Pirate, The (1948)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

A motion picture marred with a tumultuous period in Judy Garland’s famed career, 1948’s The Pirate would be the only MGM produced picture for her to lose money. A Technicolor musical spectacle co-starring the effervescent actor/dancer Gene Kelly, the feature would struggle to find audience accepting of Garland’s attempt to move beyond her cuter, more wholesome roles that made her a star. Its result was a massive failure for the studio that book-ended a personally troubling period for Judy Garland and a movie that just falls short, but not without its good moments and a hint of inspiration for Gene Kelly.

The Pirate is a musical about a traveling show clown in the Caribbean who attempts to win the favor of a young lady by impersonating the persona of an infamous pirate. In a small Caribbean town Manuela Alva (Judy Garland) dreams of being romantically swept away the romantically legendary pirate Macoco, but due to family insistence she is engaged to the town’s well off, rotund, and insistent mayor, De Pedro (Walter Slezak). Manuela’s beauty catches the eye of, Serafin (Gene Kelly), the handsome clown and emcee of a traveling circus, but despite her interest she cannot reciprocate the feeling due to her arrangement to the mayor. Determined to find a way to free her of her romantic bonds, Serafin blackmails De Pedro after discovering the mayor is actually the retired pirate Macoco attempting to keep his past unknown in order to break off the engagement. Serafin takes on the front of the romantic pirate to woo Manuela with her, as well as threaten the town in order to force her to leave with him. Serafin’s plan backfires with an arrest, but when Manuela, privy to Serafin’s ruse, states she loves Macoco, De Pedro in jealousy exclaims his true identity as the infamous pirate. The circus help to subdue the real pirate, closing with Manuela and Serafin’s loving embrace and subsequent lives together as musical comedy duo.

The film has its troubles, most of which are rooted from behind the scenes, which I can get to later. What we do observe on screen are the talents of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in a vehicle that lacks the charm the two stars are best known for. Garland, playing against type as a more sexually suggestive young lady, lacks the believably of being a saucy Caribbean lady and the energy of her prior musicals. Gene Kelly evokes a mix between Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks, but his use in this picture falls flat with creativity, yet with a few moments of true showmanship buried within. The singing and dancing are top notch through the picture, the colors and art direction are beautiful, but the script, an adaptation of a romantic adventure into a musical fails to be win over audiences. Mixed with a series of screen trouble for Judy Garland the picture would be a flop, and one of her least favorite films.

When husband and wife Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland enjoyed a showing of the play “The Pirate” they were delighted to discover that MGM owned the screen rights to the production, eventually evolving the material into the vehicle that was directed by Minnelli and star Garland. What was originally a straight play would be rewritten into a musical with Gene Kelly attached to portray the lead protagonist of Serafin with Kelly was more than happy to take second billing to work for the second time with the famed actress. With original songs penned by Cole Porter and choreography mostly arranged by Kelly the movie was on its way to being a Technicolor spectacular of a classic MGM style when things started to sputter for the production.

During the year 1947 Judy Garland was coming off the birth of her and Minnelli’s daughter, Liza, and their marriage was beginning to experience troubles. These stressful times would trigger the already testy Garland to experience a series of psychological issues that would lead to her having a mental breakdown during the filming of The Pirate. For a time Garland was admitted to a sanitarium causing the production to work around her availability. This led to significant and costly gaps throughout filming, shooting without Garland when they could and waiting for her to arrive later on to fill the gaps. During this troubling period Garland made her first attempt to take her own life, cutting her wrists. Due to all of Somehow Minnelli kept the production moving despite the threat of the film being shut down and their marriage beginning to deteriorate.

A mostly recovered Garland would eventually return to the set, malnourished and slightly underweight, she was dressed in puffy costumes to mask her frame. She struggled to complete her dancing numbers with Gene Kelly. However, her professionalism pushed her performance as Judy was able to complete principle photography. With her best performances and editing most audiences would never realize how difficult production was for her.

