La bisbetica domata

In 1942, Fascist Italy was losing the war. This (black and white) adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew was suitably escapist for such a time.

Battista Minola is a widowed tailor in Rome. (In Shakespeare's original he is a lord in Padua.) He has two beautiful daughters of marriageable age, but there is a problem: Catina, the elder, has a grotesquely irascible temper. And, clearly for no other reason than to make the plot work, Battista insists that sweet tempered Bianca cannot marry before her.

In terms of suitors, the situation is as follows:

Two wealthy middle-aged men are competing for the hand of Bianca. She, however, is romantically involved with a student -- with no hope of parental approval from either side. This situation gives rise to a side plot.

Somewhat surprisingly, Catina also has a suitor: Petruccio is a former playmate of hers who left Italy as a little child and remembers her fondly despite, or because of, how they used to fight each other viciously. Now a rich man, Petruccio returns to Rome, dead set on marrying Catina, who doesn't even want to see him.

By playing various ingenious (and often expensive) pranks on her, Petruccio tricks Catina into marrying him out of spite and, ultimately, loving him. Although there is a funny twist at the end (adapted from the Shakespeare play), it is mostly these pranks that make the film worth watching. They include an improvised theater production in an air-raid shelter before a captive audience (and with a captive prima donna -- due to the air-raid alarm), a botched wedding ceremony, and a Gothic horror experience in a haunted castle.

In the end, there is a surprising (if you don't know the original) and very unconvincing twist, and a happy end with people nicely paired off.

At some points during this film, a catchy song with the same title as the film is sung. This song by Lilia Silvi is actually really good and was available independently.

The main plot is a very nice adaptation and modernization of the main plot of the original play. This alone would be worth 8 stars to me. It's not very believable, but it doesn't have to be. However, I am subtracting a star because the sub-plot around Bianca isn't quite as good and because I feel that in general the acting is only adequate.

Lila Silvi is Catina and Amedeo Nazzari is Petruccio in this modern dress version (for 1942 at least) in the Shakespearean story.

There's been a lot of speculation over where Shakespeare got the story, some tracing it to the Arabian Nights, some to a 14th Century French story. The commonly accepted origin these days was proposed by Jan Brunvand, is that it is a common folktale, type 901 in the Aarne-Thompson classification system.. Whatever its sources actually are, this is a lively version of the tale, with younger sister Rossanna Montesi spurning various suitor in favor of Aldo Capacci, wih a lot of screen time involving their struggle to get married. This leaves plenty of times for Nazzari to torment Signorina Silvi over dinner and with a comic wood-burning wreck of a touring car.

There are three major flaws that I have with this film.

1) Why is the female love interest so angry? No good reason is given regarding her constant anger or why her family puts up with her.

2) Why has this rich man set his heart on such a woman? Are fond memories of childhood enough to explain this? Not enough for me.

3) What causes her sudden transformation? Many things have been done to cause the transformation, but it still just seems to occur out of the blue.

Now, looking past all of this there are funny dialogues, engaging actors and actresses, and a whole lot of fun. The writing is very good. Lilia Silvi and Amedeo Nazzari are sensational performers, definitely the equals of American performers of the time.

I recommend this movie.