SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

dbborroughs A mélange of action comedy romance and musical doesn't really work since its trying to be too many things all at once. The plot has a dance teacher getting shanghaied into becoming a pirate and sailing from the east coast of America to the west where the pirates come up and try to take over a town in Spanish California. Our hero of course defects, but is thrown in prison because everyone assumes he's one of the bad guys. Straightening things out he has to over come the town bad guy and head of the local militia who is engaged to the daughter of the "mayor" of the town. She doesn't love the villain, but our hero.Can you tell I wasn't much interested? The music is fair, the dancing adequate and the story way too busy. It feels at times like they are trying to do a musical version of Zorro but with out the mask. I will admit that it didn't help that I saw this Technicolor film in black and white so the garish costume designs looked worse and the sets looked very much like bad cheap sets. That said the cast is at best fair with Charles Collins (in one of his very few screen roles) as the dancing romantic lead very bland and second billed Frank (the Wizard of Oz) Morgan proving that he is better in support then in a lead where his abilities are strained a bit too much.In its way its not a bad film, rather it's the sort of thing that was just sort of misses. I'm guessing the film was skimped on since the Technicolor film stock ate up most of the budget.Not the worst thing to come down the pike, but not something I need ever see again.

lifeisavacation One day while scrounging the dollar bin at Wal-Mart, I was looking for something unique, daring, and funny. and then, out of the pile shone a beacon of hope. it was "the Dancing Pirate". and I thought "Dancing? Pirates? Could there be romance? Yes, yes, and yes? and in exotic locations? What more could you want?????" I decided to premiere my new find at a all night movie watching party. My friends would be impressed with my exquisite taste, I was sure(though I had not watched the film myself yet, I was confident). And the Dancing Pirate came through, dancing his way into mine and my dear friends' hearts. It was so bad, it was awesome. Long Live the Dancing Pirate!!! "Don't thank me....teach me."

smythe-5 I would have liked the movie even more, I'm sure, if I'd seen the color version. Unfortunately, the only version I could find was the black-and-white, which I purchased out of curiosity from a bin of one dollar DVDs at Wal-Mart. Anyhow, "The Dancing Pirate" is certainly no masterpiece, but it's hard to dislike this movie. It's harmless, goofy, sort-of-weird entertainment (just about what you'd expect from the title), and the main character is a likable guy. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't actually contain any dancing pirates (the main character, "a dancing master," is mistaken for a pirate), but the dancing it does contain ain't bad. If you're the type of person who'd consider buying a movie called "The Dancing Pirate" from a bin of one dollar DVDs at Wal-Mart, you'll like this movie, as did I.

meberts The Dancing Pirate is worth watching for a several reasons: the over-the-top early Technicolor hues, the spectacular finale featuring the Royal Cansino Dancers (including a young Rita Hayworth) and a very small appearance at the beginning of the movie by Pat Ryan, later to be Pat Nixon. But more than these things, I like The Dancing Pirate as a forgotten movie about Los Angeles. The movie depicts a Boston dance teacher kidnapped by pirates who escapes into the sleepy Alta California village of La Paloma.This is an obvious adaptation of the real-life story of Joseph Chapman. Chapman, originally from Boston, deserted Hippolyte de Bouchard's piratical coastal raiding party to become the first yanqui resident of Los Angeles in 1818. Chapman, like the character in the movie, became a solid citizen of the little pueblo. Unlike the character in the movie, there's no historical evidence that Chapman could dance, however.