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The Pirate:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
June 11, 1948
New York Times, May 21, 1948
'The Pirate,' With Gene Kelly,
Judy Garland and Walter Slezak, at Music Hall
By T.M.P.
The difference between the talents of Gene Kelly
and Judy Garland and those of Alfred Lunt and Lynn
Fontanne is as night is to day. "The Pirate" was
fashioned most purposefully for the celebrated pair
from Genesee Depot, so Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wisely
set about making little, but significant, changes
here and there in filming this fantastic
conglomeration of legerdemain, dancing and romance.
"The Pirate," which came yesterday to the Radio City
Music Hall, is a dazzling, spectacular extravaganza,
shot through with all the colors of the rainbow and
then some that are Technicolor patented.
It takes this mammoth show some time to generate a
full head of steam, but when it gets rolling it's
thoroughly delightful. However, the momentum is far
from steady and the result is a lopsided
entertainment that is wonderfully flamboyant in its
high spots and bordering on tedium elsewhere.
Perhaps such unevenness is the inevitable
consequence in the case of a will-o'-the-wisp
romance so extravagantly larded with bizarre
production qualities. But Vincente Minnelli, the
director, doesn't permit the show to drag too much,
for most of the scenes are crowded with people
and—should we mention it again?—color.
Gene Kelly is doing some of the fanciest gymnastic
dancing of his career in "The Pirate"—and he's good,
very good, indeed. As the strolling thespian,
Serafin, who masquerades as the bold pirate Macoco
to capture the fancy of the fair maiden, Manuela,
and prevent her marriage to the flabby and stuffy
Don Pedro Vargas, Mr. Kelly scales balconies and
swings through the air with the authority and grace
exhibited by the late Douglas Fairbanks. When he is
whirling about the screen, serenading beautiful
Caribbean damsels, or vigorously performing a ballet
depicting piratical exploits that is brilliantly
photographed in flaming shades of red and punctuated
with yellow bursts of flashing gun powder, "The
Pirate" achieves the pinnacle of spectacle.
The story line of the S. N. Behrman play has been
straightened and strengthened somewhat in the script
provided by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich,
though it does not quite match the original in
humorous content. For some reason Mr. Kelly doesn't
attempt to duplicate Mr. Lunt's feats of magic,
being content to hypnotize the unhappy Manuela (Miss
Garland) into admitting her love for him and, again,
to mesmerize the crafty Don Pedro into confessing
that he is in fact the infamous pirate, Macoco.
Miss Garland teams nicely with Mr. Kelly, singing or
dancing, and she throws herself with verve into a
wild, slapstick exercise, tossing everything that's
not nailed down at the dashing trouper. It's funny,
but a mite overdone. However, the finale, which
finds the pair on the threshold of living happily
ever after, is a lively roughhouse session of
clowning set to the tune of "Be A Clown," easily the
best of Cole Porter's several songs. Walter Slezak
as Don Pedro, Gladys Cooper as Aunt Inez and George
Zucco as the viceroy do well by their roles. But
"The Pirate" is Mr. Kelly's picture and he gives it
all he has, which is considerable and worthy of
attention.
The Pirate:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
June 11, 1948 |
