Embrasse-moi, chérie

And it's apparent in the number of items thrown at the screen in this Technicolor musical based on the stage hit, from MGM and director George Sidney. Formerly married stage stars Fred Graham (Howard Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson) agree to star in the new musical from Cole Porter (Ron Randell), a variation on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Fred hopes to win back Lilli, while Fred's "protege", showgirl Lois Lane (Ann Miller), who also has a part in the show, drives Lilli to distraction. This complicated romantic dynamic plays on multiple levels as they struggle to get through the opening night show and its various obstacles.

I liked this rather complex production, with fun performances and excellent dance scenes. Ann Miller has the best dance sequences, although I also liked the amateurish number with Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore as two hoods singing and dancing. I enjoyed seeing Bob Fosse in an acting role. The movie was Oscar nominated for Best Score (Andre Previn & Saul Chaplin).

Cole Porter's classic musical version of "The Taming of the Shrew" done as a film with MGM's best production values. Unfortunately, this also means Kathryn Grayson, whose performance as Kate is merely passable. But Howard Keel lives up to his star billing and delivers dynamite vocals and witty characterizations, as well as bringing the film much needed believability (he's the only one up there that seems like he actually COULD be playing Shakespeare). Ann Miller steals more than her share of the thunder as the show's ingenue (she'd been playing them for 20 years now). She does a lot of tough dancing with Fosse, Van and Co., leaving the heavy vocals for the others. Keenan Wynn is one of the gangsters who end up actors for a day, and he's living it up (on stage, the gangsters are usually the audience's favorite characters) Great songs, good show. Features the interpolated Porter tune "From this Moment On" -- the film's only improvement over the stage version.

The movie is not the same as the stage production but it stands on its own as one of the best MGM musicals of the era. Howard Keel and Katherine Grayson were never better in any other of their films; Ann Miller is her usual energetic and delightful self, plus you get to see some superb dancers who made very few films at all, and they are all at the top of their form: Tommy Rall, Jeannie Coyne, Bob Fosse, Carol Haney and Bobby Van. The big closing number, From This Moment On, is a showcase for those five dancers plus Miller...look out for Fosse and Haney's amazing hipster/be-bop flavored segment! That song was added to the movie from another Porter show and it is the highlight of this great movie!

Kiss Me, Kate was first released at the time that the movie screens were exploading into large formats to get people away from their T.V. sets and back into the theaters, and 3-D films came out of hiding and the only musical film to be shot in the 3-D format was Kiss Me, Kate, and stereophonic sound, to me, was better in those days than it is today, but the film gave everyone in it the chance to do their finest work, but it's a shame that they will not release a 3-D Version of this film on Home Video. The distributors would make a fortune!

Everyone knows the plot of Kiss Me, Kate, so there's no sense in going into that. Kathryn Grayson, Hollywood's finest singer of all time replaced Patricia Morrison who played Lilli on Broadway, and Howard Keel replaced Alfred Drake who played Fred Graham on Broadway, and Ann Miller replaced Lisa Kirk who played Lois on Broadway, and it's not too well known but Lisa Kirk dubbed Everything's Coming Up Roses for Rosalind Russell in the movie version of Gypsy!

Tommy Rall who replaced Harold Lang in the Broadway version, to me, was never given a fair chance in Hollywood. An excellent singer and versatile dancer, but still he shines in his work in Kiss Me, Kate and for his work in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as the brother Frank who got upset when he was called by his real name.

This movie is a good example as to why Broadway stars are not necessarily good for repeating their Broadway roles on the screen. The cast in this movie is excellent in their acting, singing and dancing and I can not picture the Broadway cast repeating their roles in the movie version. To me, it just wouldn't work!

Casting Ann Miller in the role of Lois Lane was a good break for Ann Miller since she was always given roles in past movies that showed her off as a gal who had an overly-obnoxious appetite for the opposite sex. This film gave her a chance to display her full range of talent which had in the past been overlooked, but what can a person say about her number Too Darn Hot that burned up the screen and made Lilli [Kathryn Grayson] furious with her co-star Fred-er-rick Gray-ham [Howard Keel] to the point that she called him a louse of stage in front of the cast in the play! She couldn't call him what Patricia Morrison called Alfred Drake in the Broadway play because in those days the Hayes Office wouldn't allow Kathryn Grayson to call Howard Keel a ba****d!

Keenyn Wynn and James Whitmore played the comical gangsters that were to collect a marker from Howard Keel which was really signed by Tommy Rall and when they do their number Brush Up Your Shakespeare, it's hilarious. Not because Wynn can't sing and dance, he can, but because James Whitmore gave it all he could, but faked the number beautifully, and Whitmore had the good sense never to perform in a musical ever again, but together they were excellent in their comedic performance as the gangsters in the film.

So, you guys who distribute this movie - give us guys and gals a break and release this in the original wide-screen 3-D version with stereophonic sound and let everyone see why:

KISS ME KATE - IS "STILL" GREAT!

This was the last of the six movies that Kathryn Grayson made with Howard Keel, her favorite costar. And it's the last movie she would make for MGM (she'd make one more movie, for Paramount three years later, which is best left a forgotten footnote in film history). Not only are the Cole Porter songs in "Kate" great, but the dancing from one of my favorites of all time, Ann Miller, is also quite exceptional. And like always, the chemistry is there between Grayson and Keel. By this point, MGM musicals were on the downside slope of the bell curve, but this one was still well worth the effort. A solid 7/10.