiper, as well as the serious drama Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? Burton, however, hungered to return to his roots (Hamlet on
Broadway), while Liz was eager to try the Bard, and both wanted to
do a comedy.
"In theory, it is unfair to bring actors' off-screen lives into a dis-
cussion of their on-screen performances," Moira Walsh wrote in
America. "Nevertheless, in some cases the juxtaposition is unavoid-
able. When they chose this particular vehicle, the Burtons must have