User Reviews

After watching The Dancing Pirate, I tried to decide what target audience was intended. It wasn't particularly humorous, adventurous, or full of great music; it just sort of unrolled over time.

The star, the Dancing Pirate himself, was so gaunt and skeletal that it was hard to believe he could move as quickly as he did without fainting from starvation. One expects a dancer to be fit, with some musculature, but this poor guy desperately needed to eat something, and soon.

There weren't really any sympathetic characters, either, although there were some dis likable ones.

It's an odd movie, bringing together tap dancing and flamenco, inducing peaceful Indians to do violence, the star dancing with a noose around his neck, and more...it's like nothing else.

A mélange of action comedy romance and musical doesn't really work since its trying to be too many things all at once. The plot has a dance teacher getting shanghaied into becoming a pirate and sailing from the east coast of America to the west where the pirates come up and try to take over a town in Spanish California. Our hero of course defects, but is thrown in prison because everyone assumes he's one of the bad guys. Straightening things out he has to over come the town bad guy and head of the local militia who is engaged to the daughter of the "mayor" of the town. She doesn't love the villain, but our hero.

Can you tell I wasn't much interested? The music is fair, the dancing adequate and the story way too busy. It feels at times like they are trying to do a musical version of Zorro but with out the mask. I will admit that it didn't help that I saw this Technicolor film in black and white so the garish costume designs looked worse and the sets looked very much like bad cheap sets. That said the cast is at best fair with Charles Collins (in one of his very few screen roles) as the dancing romantic lead very bland and second billed Frank (the Wizard of Oz) Morgan proving that he is better in support then in a lead where his abilities are strained a bit too much.

In its way its not a bad film, rather it's the sort of thing that was just sort of misses. I'm guessing the film was skimped on since the Technicolor film stock ate up most of the budget.

Not the worst thing to come down the pike, but not something I need ever see again.

It's very difficult to predict what you will think of this idiosyncratic musical comedy. Filmed in 3 strip Technicolor, it's only been available in B&W copies for decades. However, apparently, a full Technicolor copy surfaced in 2015, so perhaps this will be made available in time. This would be especially valuable for the colorful dances in the Mexican village of La Paloma.......The film title is misleading. The dancing master, Johnathan((Charles Collins) who is the main character, is not a pirate. Rather he was shanghaied from his Boston home by some pirates, and given menial jobs to do, until he escaped in coastal Mexican California during a shore operation.(Just why the pirates went around Cape Horn to the then backwater of California is not explained). It's understandable that the people of this village might be fearful with his arrival, as, from a hill, they saw a pirate ship off shore, and initially feared that he was the captain. As it turned out, none of the real pirates followed him. Just what they had in the casks they offloaded nearby is a mystery, but they didn't come looking for him before shoving off. His cask was different because he had put his aunt's umbrella and music box in it. The umbrella would come in handy numerous times In subduing enemies, while the music box sometimes served as music for dancing.......Before he was shanghaied, he was a dancing master in 1820 Boston. Recently, he had been specializing in teaching the imported European waltz, which was much simpler than most other dances being taught in America.(Historically, the waltz was first introduced in the US, in Boston, but in 1834, not in1820). However, there was much initial resistance to it, because it involved the revolutionary practice of the couple facing close together, with the man wrapping his arm around his partner's waist. Initially, this was considered to intimate.. When, he got to Mexico, he found this attitude even more infirmly ingrained, although eventually, they accepted it.......In addition to waltzing, Jonathan exhibited some tapdancing, often mixed with skipping or jumping, rather in the manner of Ray Bolger(the scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz"). In Boston, after a class, he so danced around the room snuffing out candles.......Initially, the inhabitants of the Mexican village decided that Jonathan should be hanged. However, senorita Sera Fina objected that he should be given a chance to demonstrate if he was a proficient dancer. At first, he had to dance with the hangmen's noose around his neck! Then, they allowed him to dance without the noose. The village men still wanted him hanged, but the women strenuously objected, and he was given a reprieve. .......During these proceedings, Sera Fina's father(Frank Morgan),who functioned as the town mayor, was quite prominent in the proceedings. He exhibited his signature bumbling and stammering mode of speech and behavior, which he would carry with him into his role as The Wizard, in "The Wizard of Oz). He was the most interesting character in the film, from the audience's point of view.......Jonathan faced a new threat in the form of some renegade soldiers from Monterey. At first, they were thought legitimate, and wanted to take him on Monterey for trial. Also, the captain(Victor Varconi) wanted to marry Sera Fina, demanding so many sheep from the father. Meanwhile, Jonathan made friends with the local Indians, and induced them to take part in an attack on the soldiers. Their only weapon was lengths of rope, which they used to lasso the soldiers from above, then hoist them up or tie them up. Meanwhile, Jonathan was jumping around bashing soldiers with his unbelievably resilient umbrella handle. Finally, he interrupted the wedding ceremony for SeraFina and the captain of the soldiers. The captain challenged him in a duel, he using his sword, and Johnathan using his umbrella. Using his superior maneuverability, Jonathan finally was the clear winner, and replaced the captain in the wedding ceremony. A celebration, with much colorful dancing, was held.

