The Pirate (1948)

Touches You

Memorable, crazy movie

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

On a picturesque West Indies island, fair young Judy Garland (as Manuela) fantasizes about being swept off her feet by a manly pirate. As was customary for proper young ladies in the 1830s, Ms. Garland's guardian Aunt Gladys Cooper (as Inez) has arranged for her to marry wealthy old Walter Slezak (as Pedro Vargas). Garland appears to accept her fate as "practical" but longs for one last adventure by the romantic Caribbean Sea. Right on cue, she meets sexy young actor Gene Kelly (as Serafin). He falls head over heels for Garland, but she won't reciprocate. To win her affection, Mr. Kelly becomes Macoco, "The Pirate" man of Garland's fantasy...This is the musical version of a Fontanne-Lunt play (by S.N. Behrman) which seemed a variation of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew". Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it is flawed but entertaining. Perhaps surprisingly or perhaps not, Mr. Minnelli captures an unusually strong sexual energy in Garland and Kelly. This is subtle in their "meeting" scene and rather obvious when they kiss and Garland's hand clutches Kelly's muscular arm. Minnelli, who was married to Garland at the time, more often allows the camera to caress Kelly...Like a singing and dancing Douglas Fairbanks, the athletically attractive Kelly practically takes over the production. This is his film. Some background reading reveals Garland was often absent. Certainly, she should have been in the picture more. At times, Garland reaction shots seem edited in, to give her more of a presence. A double is also used (hiding her face in the fainting scene, of course). While it's disappointing to have Garland often unengaged, Kelly is in peak form. The showstopper occurs where it should, at the end, with the extended "Be a Clown" (written by Cole Porter). Kelly dances with the Nicholas Brothers and coaxes Garland back to work, for a rousing finale.****** The Pirate (1948-03-27) Vincente Minnelli ~ Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper

Two Macocos. One real, one fake. One sexy, one an elephant. Judy all prissy, Gene way less shy, ala Summer Stock of 1950. Judy's aunt and uncle trying to get rid of her, for money reasons. How come people in lots of movies are orphans and being raised by relatives or grandparents, like Parris Mitchell in Kings Row? Even Drake McHugh of Kings Row had no parents.Loved the fear in Don Pedro's face when he was confronted by Serafin as being the real Macoco, the criminal wanted for tons of crimes on the seven seas. Slezak was a great actor. Uncle Capucho was a namby-pamby little man, dominated by Aunt Inez -- the actress who later played the mother of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady -- Gladys Cooper.The huge plaid tam worn by Judy in the beginning of the movie clashed in a quite ugly manner with her patterned dress. Her red lipstick did stand out quite well, however. I did love her beautiful wedding dress and veil. She looked quite wonderful in this ensemble.Slezak dragging his foot backward twice, like a horse with a hoof problem, was gross to look at.The Nicholas Brothers were absolutely wonderful, as always. I did miss seeing their fabulous tap dancing, plus their major leaping and sliding. They were excellent with Gene Kelly, and upon further viewings I was able to find them earlier in the movie. I have seen clips of some of their other movies, mostly black and white, as I recall.I do love the colors in this movie. They are lush, warm and wonderful. The production design is superb.Lastly, Gene's physique was divine. I understand that he always did his own stunts. You know that tap is my favorite dance, and I have seen a lot of his tap dance movies. In Pirate, his athleticism is superb, from the muscular thighs in the pirate mast fire fantasy to Gene's walking the tightrope to Judy's balcony.And finally, the cigarette inside Gene's mouth was horrible to look at. I know that smoking cigarettes in those days was the in-thing to do. Those actors/roles were such great role models for younger people, right (not!)?

Porter, Kelly, Garland, Minnelli! How could you go wrong? I was all set to watch this on a cold, rainy afternoon on my 100" screen. And to my utter amazement, this is one of the worst (and ridiculous) movies I have ever seen. This movie makes the worst Elvis Presley movie look good.The sets looked like they were from a low budget Gillbert and Sullivan production. The dancing (if you can call it that) looked like it was from a high school musical. The songs, well, it is hard to believe they were actually penned by the great Cole Porter (he must have needed some fast cash).The only good thing about this movie was the Nicholas Brothers. (Now where did Michael Jackson get his moves?)

The main (sorry about that) attraction for me was the Cole Porter score and whilst he was incapable of writing mediocre it does fall woefully short of the very next score he wrote directly for the screen some seven years later, namely High Society. Judy Garland isn't exactly chopped liver either if anyone asks you yet here she was strangely ineffective and insipid. Kelly was always a bad nowhere to Fred Astaire and this is borne out by the movie Judy made with Fred that very same year, Easter Parade. Having got the caveats out of the way I must give a nod to what the film was attempting - no less than a send-up of those Douglas Fairbanks Senior silent swashbucklers and the flamboyant 'actor' style of Jack Barrymore. Perhaps the problem lies with the source material, a creaky old war-horse that had provided a hit for the Lunts a few years earlier, which asks us to believe that a dashing, ruthless pirate would abandon the sea and metamorphose into Walter Slezak who is now so legit he even has a lawyer. Producer Arthur Freed, a minor lyricist himself, cheerfully helped himself to Porter's melody Be A Clown and wrote new lyrics with never so much as an acknowledgment, let alone a thank you, which he titled Make 'Em Laugh' and interpolated into Singin' In The Rain which he produced four years later. Pirate indeed.