The claim to fame of this Oscar-nominated romcom swashbuckler musical is that it is the first full-length technicolor song-and-dance flick. The must-see Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary "Glorious Pioneers: The Birth of Technicolor" tells the intertwined origin stories of that technology and that movie in a manner that will make you give a damn my dear.
The wizardry of this production makes it apt that the perfectly cast wonderful leader of the merry old land of Oz himself Frank Morgan portrays the mayor of the California community where our current absurd comedy at its best occurs.
The following aptly bright-and-bold Detective promo for "Pirate" shows that adding the Blu-ray version of this buried treasure to your home-video library is a no-brainer. The showcased charm and humor make this gem the perfect grog to ease the pain of our highly troubled times.
This 19th-centrury portrait of the titular pirate commences with a clever opening shot that excellently utilizes the technology of the day. Jonathan Pride (Broadway star Charles Collins) is teaching the Beacon Hill crowd the scandalous new dance the waltz in his Boston studio just ahead of travelling to his aunt.
The first in a series of unfortunate circumstances that fully set our story in motion is that Jonathan gets a Shanghai style surprise on his way to the station. He later awakens to find that he is not in Massachusetts anymore.
The new literal galley slave manages to jump ship in California only to find that he has gone from the frying pan into the fire. The locals who capture him do not believe that his assertions of innocence. This leads to terrific actual gallows humor. The ensuing laugh-out-loud hilarity is a "Pirate" highlight.
The "rom" in this "com" centers around the relationship of "beast" Jonathan and local belle Serafina (Steffi Duna), who is the daughter of the mayor. She is the disregarded voice of reason in this community with heavy shades of the dim-witted residents of Hooterville in the "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction" sitcom 'verse.
Serafina uses her charming wit and wisdom to delay the unfortunate incarceration of whom she knows to be an innocent man. The arrival of the Gaston of our tale as old as time further complicates things. Seemingly dashing and virtuous Don Balthazar comes riding in from Monterey Jack and soon seeks to bring Jonathan when he goes back. This requires Serafina, who enjoys dancing in the dark, to use her feminine powers of persuasion to save her man.
A subsequent scene in which Balthazar and the mayor negotiate a dowry that literally involves buying the cow and not giving away the milk for free is another "Pirate" highlight. It, like every other scene in which Morgan appears, proves the perfect casting of the wizard in "Oz."
The climatic wedding scene with vague shades of "The Graduate" provides a perfect end to this fable. Another laugh-out-loud moment comes when Balthazar realizes that his groomsmen do not have his back.
The epilogue is equally good in that it involves a fitting variation of the trope of riding off into the sunset. This is all part of the mandatory Hollywood ending.
The Ballyhoo twofer that Detective offers pairs "Pioneers" with a featurette on "Pirate." This "True Hollywood Story" discusses the place of the film in motion-picture history.
Detective additionally includes an essay on "Pirate" that is one of the best of the best written of the excellent short histories that supplement these releases.
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