Memorable, crazy movie

Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

1948 was Gene Kelly's banner year for swashbuckling roles. Not only did he here play a combination of an itinerant gymnastic carnival actor and pirate imposter, he also starred in the non-musical "The 3 Musketeers". .....Having missed the opportunity to costar with Judy in "Easter Parade" that year, due to an injury, this was their second pairing, but the first photographed in color, and what color! It was also the first of 3 films starring Kelly that was directed by Judy's husband at the time: Vincente Minnelli. The second, 2 years later, was the Oscar-winning "An American in Paris", also a very colorful experience. Reportedly, Judy became increasing mentally unstable, missing many days, or being late, which put a strain on their marriage.......The screenplay is scripted to occur in Calvado: a town on a small Caribbean island, with it's many colorful people and costumes. Judy is cast as the unmarried Manuela, who lives with her aunt and uncle. Arrangements have been made for her to marry the plump middle-aged Don Pedro(well played by Walter Slezak), who is the new town mayor. But Manuela yearns for her imagined hero: the infamous pirate Macoco. She first encounters the athletic performer Serafin(Kelly) and his troupe at the wharf, as they arrive. He takes an immediate fancy to her. Upon learning of her infatuation with her imagined Mococo, Serafin decides to masquerade as the pirate: quite believable to Manuela. Later, we will meet the real Mococo, presently masquerading as one of the town folk. I will stop my introduction here......The tacked on finale centers on the tumbling, slapstick and singing associated with Cole Porter's new song : "Be a Clown". It's certainly the most memorable of Porter's scores composed for this film. It was done twice, with a brief interlude. First, Kelly teamed with the African American Nicholas Brothers: who specialized in gymnastic dancing and stunts. They were incorporated into several musicals in the '40s, but never before in an act that included a Caucasian. Although their version was cut out in copies sent to The South, many people found that combination unacceptable. Hence, they relocated to Europe until the Civil Rights revolution brought them back. The second version included Judy, with Kelly. This was more oriented toward slapstick rather than tumbling, and is the version seen in all copies. It was a great way to finish the story, with Manuela reinventing herself.......Four years later , the tune of "Be a Clown" was resurrected for "Singing in the Rain", with new lyrics by Arthur Freed. The result was the much remembered "Make 'Em Laugh" production, starring Donald O'Connor. Strangely, at the IMDB site for the present film, Nacio Brown is listed as the tune composer and Arthur Freed as the lyricist, published in 1948, rather than 1952! I don't imagine MGM cared much who got the credit for composing the tune, as they presumably owned the copyrights for both.

There's something in this movie which make it stand apart from other MGM musicals of that period, and I believe it was precisely this reason the movie ended up as a marketing flop.First of all, the whole movie has very exaggerated and stylized tone, which combined with the vivid cinematography of Vincente Minnelli, creates rather fantastical, storybook-like (remember the movie actually starts with turning of storybook pages) mood, which might feel too alien to the audiences who expected to see another typical MGM musical like For Me and My Gal.Of course, other period musicals like Meet Me in St.Louis or The Harvey Girls are far from realistic also. But while we can say that Esther's family or the Harvey House in those are rather idealized or exaggerated, they are by no means fantastic or surrealistic like such an imaginary Caribbean island where things like a pirate in his hot pants cutting ears off a bunny hat look like 'normal'.If such an intention can be misinterpreted even by a modern reviewer to make him to criticize the movie, based on ethnic demography of a typical Caribbean island, then it's hardly surprising to see why some audiences from the 40s found it to be 'over dramatic' or 'over the top', for example.As to the movie itself, I think I should give more credit to Gene Kelly than to Judy Garland even though I'm a big fan of the latter, and actually it was because of her that I first decided to watch this movie.Aside from the "Mack the Black" or "Be a Clown" numbers, which are nice but can't be said to be top notch, music scores of the movie aren't very impressive, so regretfully we don't have much occasion to appreciate Judy Garland's legendary talent.But as to Gene Kelly, the movie serves as a great showcase to prove that he's much more than a mere good looking actor with some tap dancing skills. By adapting elements of ballet or even pole dancing, he tries to innovate the musical dancing to a whole new level, and sequences like "Nina" or the "Pirate Ballet" feels like a precursor to his later efforts which successfully enlarged and redefined the field.All in all, it's one of those movies which can be termed as a 'successful failure', which was successful in making a lasting impression with many bold and innovative attempts, and be a marketing flop for the very same reason.If there were a bit more memorable music numbers, which would give Judy Garland more chance to shine, it might have been remembered as one of a cult classic of MGM musicals.

