Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

jayraskin People have noted that the "The Dancing Pirate" was original and unique. That is true, but it is set firmly in a Gilbert and Sullivan "Pirates of Penzance" absurd world. In this world, a genteel dancing instructor can be mistaken for a bloodthirsty pirate.There are lots of scenes that seem to foreshadow scenes in other movies. Its important to remember that this 1936 movie preceded these other films. The scene of Dancing Instructor Johnathan Pride (Charles Collins) entering a small Californian town and being mistaken for an invading pirate army reminds one of "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" (Jewison, 1966). The scene of male versus female Spanish dancers at the end reminds one of the "America" scene in West Side Story (Wise, 1961). Robert Collins' athletic dancing reminds one of Gene Kelley in "The Pirate" (Minnelli, 1948), although Collins' skinny frame also reminds one of Ray Bulger's scarecrow in "Wizard of Oz" (Minnelli, 1939). Speaking of Wizard of Oz" Frank Morgan, the wizard of "Wizard of Oz" gives a performance here that is very close to the wizard, as he plays another bumbling authority figure, the mayor of a Spanish village. Another technique first used here and copied in "Wizard of Oz" is that the movie begins in black and White and only switches to color when we arrive in the magical land of California. I found one other connection to the "Wizard of Oz." The star of this film, Charles Collins, had a voice-over in "The Wiz" (Lumet, 1978).I saw a very bad dark and muddy color print of this movie on Amazon Prime streaming video. The N.Y. Times reviewer in 1936 raved about the Technicolor of the original. I hope someday someone goes to the trouble of restoring the film to its original color. This print made the film difficult to watch. However, the great choreography, humorous story, and wonderful performances by leads Charles Collins, Frank Morgan, and Steffi Duna won me over.If you like Gilbert and Sullivan, I think you'll find "the Dancing Pirate" witty and charming. The songs are by Rodgers and Hart, while not their best work ("Pal Joey"), they still are very good.

radioriot This movie bombed so bad at the theaters in 1936 that RKO didn't make another color musical for 16 years!!! And it still stinks today! And to make matters worse... the DVD copy they are selling is a Black and White, 16mm bootleg print, that they somehow got copyrighted.. or at least they claim to hold the copyright. This thing has bad film splices and grainy picture quality. Plus the DVD jacket confuses Frank Morgan who is in this picture and was the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz" with Harry Morgan who is not in this movie but was in "Mash" on TV. Real film historians!!!! Yeah right! I would have liked to seen the color version though, just for the fun of early Techocolor. I should learn not to take free movies from "friends". Do yourself a favor... don't buy dollar DVD's and never take free movies from friends! Oh and BTW, saying it is "digitally remastered" just means they transfered the film onto a digital DVD. They love to play word games.

amerquise I found this movie in a dollar bin. That should have been my first warning. The movie has been "digitally remastered", leading to the technicolor being remastered right out of it. The box also claims that Frank Morgan is "of Mash TV series fame", in spite of the fact that he died decades before the TV series came out.I suppose seeing the dancing instructor dance in a noose is worth the price of admission, though. (That's not a spoiler-it's on the menu screen.) And I probably would have liked it when I was a kid, and could handle nonsensical situations leading to improbable tap dancing scenes. :)

theowinthrop 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