I love Gilbert and Sullivan, and The Pirates of Penzanze is my favourite of their operettas. This film is a lot of fun, very like the operetta, and much better than a production that was made at the same time as this, in relation to the latter while Keith Michell and the music were brilliant and the dialogue witty as ever the whole production seemed amateurish and under-rehearsed and some sluggish pacing undermine what could have been a witty and charming performance. This version, while far from flawless, is far better.

The Pirates of Penzanze has a fun and charming story and some of the zaniest characters ever in an operetta(cue Major General Stanley),also the music is outstanding with some of the wittiest and literate lyrics you'll find anywhere. This version keeps to the structure of the story and the zaniness of the characters and does a very good job. The music is charmingly performed and all the pivotal moments are there, but there is the odd paring down and some order shuffling.

Angela Lansbury is an actress I am very fond of, and she does perform the musical comedy of her role as Ruth brilliantly. Her singing is not exactly what I had in mind for Ruth, when I think of Ruth I think of a mezzo/contralto voice while not being too deep in the lower register. Lansbury does what she can, but for my tastes singing-wise she is a little too light. My other problem is Paradox, it was a definite improvement over that of the other production I spoke of, and I liked the staging and acting but I think the conducting was too fast and although I wasn't sure whether it was the performers enjoying themselves or whether they were trying to get it over with but the whole number seemed rushed through. Consequently the wit and fun of Paradox was disappointingly lost.

That said, the production, costume and set designs are spot on, and the orchestra and conductor do do a great job. The pace adds to the show's wit, charm and fun, while some of the staging is overdone such as in Cat Like Tread this works and adds to the fun and the direction thankfully manages to be the complete anti-thesis of amateurish. There are some great performances as well. Rex Smith is a dashing Frederic and his Ah Leave me not to pine with Linda Ronstadt and Oh! is there not one maiden breast made my heart melt, Linda Ronstadt is a lovely Mabel and as the Sargeant Tony Azito is a hoot. The standouts however are Kevin Kline who plays Pirate King with such a voluptuous swagger -and he seems to be enjoying himself immensely- that you warm to him immediately and George Rose who is everything Major General Stanley should be. The entire chorus work is great, especially from the pirates and I was surprised in a good way at how secure the tuning with the policemen was.

All in all, fun all round. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Coming on the heels of "The Rip Off Movie" (that unfortunate bubble gum pop flop with Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins),this is fortunately more loyal to the recent hit Broadway revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical that had taken the theater by surprise by becoming a delight at the Delacourte in Central Park and was determined to make it on Broadway, the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to do so, updated to modern styles and made a surprise hit. A good majority of the Broadway cast got together for this: Rex Smith as the romantic hero who leaves behind his pirate upbringing to find true love and swear revenge on the pirates who had seized his village, Kevin Kline as the dashing but rather clumsy pirate king, Linda Ronstadt as the lovely Mabel who captures Smith's heart, and George Rose as the very model of a modern major general, Mabel's father who must undergo battle with the pirates by using an old pirate law to prevent them from robbing his family.

Taking over for Estelle Parsons and Kaye Ballard from the original Broadway production is the legendary Angela Lansbury who fits right in as Ruth, the Pirate nurse who is enamored of the MUCH younger Smith and seeks revenge on him when he questions her beauty. This is silly fun, giving a pop sound to the classic Gilbert and Sullivan music yet remaining faithful to the show as a whole. Like the later TV version of "Peter Pan", this often looks like a "Candyland" board game, and features a slew of upbeat production numbers, ballads and witty romantic duets. Comical cops pop in to fight the pirates for a climactic battle scene that is never bloody, and like all good old fashioned musical comedy or operetta, everything turns out all right. Universal films didn't seem to have much confidence in this and shoved it in theaters and pulled it out rather quickly, but it has gained a cult following. The "Pirates of Penzance" revivals since then (including one I saw at City Center with Hal Linden as the Modern Major General) seem to be closer to this version than the original, although several other Gilbert and Sullivan companies prefer the original version of other Gilbert and Sullivan shows I have seen.

A Joseph Papp Production for Universal-International. A Pressman Film, photographed in Technicolor and Panavision at Shepperton Studios, England. Released in 1983. 112 minutes.

NOTES: Based on the 1879 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, this is a movie record of Joseph Papp's 1982 Broadway revival, filmed in England. The original Broadway cast is intact, save for "Ruth", here enacted and sung by Angela Lansbury. The opportunity has also been taken to dub David Hatton, Louise Gold and Teresa Codling.

COMMENT: One of those films whose joys and many felicities are slightly offset by a few irritating defects which could easily have been corrected. The singing for example, has obviously been post- synced. And while we appreciate that the principals are using their own voices, some of these voices are a little weak.

The producers have recognized that Gilbert's Second Act needs strengthening (after the Major-General's splendid introduction in Act One he has no equivalent patter song in Act Two) and have tried to jazz it up with dancing constables (very successfully, — the choreography is outrageously acrobatic),all looking like Ben Turpin lookalikes and given a wonderful intro with a sweeping tracking shot — the most cinematic moment in the film which is otherwise, despite all the acrobatics and general liveliness, still more or less a photographed stage play. I'm not criticizing it on this score. Doing it this way with painted backdrops and all was probably the wisest course. But they have also tried to dress up Act Two with a re- enactment of HMS Pinafore. This is too strong a departure from the original play to be endured gladly. They would have done better to introduce the doctor of divinity — a glaring omission from Gilbert's original cast list — as a singing and dancing member of the chorus — and to have retained the whole of the "Policeman's Lot" song by dubbing in a stronger singing voice for the energetic Mr. Azito.

Also it wasn't a wise idea to cut General Stanley's dialogue — he has little enough to do in the Second Act as it is without further cuts, and George Rose is such a terrific performer, the more of him we see, the better we like the film.

As it is, Act One is such a more pleasurable experience than Act Two — I laughed till I cried — that Act Two comes across as distinctly anticlimactic. Linda R. seems to be in better voice in Act One too and certainly Angela Lansbury has her greatest moments. And the same can be said for Kevin Kline's dashing pirate king (as well, of course, of Rose's Major Stanley).

Also the Gilbertian device in Act Two of singing with cat-like tread by making a hell of row, is not nearly so funny as the ridiculous pun on "orphan".

All this carping aside, the film is great entertainment. Act One in fact is absolutely superlative, beautifully designed, costumed and set, attractively photographed and very proficiently presented.

Queen Victoria, however, would most certainly not be amused. Not only does she get a thorough going over, but institutions like the house of peers get a roasting, while ideals like a sense of duty are thoroughly lambasted and ridiculed.