On a Caribbean island in the Age of Piracy, Manuela (Judy Garland) is arranged to be married to the governor Don Pedro (Walter Slezak), although she's enamored by tales of the notorious pirate known as the Black Macoco. Traveling entertainer Serafin (Gene Kelly) sees Manuela and falls instantly in love, so he pretends to be the Black Macoco to try and win her heart, leading to much misadventure.
With songs by Cole Porter and dancing choreographed by Kelly, this is an ambitious project that was a box-office disappointment upon release but has since grown in critical estimation. There is a certain artistry on display, visible most predominantly during Kelly's dance numbers. The songs are hit-and-miss, although that's always a question of personal taste, and I'm not a fan of show tunes ("Mack the Black" was particularly grating). I'm also not much of a fan of Garland, often finding her manic, desperate and overbearing, although there's no denying her vocal talent.
It's okay, but it feels like a half-hour of story crammed into 90 minutes, and there's only so much of Judy throwing vases at Gene you can watch before you're wondering why we're supposed to sympathize with either of them. Kelly played as many conniving ladies-man hucksters as he played "nice guys", but if there's not much at stake, his rogues just aren't instantly identifiable. Kelly just did better with Stanley Donen's light touch than he did with Vincent Minelli's "art", and the big filler Kelly Pirate Ballet seems to be the reason the movie was made in the first place.
Slezak continues his streak of roles of dubious ethnicity, during that Hollywood period when any European accent was deemed appropriate for all European parts. The spectacular Nicholas Brothers get some great dancing in, but at a terrible cost: unlike most black performers who were filmed performing alone so that local theaters could easily excise their scenes to placate a racist audience, Gene Kelly insisted that they perform on screen with him, thus making it difficult for those censors to cut their scenes. The result was that the Nicholas Brothers were virtually blackballed from further film roles, and lost many live venue shows as well, forcing them to spend much of the next two decades performing in Europe. All because they dared appear in a scene alongside a white performer.
The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Score (Lennie Hayton).
With songs by Cole Porter and dancing choreographed by Kelly, this is an ambitious project that was a box-office disappointment upon release but has since grown in critical estimation. There is a certain artistry on display, visible most predominantly during Kelly's dance numbers. The songs are hit-and-miss, although that's always a question of personal taste, and I'm not a fan of show tunes ("Mack the Black" was particularly grating). I'm also not much of a fan of Garland, often finding her manic, desperate and overbearing, although there's no denying her vocal talent.
It's okay, but it feels like a half-hour of story crammed into 90 minutes, and there's only so much of Judy throwing vases at Gene you can watch before you're wondering why we're supposed to sympathize with either of them. Kelly played as many conniving ladies-man hucksters as he played "nice guys", but if there's not much at stake, his rogues just aren't instantly identifiable. Kelly just did better with Stanley Donen's light touch than he did with Vincent Minelli's "art", and the big filler Kelly Pirate Ballet seems to be the reason the movie was made in the first place.
Slezak continues his streak of roles of dubious ethnicity, during that Hollywood period when any European accent was deemed appropriate for all European parts. The spectacular Nicholas Brothers get some great dancing in, but at a terrible cost: unlike most black performers who were filmed performing alone so that local theaters could easily excise their scenes to placate a racist audience, Gene Kelly insisted that they perform on screen with him, thus making it difficult for those censors to cut their scenes. The result was that the Nicholas Brothers were virtually blackballed from further film roles, and lost many live venue shows as well, forcing them to spend much of the next two decades performing in Europe. All because they dared appear in a scene alongside a white performer.
The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Score (Lennie Hayton).