“TAMING OF THE SHREW”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 972, 15 May 1930, Page 17

“TAMING OF THE SHREW”

AT CIVIC ON SATURDAY “Taming of the Shrew,” coming to the Civic on Saturday, is the story of Katherine (Miss Pickford), the most spiteful girl in Padua, and with a temper that would make Vesuvius seem docile as a lamb. Petruchio (Douglas Fairbanks) undertakes to tame her, the first step in his contemplated plan being marriage, followed by a routine identical in method to the one utilised by the storming Kate. All of which gives rise to a series of situations which make “Taming of the Shrew” one grand laugh from beginning to end. Included are many bits of advice which may—or may not —be adopted by husbands and wives on their erring spouses. As the beautiful but temperamental Katherine, Miss Pickford appears before motion picture audiences in an entirely new and striking role. She startled her followers in “Coquette” by a transformation from the “little girl,” “golden-curl,” type of role to that of a sophisticated grown-up but as The Shrew she reaches the heights in a decidedly different characterisation, establishing herself beyond doubt as the screen’s greatest comedienne. Fairbanks, of course, is outstanding in his favourite type of role—that of the swaggering, conceited, lovable Petruchio. With his adaptation, in which not one bit of the glorious Shakespearean dialogue has been sacrificed when in keeping with the fast-moving comedy, Director Sam Taylor has re-told the story with the deftness so characteristic of his work. Those of the featured supporting cast who assist Miss Pickford and Mr. Fairbanks in “Taming of the Shrew” are Joseph Cawthorn, as Gremio; Edwin Maxwell as Baptista; Geoffrey Wardell as Hortensio: Dorothy Jordan, as Bianca.. and Clyde Cook as the comical servant, Grumio.