Dancing Pirate is a 1936 delight. The short-lived Oscar® Category for Best Dance Direction of 1936 included a nomination for the film’s Russell Lewis’ choreography. That was quite an achievement for a small studio production. And Rita Hayworth makes an early appearance in this enjoyable offering.

Dancer Charles Collins and singer Steffi Duna may be forgotten by film buffs in the 21^st Century, but they provided some wonderful entertainment in this little film produced  by RKO Radio Pictures and Merian C. Cooper (King Kong).

The plot is silly, of course, and reflective of the innocence portrayed on screen between alleged lovers. Collins is a dance instructor in mid-1800s Boston. It was a city of strict manners, decorum, and chastity. Collins’ character shocked polite society by introducing the scandalous waltz in which a man put his hand on an assumed virginal lady’s waist! Horrors!

On his way to catch a buggy ride to visit his aunt, he is captured by pirates and put to work on a pirate ship that sailed around the horn of South America to the bucolic, Spanish-influenced California. What follows is all nonsense, a chance for a little romance with the lovely Steffi Duna and for the townspeople to get hysterical about having a “pirate” in their midst. This leads to Collins being put into jail, let out of jail, and given a chance to show his terpsichorean skills. A particularly delightful dance sequence comes when he is hanging from a noose and taps his way into the hearts of the village people.

This film was the first to use the three-strip Technicolor film process early in the game of shooting films in color. A musical short La Cucaracha (1934) was filmed prior to this movie, which also starred Miss Duna, and was also directed by Lloyd Corrigan, the director of Dancing Pirate.

Viewers may find it difficult to see a 17 year-old Rita Hayworth in the dancing scenes. She’s part of the Dancing Cansinos group headed by her father, Eduardo Cansino. This was made years before Columbia Studios mogul Harry Cohn had Hayworth’s hair re-shaped, re-colored red, and her face re-made by brilliant makeup artists in the 1940s. But little Rita is in this film as a dancing gypsy. I did catch a quick glimpse of her!

Large ensemble dance sequences with the ladies dressed in flamboyant gowns splashed with color, show off their dancing skills as well as the costume designer’s skill at exploiting the Technicolor process. The dancing gypsies, led by the famed Cansino group, are totally enchanting.

Strangely, leading man Charles Collins never made it as a star in films. He was as good a tap dancer as Fred Astaire. He was young, handsome, and trim of build, yet the charisma needed on screen did not come through. He continued to appear in films in the 1940s and 1950s. He went on to have a smashing career on the stage in New York. Born in 1904, Collins lived to the age of 95 when he died in Montecito, California in 1999.

It’s unfortunate that the lovely Steffi Duna (1910- 1992) did not sustain a career in films for long. She continued to act in such films as Anthony Adverse (1936), Panama Lady (1939) with Lucille Ball, and Waterloo Bridge(1940). After marrying actor John Carroll in 1935 and having a daughter, she divorced him by 1939. She met and married film actor and MGM contractee Dennis O’Keefe in 1940. She decided to give up her film career to raise their son. She was married to O’Keefe from 1940 until his death in 1968.

Dancing Pirate is an amusing diversion and a treat for the eyes when the dazzling Technicolor lights up the screen. The dancing of all involved is as good and pleasurable as any major studio production.

A DVD version is available through The Film Detective.

(Released by RKO Radio Pictures/The Film Detective)