In the absence of Garland most of the attention of production fell on the true star of the picture, Gene Kelly. Ever the perfectionist, Kelly delivers another grand performance with his dance numbers that are imaginative, physically impressive, and down right delightful. Shot in manner similar to Fred Astaire with long continuous takes showing him from head to toe, Kelly’s performances some highly strenuous delivered in a manner that looks effortless. Ever the showman, Kelly is quickly becoming a master of the Hollywood musical entertainment, delivering  performances audiences could not see anywhere else.

Finished with principle photography, the film struggled to find an acceptable final form. MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer detested a musical number in which Gene Kelly and Judy Garland dance in a highly sexually suggestive manner to display their attraction to each other. Mayer, a protonate of family entertainment was enraged his once greatest and purest star, Judy Garland, was displayed in this manner, ordering the number cut and the film negative burned so no one would ever discover footage.

Gene Kelly found the ending of the picture too quick and drab, inspiring him to pen his own song to give the picture an entertaining, up-beat conclusion in “Be a Clown.” Minnelli would like Kelly’s song and idea so much that the song would be added to the picture twice, first in the circus performance alongside of the talented Nicolas Brothers, who might be considered out-dancing Kelly, and secondly closing out the picture with Kelly and Garland performing together as clowns. The Kelly and Garland tandem version’s tone does feel out of place for the overall picture, but its execution is spot on to showcase each stars’ great talent to sing, dance, and entertain with such wonderful execution that is finishes the film of a positive note.

With the elongated production period the budget of The Pirate easily ballooned beyond what MGM wished from the picture. Louis B. Mayer hated the film, but due to the elaborate expense already invested in the picture it was determined to see if the feature could draw the audiences it hoped. It became clear upon release that despite how much publicly and promotion the film could dish out audiences and a critics were not interested. General audiences were not ready for a more mature Judy Garland, while critics found the picture greatly lacking in substance and in its acting. The Pirate was a failure. The picture would lose MGM over $2 million and in the face of Mayer losing money the studio head felt vindicated for his opinions on the production.

The Pirate would see distinctive edits in certain markets due to regional tastes and politics of the time. In some areas a nuimber of the more suggestive scenes were trimmed back, a not to uncommon occurrence in a more conservative era. The most notable omission the picture saw was of Gene Kelly dancing with the Nicolas Brothers in “Be A Clown” at first in city of Memphis before spreading into many Southern markets. The Nicolas Brother were a pair of African Americans entertainers known for highly physical dancing ability, best exemplified in their appearance in the 1943 African American casted musical Stormy Weather, where the brothers literally dance all over a stage, bounding on large steps into full splits multiple times. In an age of segregation markets such as Memphis found issue with black and whites dancing together, and to best avoid banning of the movie playing in the segregated communities MGM saw to simply cut that part of the segment out instead of showcasing the full enjoyable number.

The Pirate marked the first time Judy Garland failed to bring in money for the studio that made her a star. Her marriage was beginning to fall apart and her mental issues were causing her and others trouble. She looked to be setting course for a negative turn in her career, but that was short lived as her very next film, Easter Parade, co-starring Fred Astaire who was replacing an injured Gene Kelly, was a success, quickly turning things around for her professionally.

The number “Be A Clown” may sound familiar in tone to fans of Gene Kelly, and that is not far off as the song penned by Kelly would inspire another song he would later have written for his famed picture Singin’ in the Rain. “Make ‘Em Laugh” perfumed by Jerry O’Connell shared a similar tone, style, and performance angle used to entertain audiences of that picture, and it has The Pirate to thank for its genesis. In a way “Make ‘Em Laugh” was a rip-off, but with both pictures produced by MGM, the studio would not mind.

The Pirate was an MGM failure that would just professional nick threw ego of Garland and MGM. With quick turnarounds the picture was swiftly forgotten for it financial downfalls. The backstory of Garland’s dark period during production would play its role in the failure, but with Kelly’s performance and its future effect on his career there is an upside to the film. Today we are able to best see the film’s effects in the history of all those connected to the picture and can appreciate the pieces that make the production, but on a whole the film is just not great and can be easily passed by.