theowinthrop Review of Dancing Pirate

Dancing Pirate (1936)

An Odd Disappointment

[5 April 2004]

While I note that the other comments are positive about this film I can't be. I purchased a video of it in 1988 or so, and it was the only time I saw any store carrying a video of it. It is the first technicolor musical, and it is a Rogers and Hart score (one good tune: "Are You My Love?"), and Morgan and Luis Alberni try to do the best with their parts, and Stefi Duna is a good dancer. Unfortunately, the screenplay is weak, and so is Charles Collins. How Collins got the role is a mystery, although I suspect he was not the first person to be approached for the role: Judging from his height and build it is possible that the role was meant to be offered to the similarly slender and tall Fred Astaire. Astaire (if he was approached) wisely declined because the script is so bad. The central character never becomes interesting enough to involve ourselves in his life. Collins probably got the role because he is a dancer (his opening scene is demonstrating a dance to a music box he turns on). But he was a stiff, and boring, and timid actor. Maybe an Astaire could have colored the role properly, but Collins couldn't. And the story requires coloring. The> shanghaid dancer is mistaken for a pirate in California. He is treated well by Morgan (the local bumbling alcalde), until a squad of soldiers come to the town. They take over (quite literally - they are a squad of soldiers turned brigands under Victor Valconi and Jack La Rue), and are only stopped when Collins suddenly cannot take their taunts anymore and leads the peasants against them. It is just too much of a leap of faith for a viewer to accept. And the film fails as a result.

When recalling Rogers and Hart for their musicals, think PAL JOEY or THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (on stage). Or remember their early musical films (experimental ones) HALLELUJAH I'M A BUM! and LOVE ME TONIGHT. Don't remember them for THE DANCING PIRATE