Racial & Spatial Ambiguity in The Pirate - Where I am

The Caribbean or Caribbean: Racial and Spatial Ambiguity in The Pirate
“Where are they” is a question I found myself asking after viewing Vincente
Minnelli’s The Pirate (1948). There is such a mixture of race and culture evident in the
film that the audience is left with no character, or even location, to identify with. Even
the film’s stars, Gene Kelly (Serafin) and Judy Garland (Manuela), are racially ambiguous
to the audience. Although the portrayal of race within The Pirate is multicultural and
utopian, allowing the film to safely display racial interaction and a highly sexually
charged atmosphere, the film still seeks ways to contain that desire.
The film continuously goes out of its way to disorientate its audience. The maps,
costumes, character names, as well as the general mise-en-scene, all seem to be pulled
from various locales. During the opening sequence, we see the credits placed over an
ornate map of the Caribbean Sea. There are multiple islands that are visible, but they
are nameless. What is of importance on this map are two things: the elaborateness of
the map and the Caribbean Sea. The map in itself is able to place, as well as displace,
the audience. We know where the film takes place, generally, but not specifically, and
we also know that this place is flamboyant, foreign, and a fantasy. The song that
introduces us to the location of the film is a more frenzied version of “Mack the Black.”
This song variation only lasts long enough for the names of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly
to appear, and it changes into the more familiar song as the storybook picture that
announces the film’s title appears. What is interesting about this opening is that, as the
map shows a whimsical locale, the song, in its frenzy, is foreboding of danger. The rising
chorus of “Macoco, Macoco, Macoco” builds into a cry from both the male and female

singers, with Garland’s voice rising above the rest. The urgency of their voices is put to
rest by a throaty male voice announcing, “Mack the Black Macoco!” In this introduction,
there is given an element of danger to this ambiguous location and its inhabitants. But
as soon as that danger is set up, it is broken by a picture reminiscent of a storybook.
The film, in wanting to explore “that which is distinct from, different from, or opposite
[to] oneself,” 1 or as I will continue to refer to is as the “Other,” 2 is sure to announce that
this film is about fantasy. The safer, more lightened “Mack the Black” leads into an
instrumental version of the film’s love anthem “Love of My Life.” The film, within the
first minute, has suggested the sexual “Other,” as well as safely contained it.
Racial ambiguity is first introduced to us as Manuela reads the story of “Mack,
the Black Macoco.” We are introduced to the dreaded “Other” of Mack the Black from
what seems to be storybook pictures which are highly stylized. While it is true that this
“opening scene explicitly introduces the conflict between the expression and repression
of desire through a parallel conflict between spectacle and narrative,” 3 it is important to
note that the expression of desire is of the “Other” and of one whose name includes the
term “Black.” The repression of desire that Farmer speaks of can be seen as the
repression of desire that Manuela feels for the “Other.” Macoco is alien, is “black,” and
threatens Manuela’s purity. The film seeks to safely contain the idea of Mack the Black
within storybook fantasies, thus delegating Manuela’s desire as part of a “dream world”
in which she is allowed to fantasize about how Macoco will “swoop down like a chicken
1 “the Other.” The Oxford American College Dictionary. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002. 966.
2 The term the “Other” (as in being alien) that I am using here is one that is discussed in length by Edward Saïd.
Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).
3 Brett Farmer. Spectacular Passions: Cinema, Fantasy, Gay Male Spectatorships (Duke University Press, 200) 103.
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hawk and carry her away.” But what the film does not do is clarify whether or not
Manuela is the pure white woman. The character of Manuela is coded as racially
ambiguous in many of the following ways: her name, Manuela, is of Spanish origins, she
lives in a village on one of the Caribbean Islands and the character of Manuela is
portrayed by the very white, very “pure" Judy Garland. The traces of race within the
character of Manuela, and her placement within this “virtually atemporal and aspatial
[scene] of exotic-erotic utopia” 4 allow for her “’almond[ness]’…[a] signifier of her notso-white
parts.” 5
The racial ambiguity that Manuela represents leads safely into her rape fantasy
of being the woman that Macoco will “just come and take.” She is not exactly “white,”
not only because of her racial ambiguity, but also because of her desire for the “Other.”
While her cousin, Casilda, explains how she wants a “good, steady man with a
plantation,” Manuela replies with, “I do wish you were a little more spiritual.” The
discourse between the cousins exemplifies the difference between the known (or white)
and the “Other.” Richard Dyer calls what Casilda wants from a man “’spirit’: get up and
go, aspiration of the highest reaches of…aesthetic refinement,” while Manuela, on the
other hand, desires “spirituality or soul.” 6
But while the film plays with the idea of the
more spiritual “Other,” it still equates the “Other” with danger, and Manuela is
outnumbered – no one else but she desires Mack the Black. It is just as Manuela
equates her desire for the “Other” with the ability to break free from the small village
4 Susan Courtney. Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation: Spectacular Narratives of Gender and Race, 1903-1907
(Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005) 134.
