The Pirate

Next up on the list of movies that I have on my DVR that's coming up again soon on TCM is The Pirate, which TCM will be running tomorrow (June 6) at 8:00 AM.

The movie opens up with some title cards telling us about the legendary pirate Macoco, who preyed upon shipping in the Caribbean in the second half of the 18th century. Having read those tales is Manuela (Judy Garland), who lives on one of the Spanish islands in the caribbean with her aunt Inez (Gladys Cooper), who has raised her since her parents died. As Manuela is technically an orphan, aunt Inez wanted to marry her off, which she's about to do with Don Pedro Vargas (Walter Slezak), who has been shipped in by the Spanish authorities to be mayor of the provincial town where Manuela and Inez live.

Manuela, having been fascinated by the tales of Macoco, wants to see the Caribbean before she gets married, so she goes off to the port town serving the island, ostensibly because her trousseau should also be arriving and she can have alterations to her wedding dress made there if need be. Also arriving in port is an acting troupe led by Serafin (Gene Kelly), sporting a ridiculous moustache and wig, and in one of the dance numbers an extremely short tunic.

Part of the shtick of Serafin's show is mesmerism, at the time a sort of parlor trick since people didn't really understand hypnosis. Serafin hypnotizes Manuela, who does a musical number about loving Macoco. Since Serafin was struck by Manuela's beauty and that was the whole reason he put her under hypnosis in the first place, Serafin decides to pose as Macoco to try to win over Manuela, never mind that she's betrothed to Don Pedro.

And then Serafin has a run-in with Don Pedro. It turns out that this isn't the first time the two met, as Don Pedro is the real Macoco, and had at some point in the past taken Serafin and his acting troupe hostage off the coast of Africa. But nobody else knows the real Macoco. The Spanish want Macoco, and Don Pedro sees an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Except that this would violate the Prodcution Code, and besides, Gene Kelly is a much more romantic leading man than Walter Slezak, so you can guess who winds up with whom in the final reel.

The story in The Pirate isn't terribly original, but that's beside the point. The Pirate is a vehicle for its stars: Gene Kelly gets to do a lot of dancing, while Judy Garland gets to sing. They both get to show off their ample talents in that regard, and the song and dance numbers are all exceedingly well executed technically. The only thing for me, however, is that because the story is so week, all the musical numbers left me a bit cold, as if the movie just has no heart.

However, if you like either Judy Garland or Gene Kelly, chances are you'll be able to overlook the story weaknesses and really enjoy The Pirate.