Film

Kiss Me Kate

Name: Kiss Me Kate
Genre: Music, Comedy, Romance
Released: 1953
Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Keenan Wynn, Bobby Van

A back-stage backstage musical: divorced stars Fred and Lilli reunite to play Petruchio and Kate in a musical Taming of the Shrew, and their real-life sparring bleeds straight into the show. Cole Porter's songs are sharp, funny, and gorgeous, the dancing (especially Ann Miller's) is electric, and the whole thing has the giddy confidence of a studio that knows it's got a hit. Pure MGM sugar with real wit underneath.

TMDb rating

6.5

If you liked this

Singin' in the Rain1952

The gold standard of the studio-era musical, made a year before Kate, with the same joyous excess and a script that's actually funny between numbers. If you want the genre at its absolute peak, start here.

But Less romantic sparring, more showbiz satire — if it was the Fred-and-Lilli bickering you loved, this scratches a slightly different itch.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers1954

MGM musical dance-as-combat taken to its physical extreme — the barn-raising number alone is worth the price of admission. Big, brash, and unapologetically silly in the best way.

But The gender politics are even creakier than Kate's, and there's less plot holding the numbers together.

Guys and Dolls1955

Another Broadway-to-screen transplant with a battle-of-the-sexes engine, Runyonesque wit, and a cast (Brando! Sinatra!) clearly having a ball. The songs are just as sticky as Porter's.

But Brando's singing is an acquired taste, and it trades Kate's backstage chaos for gangster-and-gambler plotting.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Taming of the Shrew1967

Same source play, played straight instead of sung — and the off-screen marriage of its stars gives the Fred-and-Lilli premise (real exes forced to play warring lovers) an eerie, unscripted double.

Zeffirelli's lush, bawdy, entirely unsung version of the play Kate is based on, starring a real married couple — Taylor and Burton — visibly enjoying tearing chunks out of each other.

But No songs, no backstage frame, and Shakespeare's original sexual politics land harder without a musical number to soften them.

The Band Wagon1953

Same year, same backstage-musical DNA — a fading star trying to save a troubled production — with Fred Astaire at his most self-aware and funny about his own stardom.

But Cooler and more melancholy under the gloss; less shouting-match romance, more wistful showbiz comedy.

Annie Get Your Gun1950no page yet

Howard Keel again, again squaring off against a formidable woman who can out-shoot and out-sing him. Irving Berlin instead of Porter, but the same delighted battle of egos.

But Betty Hutton's performance is a lot — brassy and manic in a way Grayson and Miller never are.

High Society1956no page yet

Divorced couple, reunited by circumstance, forced to pretend they can be civil while old sparks fly — basically Kate's plot with champagne instead of Shakespeare, and Cole Porter songs again.

But Bing Crosby's low-key charm is a very different register from Keel's booming showmanship; it's cooler, slower, more martini than madcap.

On the Town1949no page yet

Comden and Green's giddy, location-shot musical energy, a few years earlier, proving the MGM machine could be loose and jazzy as well as lavish and stagey.

But It's a day-in-New-York romp, not a romantic-combat plot — charming, but structurally looser than Kate.

My Fair Lady1964

A decade on, the same pleasure of watching a witty, resistant woman spar verbally with a man determined to reshape her — with Lerner and Loewe songs nearly as good as Porter's.

But Longer, more genteel, and the power imbalance between Higgins and Eliza sits less comfortably than Fred and Lilli's mutual sparring.

Anything Goes1956no page yet

More pure Cole Porter, more shipboard farce, and a chance to hear songs from the same songwriting brain in a completely different plot — mistaken identities included.

But Considered a lesser Porter adaptation even by fans; the plot is thinner and the cast doesn't have Kate's spark.

10 Things I Hate About You1999

It's the exact same Shrew-taming structure Kate is built on, transplanted into a completely different genre and generation — same bones, wildly different costume.

The Taming of the Shrew relocated to a Seattle high school, with Heath Ledger as the reluctant Petruchio figure — proof the same engine runs just as well on teen-comedy fuel.

But Broad, glossy late-90s teen-movie tone; if you want elegance or musical craft, this isn't offering either.

De-Lovely2004no page yet

The same songs you just heard played for laughs and love here score the real, much sadder marriage and closeted life of the man who wrote them — the sunny surface gets a serious undertow.

A biopic of Cole Porter himself, staged as a kind of stage-musical retrospective of his own songs — including ones from Kiss Me Kate — but built around his hidden private grief.

But Deliberately melancholy where Kate is bright; it's a sad, complicated portrait of the man behind the songs, not a romp.