Pirate, The (1948) ** 1/2 (out of 4)With stars Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, song writer Cole Porter and director Vincente Minnelli, you can tell MGM went all out on this production but it turned out to be a financial disaster and it didn't help matters that Garland was going through one of the most difficult periods of her life. The film's story is pretty simple as Garland is about to be married off to a Mayor who she doesn't really love but before she is she meets the dashing performance played by Kelly. The rest of the film has him trying to steal her heart while singing and dancing countless tunes. Having watched a couple documentaries on Garland this film became one that I was dying to see and the end result left me pretty disappointed. There's no question that the film offers some fine moments and these moments make the film worth viewing at least once but at the same time the story is so weak and the trouble production can clearly be seen on the screen. Just take a look at one of the best moments in the film, which is when Kelly gets to perform one last time and does a version of Be a Clown. Apparently this number wasn't originally going to be in the movie but Kelly got his way and ended up delivering one of the most memorable sequences with some great vocals and a nice little dance sequence. This great scene also has some weak moments mainly being how it's obvious Garland is no where on the set. This is so obvious because of the style of the editing, which, after a while, becomes rather annoying. The constant cutaways just didn't work for me and this type of thing is going on throughout the movie. Apparently Garland ended up missing nearly one hundred days worth of shooting and it's obvious. Even in some of the scenes she's in it appears she's really out of it as she doesn't have that full, 100% Judy touch. That being said, she does have a few good moments here, mainly at the very end when she joins Kelly on the Be a Clown number. Kelly is the real star here as his dance sequences are extremely impressive (as usual) and he gets several good numbers including Nina early on in the film. Minnelli's direction is good throughout and he keeps the film moving even as the weak screenplay tries to drag everything down. I think the comic nature of the screenplay never really comes across and we're left with a rather flat "joke" about who the bandit pirate really is and this never really grabs ones attention. The screenplay isn't horrible but at the same time it's just not interesting enough to make one really take notice of the film. Kelly makes it worth viewing at least once but this is certainly far from classic MGM.

Gene Kelly and Judy Garland stepped into some mighty big shoes when they accepted the lead roles in The Pirate. On Broadway, The Pirate ran in the 1942-43 season for 177 performances and the shoes that Kelly and Garland were filling belonged to Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne. True it's probably one of the lighter vehicles that Lunt and Fontanne ever did, still it might have been interesting to compare what they did with the snappy dialog of S.N. Behrmann.Cole Porter signed on to write the score for this musical adaption of The Pirate. Porter had been in a creative dry spell for a few years, most notoriously he was associated with a flop musical based on Around The World In 80 Days, a couple of years back. Believe it or not, he was having trouble getting work in Hollywood and on Broadway when he signed with MGM for The Pirate.According to the George Eells biography of Porter, it was Gene Kelly who asked Porter to write a clown number for him and Judy Garland. Porter responded with Be A Clown which turned out to be the hit of the film. The rest of the score is not top drawer Porter, but mediocre Cole Porter is better than most songwriters can come up with.Judy Garland plays another starry eyed youngster in The Pirate which is set in the 18th century Caribbean. She's first seen reading what would later be called a dime novel about the legendary Makoko the Pirate. She's getting into an arranged marriage with the mayor of the town, staid and settled Walter Slezak. When a troupe of strolling players led by Gene Kelly come to town, under hypnosis she reveals that she longs to be the bride of Makoko. What's Gene Kelly to do, but pretend to be Makoko.That's all well and good except that Walter Slezak is the real Makoko now just trying to live in peaceful obscurity away from the authorities who want to hang him. All this leads to some interesting complications that of course get all sorted out in the end.Judy gets to do two ballads in her unmistakable style, Love Of My Life and You Can Do No Wrong. And she stars in a rousing production number where the proclaims her enchantment with the legendary Makoko in Mack The Black. The film got a tepid response in 1948, it's given far better critical notice in retrospect. The Pirate was produced by MGM's legendary Arthur Freed and his unit and directed stylishly by Vincent Minnelli who was Judy Garland's husband at the time. Today's audiences would far better appreciate the combined wit of S.N. Behrmann and Cole Porter.As for Porter, his next writing assignment would stop all talk of his going into decline. The following year Kiss Me Kate debuted on Broadway which was Porter's biggest critical and commercial success. No one ever said that score wasn't up to his usual standard.