The Pirate (1948)
The Pirate is a musical made the same year as Easter Parade and featuring Judy Garland as well. The male star of The Pirate is Gene Kelly instead of Easter Parade’s Fred Astaire. These are two different musicals legends who had different ideas on how a musical should be. A comparison of the two looking at only 1948 would probably see Astaire as the victor, because The Pirate is a bad movie.
The film opens with Garland reading from a picture book about Mack the Black, a pirate who raids villages and steals women. Of course, the strong female character that she is, Garland wishes for a time when she, too, could be kidnapped and taken away by a man who would undoubtedly beat her while killing people and stealing things. Instead, Garland is set to be wed to a porcine mayor who is ready to settle down and not travel. Luckily for her, Gene Kelly is a traveling actor who may lack enough sense to get involved.
Kelly always plays individuals who are super-masculine and quite brash, but The Pirate takes it to a whole new level. Kelly claims that there are too many beautiful women with too many names, so he calls them all Niña – resulting in one of the most uninventive and obnoxious songs I’ve heard in a musical, whose only saving grace is its wordless dancing near the end. Kelly’s character lies and deceits to get close to Garland, and when she finds out she hurls objects at his head repeatedly. Yet, a moment later, she is at his side, singing “You Can Do No Wrong” to him. This flip-flop that comes out of nowhere is only one of the eyeroll-inducing moments of this movie that prevent you from writing off its stupidity as being a product of the times.
The two aforementioned songs are quite unenjoyable. Another, “Be a Clown”, is all right and actually features a great dance from Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers, two black dancers whose scenes were cut when the film aired in some Southern states. But “Be a Clown” will already be familiar to those who have seen “Singin’ in the Rain” – although it’s true that “Singin’” came later and practically stole The Pirate’s song, its familiarity still brings it down a notch. The only song left that I enjoyed is “Mack the Black”; it’s a pretty catchy tune, and features Garland at the most sensuous I’ve ever seen her.
I’d like to take this opportunity to confess that I think Judy Garland is a bad actress. Which is not to say I don’t like her – I think she’s cute and endearing. I still would never trust her with any dramatic material, and I don’t think she has a good range of emotions to display.
The film has long takes of well-choreographed dancing, and that’s about the only thing I can truly compliment. The dances aren’t the most exciting or original, but they are high-energy.
The rest of the film is cheap and thoughtless. You can see the strings behind the production at least twice, once when Garland’s hat is “blown” off, and again when Kelly walks a “tightrope” to her window. There’s also a very strange sequence in which Garland imagines herself as a donkey that Kelly is dancing around… I can’t even being to analyze that, and it just served to further irritate me.
I can’t recommend this movie to anyone except the most die-hard fans of musicals, Gene Kelly, or Judy Garland. It might have been an entertaining flick back in the days, but its triteness and overt sexism doesn’t stand up today.
Final Rating: 3/10
–James A. Janisse
Easter Parade (1948)
Part of my Musicals class at U of M involved watching the only film with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, Easter Parade. The film is your standard musical fare, lively and saccharine with little character development but interesting dance numbers.
Easter Parade features Astaire as a dancer whose partner has decided she’s had enough with him. To prove that he doesn’t need her and can teach any woman in the world to be a good dancer, he enlists Judy Garland, a dancer at a bar, to be his new partner. After seeing so many movies in which Astaire was paired with Ginger Rogers, you can’t help but wonder if this plotline was at all inspired by her, or if there was any kind of bad blood between them after their split.
This was one of Astaire’s later films, and his character seems to reflect his increasing age in all the worst ways. In Easter Parade, Astaire comes off as arrogant, grouchy, and overall a crotchety old man. It would have been fine if the movie acknowledged it, but it moves along as if Astaire is your average likeable hero, ignoring the fact that his very first scene involves him stealing a drum from a little boy. In accordance with this take, Garland falls in love with Astaire despite his cold shoulders, possibly only because he’s a famous dancer.
And yet it’s hardly surprising that this happens. Old movies, especially musicals, tend to have weak female characters who only serve as a sort of plot device for the male star to move around. This is also evident in the fact that Astaire receives a number of solo dances and songs, while Garland only receives one (I Want to Go Back to Michigan; Irving Berlin apparently liked to rhyme unusual words like Michigan, but I don’t think the fellow has ever been to the state. I live there, and it’s nothing like the farms and rural living that Garland sings about).
Another aspect of the film that I assume lies with its age is its slight anti-intellectual theme. It’s not prominent or anything, but it’s definitely there, as the archetypal wise bartender dispenses more knowledge than any old school books could. And it’s also hard to ignore the fact that minorities are only featured in servant positions.
But besides these problems that plague most pre-1960 films, the movie is fine. It’s upbeat and colorful; in fact, I think that when the filmmakers realized they were doing this in color they decided to go all out with it. The result is a sometimes over-saturated amount of colors on screen, which can occasionally be distracting. Also distracting were a few scenes that just seemed out of place. There was an over-eccentric waiter who really gets into describing his salad, and a completely random shot of Astaire dancing in slow motion while his back-up dancers dance in real-time. Both of these instances brought me out of the film and made me question it, something that I imagine colorful musicals aren’t trying to make you do.
Judy Garland can seem a bit hoakey at times, but honestly, it’s a thing that works for her so it’s okay. Ann Miller, who co-stars as Astaire’s ex-partner, does a fantastic job if not in acting then at least in dancing. Her solo tap-dancing number was a possible highlight of the film, and makes me able to say that one of the best tap dancing numbers I’ve ever seen was done by a female. Peter Lawford also co-stars, and you just end up feeling bad for his wholesome character who gets shafted out of a love interest. If you know your musicals like I (for better or worse) do now, you might be interested in the allusion to Rogers’ feather dress from Top Hat here, as Garland wears a dress that similarly sheds during a performance.
Overall, I imagine one would only like this film if they really liked old time musicals. I’m not sure whether or not I can consider myself part of that camp, and my opinion of the film is almost entirely neutral. There are a few catchy songs and visually exciting numbers, but the film is fluffy and airheaded. I guess it’s worth taking a look at two of the greatest classical movie stars together in a feature, but I wouldn’t rush out to rent it.
Final rating: 6/10
–James A. Janisse
