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.
