Charles Herold (cherold) This incredibly silly movie involving pirates, entertainers, and hypnotism is a bit messy. It's good, but how can a Gene Kelly/Judy Garland movie with colorful sets and some fun numbers have fallen short of great? Yet it does.It's got a clever premise, but the filmmakers seem determined to handle this in the silliest, dumbest way possible, so while there are genuinely clever moments, there are also plenty of eye-rolling ones.A caveat: I watched this movie with my girlfriend and she fell asleep in the middle (I told her we shouldn't start a movie that late, but she never listens), and then I went out of town and we didn't finish watching the movie for a month, at which point I had only a vague memory of the first half. So I may be underselling or overselling the film a bit. Reader beware!

TheLittleSongbird I love musicals, I love Gene Kelly and I love Judy Garland, so The Pirate looked like a perfect match. And indeed it was. The Pirate is a wonderful film and musical and showcases the talents of Kelly and Garland to perfection.The story is sharp and affectionate, and the dialogue and pace more than credible. Even better is the direction, The Pirate is directed with terrific gusto by the hugely talented Vincente Minnelli, and also the opulent sets, photography and costumes. The choreography is dazzling, particularly in the Pirate ballet, and Gene Kelly and Judy Garland are both wonderful in their acting, singing and dancing and their chemistry is a treat.It is the music though that I love most about The Pirate. Cole Porter's tunes are all outstanding, the standouts being Be a Clown, Nina and the Pirate ballet, with Love of My Life a close runner-up. All in all, a truly great film and one of my favourites of both Kelly and Garland and of Minnelli too. 10/10 Bethany Cox

abcj-2 The Pirate (1948) really won me over! I have never been the biggest fan of musicals, but occasionally I'll try a new one to see if it might make my short list. The story is so romantic and played as such a farce that I was enthralled. Gene Kelly is very handsome, but I never noticed his sex appeal. His tan, his muscles, his arm band, his charm...I could go on and on! Judy Garland looked so beautiful and gave a brilliant performance alongside Kelly. Their kiss is the most passionate I've seen and certainly not within Hays Code limits of 3 seconds of contact. I just love a little rebellion and this was the perfect movie for it.The musical numbers were few and Gene's dancing is so fascinating, that I was able to make it through. This was a delightful treat and is now on my short list of musicals. I highly recommend it.

writers_reign The main (sorry about that) attraction for me was the Cole Porter score and whilst he was incapable of writing mediocre it does fall woefully short of the very next score he wrote directly for the screen some seven years later, namely High Society. Judy Garland isn't exactly chopped liver either if anyone asks you yet here she was strangely ineffective and insipid. Kelly was always a bad nowhere to Fred Astaire and this is borne out by the movie Judy made with Fred that very same year, Easter Parade. Having got the caveats out of the way I must give a nod to what the film was attempting - no less than a send-up of those Douglas Fairbanks Senior silent swashbucklers and the flamboyant 'actor' style of Jack Barrymore. Perhaps the problem lies with the source material, a creaky old war-horse that had provided a hit for the Lunts a few years earlier, which asks us to believe that a dashing, ruthless pirate would abandon the sea and metamorphose into Walter Slezak who is now so legit he even has a lawyer. Producer Arthur Freed, a minor lyricist himself, cheerfully helped himself to Porter's melody Be A Clown and wrote new lyrics with never so much as an acknowledgment, let alone a thank you, which he titled Make 'Em Laugh' and interpolated into Singin' In The Rain which he produced four years later. Pirate indeed.