The Cinematic Voyage of THE PIRATE: Kelly, Garland, and Minnelli at Work

3. Major Players and Preproduction

51 chapter three Major Players and Preproduction After the script for M-G-M’s The Pirate had undergone several revisions from 1943 to 1946, director Vincente Minnelli and producer Arthur Freed were still not pleased with it, and for good reason as detailed in Chapter 2. Nevertheless, even before they assigned Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett in July 1946 to revise the script again, the movie was well into its preproduction phase of development . The salient aspects of the project were worked out during this phase by Minnelli and the male lead, Gene Kelly. The two men intensely discussed questions regarding character development, costumes, lighting, décor, props, and the overall style of the production . No other actors or technical crew played such an important role in shaping the fundamental and artistic elements of the film as did Minnelli and Kelly. Minnelli Vincente Minnelli was born Lester Anthony Minnelli on February 28, 1903, in Chicago. His parents owned a tent show that traveled circuits throughout Ohio and Indiana, but they eventually settled the family in Delaware, Ohio. Lester appeared in stage plays as a boy and attended the Art Institute of Chicago after graduating from high school. He worked as a window dresser for Marshall Field’s and a designer at the Chicago Theatre before going to New York to design stage shows. In New York, Minnelli worked in a variety of roles, including design, lighting, costumes, and even some directing for a variety of performers and producers. “I taught myself as an artist,” he later asserted. Minnelli changed his first name to Vincente while in New York.1 52 • Chapter Three Arthur Freed eventually convinced Minnelli to go to California in 1940. Once in Hollywood, Minnelli spent many months doing any job that was asked of him so he could become acquainted with the working procedures at M-G-M. He doctored scripts, edited, worked with cameras, and learned how to direct for a year before embarking on his first film, Cabin in the Sky (1943). This was an innovative picture involving an all-black cast and was both a critical and commercial success. The very next year, Minnelli hit his stride with Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), widely regarded as the true start of the Freed Unit’s best film musicals. In both Cabin in the Sky and Meet Me in St. Louis, the salient elements of Minnelli’s musicals are apparent. Film historian Douglas McVay summarizes these aspects as “a penchant for fantasy, surrealism, raffish locale, picturesquely formalized figuregrouping , choreographed movement, virtuosic crane shots, and contrastingly contemplative close ups during songs.”2 Minnelli worked closely with all members of the crew to shape his films in minute ways, but he encountered a problem in working with M-G-M’s art department, headed by Cedric Gibbons. “I had to revolutionize them initially,” Minnelli recalled. “They were shocked at a lot of things I wanted to do. . . . Their methods were staid and old-fashioned, and they weren’t integrated properly .” Minnelli tried to coordinate common elements in the visual scene of his shots so that décor and props contributed to the development of characters. “I feel that the surroundings of people are very important. You don’t see people isolated. You see them with their surroundings. And the environment and the look that the surroundings have is very important to me. I think it shows character.” While Cabin in the Sky was shot in black and white, Meet Me in St. Louis was Minnelli’s first color film. “For me, the colour is primarily dictated by the décor and the costumes and then, as you’re shooting the film, by the way you select the colours, put them together, and the sense the composition gives you of colour.”3 Minnelli’s Yolanda and the Thief (1945) is the film in which he first experimented with vibrant colors. Duringthistime,Minnelliwasalsostartingtomakescriptchanges to shape his films the way he saw them. While preparing to shoot The Clock (1945), a black-and-white film about a soldier who impulsively marries a girl he has just met while on a short leave, Minnelli often changed the script without consulting the screenwriter, Robert Nathan. “I used a lot of improvisation,” Minnelli admitted, and he developed “new ideas, new situations and dialogue as I went Major Players and Preproduction • 53 along.” Nathan protested such changes but to no avail...