Although this print is a lot better than the scratched up Cinecolor version, it is only 78 minutes. The Film Detective should have honestly advertised this way. I don't know why R. K. O released a slight edited print. Unless this surviving print was the reissue that Classic films corporation released and when Cinecolor bought the rights that is when they only uses the two color components. In this version when John ,Collins, Escape from pirate ship is slightly edited. The Scene in which Serafina shows john he Castinette dance is slightly edited. The Frank Morgan bath tube sequence is eliminated. The first half of the Dancing finale ,the first part has been edited out..In spite of this it's better than nothing. By common since it should of been turned into powder by now .The color are very realistic and not garish ,like trial from the lonesome pine. This might have been from the darker colors and white back ground that they used for the sets. This movie ,unlike traditional 3 color technicolor shorts at the time ,bright and positively garish. I suspect that some of the reddish tint on some of the dark scenes, like The time Serafina was helping her Juannito escape, might be stemming from some difficulties Pioneer had with shooting the colors. It is nerveless a better print,form the beginning,where the dance Master ,Collins, is teaching his student in Boston in the 1820's the waltz ,the light none color of the walls , to where Serafina is begging her Alchalde father to not to hang him. Steffi Dunno portrays the daughters of the Mayor ,in her Hungarian accent disguised as a Spanish accent ,is one of the few films in which she was the lead. Victor Varconi playing the fired Monterey Captain using his own Austrian accent as the Spanish accent ,too. Frank Morgan is great as the Mayor of the Spanish town. He act the same way as always he act in films ,befuddled. There is a short on the history of Technicolor. There is also a discussion on the film. The release did not do well. Jock Whitney was hoping to use Fred Astaire,Imagine if the studio decide to use Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,in which she would have grown back her auburn hair and used that, it would of demanded a better script and bigger budget. It would have been taken care of too, staying in 3 colors. There is a commentary,where it look like they are getting offend ,a little at the portrayal of the Spanish Indians. Certainly the 1937 Romana portrayed the Spanish Indian better and in sympathy. If your like me and been a classic film fan for years ,you except the past in it's good and bad. The commentator ,possibly, was expression criticism to make sure that no one would think they were bigots,out of fear of losing a job,maybe. This is worth the buy and if you got your VHS and DVD Cinecolor version ,keep it s,since it's 83 minutes and to compare. Film detective did a great job in it's restoration. They also might have used the incomplete technicolor negative, also. It might be incomplete cause of the third component missing,but, this is guess .03/21/22.

Coming out during in my favorite year of the movie musical ("The Great Ziegfeld", "Show Boat", "Swing Time", "Born to Dance", debuts of Garland and Durbin, etc.), this was a surprise in finding how much I enjoyed it for its stylish production, great dancing, delightful comedy and all around good cheer.

It is a minor issue for me that Charles Collins had a singing voice higher than Kenny Baker's (which may have garnered some giggles then and now) and that the print that I saw was in black and white rather than the two strip technicolor. From looking at stills of the restored print in color, it looks a lot like color shorts that MGM was making at the same time and similar to "Becky Sharp" made the year before. We'd have to have Robin Hood and Rhett Butler before the color motion picture was ready to move on to a more advanced method.

The story is corny, that is for certain, but once I got into the film and saw how tongue-in-cheek and winking at the audience it was, I really began to see it for the high quality production values that it had. It's unfortunate that public domain prints are either greatly edited or not very sharp, but fortunately, the print that I had (replacing a VHS copy from years ago that was unviewable) was complete an entirely watchable. I was able to up my rating from a 4 to a 9, and have moved this up to my top 10 favorite musicals of 1936, quite a change considering the number of musicals made that year.

Steffi Duna is a delight as the village maiden who saves Collins from being hanged for having been guilty of simply being on a pirate ship, and Frank Morgan is once again truly enjoyable as the governor who is pompous but incompetent, unable to get a single sentence out without stammering. The dance numbers are very elaborate, and it's great to see a young Rita Hayworth in a featured dance role. This goes to show that just because you don't like something the first time doesn't mean that a second viewing will make you see something in a different light. As much fun as the later Gene/Judy musical "The Pirate", and one I will definitely go out of my way to watch again in its restored original color version.