The Pirate
Short description
The Pirate is a 1948 American musical adventure comedy set on a Caribbean island, where Manuela, a young woman promised in marriage to the wealthy mayor Don Pedro, dreams instead of the legendary pirate Macoco. When a travelling performer named Serafin arrives with his troupe and falls for her, he pretends to be the notorious pirate to win her heart, a deception that causes complications for everyone involved.
Vincente Minnelli directed the film, the fourth of the fourteen he made in chronological order, following Undercurrent and preceding Father of the Bride. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote the screenplay, and Arthur Freed produced it for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Judy Garland stars as Manuela, with Gene Kelly as Serafin, Walter Slezak as Don Pedro, Gladys Cooper as Aunt Inez, Reginald Owen and George Zucco. The production had a budget of four million dollars and took about three million at the worldwide box office, less than its cost.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.9 from around six thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.5 from roughly a hundred votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 from eighteen reviews places it close to the audience scores, suggesting a broadly similar response across viewers and reviewers. At 102 minutes, it mixes music, romance and comedy around its central masquerade.
What's left behind the scenes
- Gene Kelly (1912-1996) and Judy Garland went to great lengths to include a dance duet by the Nicholas Brothers in the film. They succeeded, but the scene with the dancers was cut from the film in Memphis and other cities in the American South due to the dancers' skin color.
- Cole Porter was asked to write songs for the film. He agreed on the condition that the filmmakers change the name of the main character (who was called Estrumondo in the play) to Macoco – the name of Porter's friend.
- A passionate romance between Judy Garland and Gene Kelly during the dance to the composition «Voodoo» enraged MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) so much that he demanded the negatives be burned.
- When a sea breeze blows Manuela’s hat off, a wire attached to it, which is being pulled, becomes clearly visible.
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