The Taming of the Shrew

Set in sixteenth-century Italy, the film centres on Baptista, a wealthy merchant of Padua with two unmarried daughters. He will not let anyone wed his younger daughter Bianca until her elder sister Katherina has a husband, and Katherina's temper has discouraged every suitor. Into this situation comes Petruchio, an impoverished landowner from Verona, who arrives looking for a wife and for money. He undertakes to court Katherina, and the two engage in a contest of will and quick thinking that continues after they marry.

The film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, who wrote the screenplay with Paul Dehn and Suso Cecchi d'Amico. It was his second feature, following a 1965 filmed staging of La Bohème, and it came just before his Romeo and Juliet in 1968. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, then among the most prominent married couples in cinema, play Petruchio and Katherina, with Natasha Pyne as Bianca, Michael York as Lucentio, Cyril Cusack as Grumio and Michael Hordern as Baptista. Twenty-six cast members are credited.

Produced by Columbia Pictures with Royal Films International and FAI, and produced by Burton and Zeffirelli, the film cost about four million dollars and took roughly eight million worldwide, a modest return rather than a large one. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 9,500 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.9 from about 188 votes. A critics' rating of 7.8 from 22 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.