Okay, right up front, this is not a very good movie. A lot of the jokes are lame, way too much time is taken up with bad musical numbers, and the gruesome CineColor photography looks like a throwback to the two-strip Technicolor of the early talkies.
But I like it anyway, even if I grit my teeth whenever the pirates start singing, as they much too frequently do. That's right, I like it ... because we get to see Charles Laughton, one of the screen's greatest actors, goofing it up with pratfalls, double takes, and other slapstick shtick. And doing it well.
Laughton really lets himself go, clearly having fun burlesquing a role he'd played seriously a few years earlier. He struts, fumes, scowls, and growls. He makes the most of the script's often limited possibilities. He holds his own against his bete noir, Costello. By the end, he's channeling Looney Tunes in exaggerated pantomime - polishing a dagger, plucking a hair from his head (boink!) to test the blade, then launching into a salty seadog dance. Bugs Bunny couldn't have done it better.
If only there were more Laughton and fewer caterwauling buccaneers ...
But I like it anyway, even if I grit my teeth whenever the pirates start singing, as they much too frequently do. That's right, I like it ... because we get to see Charles Laughton, one of the screen's greatest actors, goofing it up with pratfalls, double takes, and other slapstick shtick. And doing it well.
Laughton really lets himself go, clearly having fun burlesquing a role he'd played seriously a few years earlier. He struts, fumes, scowls, and growls. He makes the most of the script's often limited possibilities. He holds his own against his bete noir, Costello. By the end, he's channeling Looney Tunes in exaggerated pantomime - polishing a dagger, plucking a hair from his head (boink!) to test the blade, then launching into a salty seadog dance. Bugs Bunny couldn't have done it better.
If only there were more Laughton and fewer caterwauling buccaneers ...