Saturday, March 22, 2008

"The Pirate" (1948) -- Initial Thoughts

My "new" musical this week was wacky and silly, and it made me laugh aloud several times: The Pirate (1948), starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.

The plot revolves around a pirate-obsessed girl (don't know any of those, do you?) who wishes the legendary pirate Macoco would come carry her off so she won't have to marry the mayor. Along comes Gene Kelly, who is not a pirate, but a traveling actor. Then we get into hypnosis and secret identities and all manner of skulduggery, and Gene Kelly winds up on the business end of a hangman's noose!

The parts that made me laugh were all when Judy or Gene would stop their ridiculously affected period acting and say something ultra-normal, like when Judy said, "Don't call me bright spirit, it irritates me," or when Gene told her, "You're overdoing this! You're being vindictive!" It was weirdly like them breaking the fourth wall, only instead they were breaking the wall of their own wacky melodramaticness.

So it's not a musical I plan to buy, but I wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime. 'Cause who doesn't love silly pirate stories? :-D

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