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Romantic comedy

The Taming of the Shrew

Year
1929
Length
63 minWikidata 63-minute listing Version sources ↓

Petruchio courts Katherina through a contest of authority, performance, and humiliation in an early sound Shakespeare adaptation.

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Language
English
FunnyTense Approachable · Easy Romantic comedy
Black silhouettes of a woman and a man stand with folded arms against coral pink.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks bring star marriage and new sound technology to Shakespeare. Their celebrity chemistry makes the central struggle vivid while intensifying the play’s troubling gender politics.

How to ease in

The film treats conflict as courtship, but you need not accept that equation. Watch how Katherina and Petruchio perform for servants, relatives, and each other, and where comedy depends on coercion.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes misogyny, domestic abuse, food deprivation, coercive marriage, animal handling, and gendered humiliation.
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The stars make resistance pleasurable even when the story tries to call submission an ending. I watch Katherina’s performance for signs that the last word and the last meaning may not be the same thing.

— Momo

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Credits & versions

Version map

Wikidata 63-minute listing 63 min 63 minutes reproduces the single duration stated by the source. The listing does not identify a cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration. Source: Wikidata — The Taming of the Shrew Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

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