wolfie-8

Judy Garland may never have been so funny again (or had such a wonderfully over-the-top script to work with) as in "The Pirate." Her best scene by far comes toward the end, when she discovers that Gene Kelly is not the dashing pirate he's pretending to be. At first, she makes a great show of passion toward her "dream lover," but her temper soon snaps and Kelly is dodging everything from vases to chairs.

Kelly is also marvelous, both in his dancing and his comic delivery, which meshes perfectly with Garland's. My personal favorite: "Oh senorita, don't marry that pumpkin."

Not to be missed!

"Red Dust" may well define the term "museum piece." Although stars Clark Gable and Jean Harlow are in top form, the film is marred by its starkly racist depiction of the Asian characters, particularly the Chinese houseboy.

Other elements of the film are strong, including the bold, sexy performance from Gable. Harlow's comic gifts are on fine display, especially in the scene where she confronts Mary Astor about the fact that Gable came out of her room with rouge on his mouth. "I suppose he asked to borrow your lipstick," she snaps, making the line both cutting and hilarious.

Fans who know Astor only from her later works in "The Maltese Falcon" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" will be interested to see her here in a very young role. She was only 24 or 25 and although she tends to overact at times, her performance is strong overall.

"Red Dust" is also interesting because it was made just two years before the Production Code came into effect, banning all sorts of suggestive dialogue and situations. Filmmakers were still relatively free at this point, and "Red Dust" offers the perfect balance of sexuality and restraint.

When Gable nobly decides to send Astor back to her husband, he sardonically remarks that he's taken up wings and a halo. Harlow takes the news with delight, and heading up to her room, archly tells him, "You can check the wings and halo at the desk." "I'll be right up," he replies. You have to look long and hard to find films with that kind of snap today.

Unfortunately, all these strengths can't save the film from its fundamental racism. Set on a rubber plantation in Indochina, the story portrays all the Asian characters as stupid and/or lazy. Gable tosses water on a group of resting natives at one point (they apparently shouldn't mind working under the blazing mid-day sun) and later berates them for not wanting to work in an area where a man-eating tiger has been spotted. (Gee, those stupid natives.)

Worst of all is the Chinese houseboy, a perfect example of the Hollyood caricatures of the 30s. Every line he speaks is delivered with hysterical giggling and the prominent display of enormous buck teeth. It's a true shame that so many of his scenes are with Harlow and help illustrate her jealousy towards Astor's character. Otherwise, modern video makers and cable TV execs could just edit him out.