Technically this is a very interesting film. As entertainment, it's pretty hard to sit through, even though it's only ten minutes.

Technical matters first: it's two-strip Technicolor, which was at the cutting edge when this one came out. Add in sound, with which MGM was still not comfortable -- a faded print in which good frames seem to alternate with bad ones and not the greatest sound in the world -- this one was recently restored off a disk that the Vitaphone Project found -- and you have something that is of interest mainly for its place in film history.

Add in Benny Rubin as a Jewish pirate, a song about dancing with a pegleg and it becomes bizarrely bad. It is redeemed a trifle by some good modern (for the period) ballet to classical music. However, don't bother.

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Velma Connor, Benny Rubin, and MGM Ensemble in Pirates (1930)

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Velma Connor, Benny Rubin, The Connor Sisters, and MGM Ensemble in Pirates (1930)

Marty Brooks, Velma Connor, and Benny Rubin in Pirates (1930)

Velma Connor, Benny Rubin, and The Connor Sisters in Pirates (1930)

Pirates

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