5 Courtney 135.
6 Richard Dyer. White (London and New York: Routledge, 1997) 23.
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that her Aunt Inez comes to announce her engagement. Again, just as the “Other” is
introduced as a possibility, the film securely contains it within the safety of conventional
values: here, a wedding with the Mayor Don Pedro Vargas (Walter Slezak).
Not only does the film safely contain the “Other” by means of fantasy disruption,
but also by the character of Don Pedro/Macoco himself. What does it mean that Mack
the Black Macoco is now retired Don Pedro is still alien to Manuela and her family, a
sort of “Other,” as we see in this line: “After all, I am a self-made man, without the
tradition and culture of your family.” Although Macoco is performing as an honest “selfmade
man,” he is still not a part of the world that they inhabit. It is in the character of
Don Pedro that the film is able to safely contain the dangerous “Other.” He is proof
within the film that the life of the “Other” is one that one wishes to escape from. And
even when Serafin (Gene Kelly) inhabits the body of the dangerous “Other,” it isn’t long
before he wishes to distance himself from being Mack the Black.
It is at Port Sebastian that The Pirate places the All-American, athletic, and white
Gene Kelly in unfamiliar territory for its audience. One cannot designate Kelly as white
within the film, due to its locale, as well as to the fact that Kelly wears grease paint to
allow him the status of “Other.” The character Serafin, to the audience, is doubly alien,
due to the darkening of Kelly, as well as to the location in which we first see him. The
port is an obvious melting pot of races from which the race of “Serafin of Madrid!
Serafin the Great!” and might I add, Serafin the “Other” literally emerges. Kelly’s
portrayal of the character of Serafin is dependent upon his performance as the “Other,”
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as well as his tongue and cheek adaptation of the swash buckler, Douglas Fairbanks. 7
His representation of the character of Serafin continues to put off the audience. Again
the audience asks: Where are we Who is that Where is Kelly
Port Sebastian, in its multi-cultural atmosphere, has led the way to the
performance of the sexualized “Other” by Serafin and his troupe. It is at Port Sebastian,
a cultural melting pot, that Serafin the Great has come to perform, and, later, where
Manuela gets her first taste of performing. At the beginning of the sequence, the
camera rests upon the crate carrying Manuela’s wedding garments. The lettering on the
crate is as follows: “Maison Worth Paris France/Mlle. Manuela Alva Port Sebastion Iles
Caraibes.” The crate is as representative of multiple cultures as the port in which it has
arrived. The port is where the cultures meet, interact, and combine. As the crate is
lifted up, Serafin jumps upon it and hovers above the crowd. While on top of the crate,
Serafin addresses the women and men of the crowd through multiple languages.
Serafin becomes the embodiment of the “Other,” able to speak to the many cultures
represented at the port. It is fitting that he does this upon Manuela’s wedding clothes,
as it signifies their romantic connection – one that is based on being, as well as
performing as, the “Other.” It is also here that Serafin allows the performance to
introduce sexuality. As he and the crate are lowered down, he says, “We bring to this
new world all the joy, the dexterity, the romance of the old to please, astonish and
delight you.” I add the emphasis to the word “delight,” as Serafin’s voice changes at this
word, placing obvious importance on how their performance will delight. Because
7 Alvin Yudkoff. Gene Kelly: A Life of Dance and Dreams (New York: Back Stage Books, 1999) 181-182.
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Serafin is the “Other,” Kelly is able to hint at something sexual even though “…having
sex, and sexual desire, are not very white.” 8
This is attributed to Serafin the “Other,”
and not the white Kelly.
The musical number of “Mack the Black” is where we receive the full scale of
Manuel’s desire for the “Other” of Macoco. At the beginning of the scene, Serafin looks
for a “pure person” to undergo hypnosis. It is Manuela who, although racially
ambiguous, and not altogether “white,” Serafin has deemed as pure. As Serafin leads
her to the center of the audience, we see that they are standing in front of the crate in
which Manuela’s wedding garments are contained. As Serafin invites Manuela to
become a part of his “Other” troupe, she is leaving behind that trace of her white and
virginal self. As they enter center stage a man slides her coat off her arms. It is
interesting to note that this man is not coded as white; he stands with arms folded, his
head wrapped in a turban, and his face is darkened. The “Other” has started to help
free Manuela’s true desire. As the coat is pulled away, we see that because Manuela
dressed in a hurry, she is wearing a skirt, but still has on her nightgown top. The top is
white, reminiscent of purity, but her skirt is red. The sexuality of the “Other” is rising
and threatening to overtake her in this scene. While under this trance, Manuela reveals
her desire for that of Mack the Black Macoco. After having Serafin repeatedly call her
“pure soul”, Manuela becomes agitated saying, “Don’t call me pure soul! It agitates me.
