Kiss Me, Kate (1953)

Lilli Vanessi: Do you really think *I* could play the shrew?
Fred Graham: You'd make a perfect shrew!

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Lilli Vanessi: You louse!

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Deanna Durbin had been MGM's first choice for the role of Lilli Vanessi, but despite a visit by producer Jack Cummings to Deanna's home near Paris, she could not be persuaded to emerge from retirement. Miss Durbin already had rejected the chance to portray Lili in London's West End, where the British production played 400 performances at the Coliseum Theatre, running from March 8, 1951 until February 23, 1952. Patricia Morison, Broadway's original Lilli, re-created the part in London.
Even though Hermes Pan is the credited choreographer on the film, the steamy duet between Bob Fosse and Carol Haney in "From This Moment On" (which includes Fosse doing a complete back-flip) was choreographed by Fosse himself, and lasts only 66 seconds. But it is the sequence that made critics take notice of the future award-winning choreographer and director.
Several of the Broadway lyrics were considered too "spicy" for a film. For instance, "according to the Kinsey Report" (Alfred Kinsey) was changed to "according to the weather report" in the song, "Too Darn Hot", and a verse containing bawdy puns was omitted from "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" (William Shakespeare).
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