Underneath this prim exterior there are depths of emotions, romantic longings.” In
these lines, Manuela has equated pure and white with prim and proper, and the “Other”
8 Dyer 26.
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with “depths of emotions.” Again Dyer’s “spirit” versus “spirituality and soul” 9 come
into play. After what Farmer calls a “libidinal jouissance of the climax as Manuela
vocalizes…” 10 Macoco’s name, she pushes Serafin away to fully grasp her performance
as the sexualized “Other.”
Although Manuela’s sexuality is exposed in the “Mack the Black” number, the
ambiguous nature of the scene allows it to be acceptable to its audience. Again the film
plays with its unspecified locale. Manuela sings, “Round the Caribbean or Caribbean
Sea.” Each time, she emphasizes different syllables and provides different
pronunciations of the word. The “safety of this spatial relocation” 11 allows the film to
leave race ambiguous, thus permitting Manuela to sing her desire for the “Other.” It is
after Manuela dislocates herself (she is either in the Caribbean or Caribbean Sea) that
she is able to really get into the much anticipated and fanatical vocalization. As
Manuela sings, she is the obvious center of attention, having both sexes, as well as
those of multiple races, watching her and feeding on her energy. Again, as she sings,
“Round the Caribbean or Caribbean Sea,” Manuela is forcefully grabbed by a sailor for a
kiss. Manuela, as the “Other,” and through the vocalization of her lust for the Black
Macoco, opens up her sexuality. While she is able to push the sailor away, he pulls the
scarf from her hair, allowing it to fall. Her purity, which is represented by her white
nightgown top, is again being threatened, not only by her red skirt, but also now by her
long and wild hair. As “Manuela [is] engulfed in and by a polymorphous mass of
9 Dyer 26.
10 Farmer 106.
11 Courtney 134.
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writhing bodies,” 12 it is important to note that this is made possible by the film’s racial
ambiguity. This “orgiastic celebration” 13 is accomplished through performance as the
sexual “Other.” When Manuela takes to the stage, she is surrounded by flames and set
against a stormy backdrop. Her vocal style changes here as her r’s become rounded, as
in a Spanish pronunciation, and her dancing, as well as the dancing of others that are
with her, go low to the ground as they begin to rock their upper bodies back and forth.
This style of dancing, along with the rising flames on the torches, is reminiscent of a
tribal performance. The film has again dislocated the overtly sexual performance and
placed it safely within the unknown. And, yet again, it is right after this part of the
performance that Manuela is carried off the stage and the vocals become softer. The
camera is placed for a medium close-up shot of Manuela. Not only are her vocals softer,
but she is lit from the top, which creates a halo effect around her head. Her hair,
although not up, is pushed back behind her shoulders, and we see only the white of her
top. The film is containing the sexual “Other” by reminding us that the pure Garland is
still here and that the sexual “Other” is delegated to the stage and is only a
performance. But again, as Garland sings, “By the Caribbean or Caribbean Sea,” the
sexualized “Other” of Manuela takes hold, and the bodies again begin to writhe. In this
musical number the sexual “Other” is able to get in the last word. It is not until the
narrative comes into play again that the “pure” Manuela is awakened, and, to her
horror, she realizes that she has performed the part of the sexual “Other.” While the
film does its best to safely contain the sexual “Other” in the number of “Mack the
12 Farmer 106.
13 Farmer 106.
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Black,” it is only able to remind us of the pure Manuela in its close-up shot of the haloed
Garland before allowing the sexual “Other” to conquer the rest of the number.
Because location and race within The Pirate are ambiguous, the film is permitted
to place its stars, especially Garland, as being sexually charged. And while the narrative
sets up the film to have a sexually charged atmosphere, it continues to interrupt and
contain that sexuality securely. It is because of the musical genre, in its “suspension
between spectacle and narrative,” 14 that The Pirate is able to convincingly oscillate
between permitting the sexual “Other” as well as containing it. We know that we are
watching a film that fantasizes about adventure, the overtly sexual “Other,” and the
danger it supposedly entails. But even at the same time that we view it as a fantasy, we
understand that the chastity of both Kelly and Garland will be upheld, and we can look
upon the “Other” without endangering our own sense of “purity.”
14 Martin Rubin, “Busby Berkeley and the Backstage Musical,” Hollywood Musicals: The Film Reader, ed. Steven Cohan
(London and New York: Routledge, 2002) 53.
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