Dancing Pirate

Dancing Pirate
Poster
Directed by	Lloyd Corrigan
Produced by	Merian C. Cooper (executive producer) John Speaks (producer)
Written by	Ray Harris (screenplay) and Francis Edward Faragoh (screenplay) Jack Wagner (adaptation) and Boris Ingster (adaptation) Emma-Lindsay Squier (story)
Starring	See below
Music by	Alfred Newman Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (songs)
Cinematography	William V. Skall
Edited by	Archie Marshek
Production company	Pioneer Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Pictures
Release date	May 22, 1936
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Dancing Pirate is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Corrigan. It is the third film shot in the three strip Technicolor process and the first musical in that format. Produced by the makers of Becky Sharp, the film was based on the December 1930 Colliers Magazine story Glorious Buccaneer by Emma-Lindsay Squier a serious and action filled romance that may have been inspired by the story of Joseph Chapman. The film features the debut of stage star Charles Collins and the cast includes Rita Hayworth as one of The Royal Cansino Dancers. Other dancers in the film were Pat Nixon and Marjorie Reynolds.

Set in Boston in the 1820s, the film tells of dancing teacher Jonathan Pride, shanghaied by pirates and forced to be a slave aboard his own ship. Jonathan is able to join a provisioning party that lands on the coast of California, then a part of the Spanish Empire where he makes his escape; his only possessions being his umbrella and music box that he uses for his dancing lessons.

He is seen by a shepherd who warns the nearest town whose excitable population transform Jonathan's arrival into a full-fledged pirate invasion. The Alcade Don Emilio Perena leads the militia into shooting up their own town whilst Jonathan is later captured in the boudoir of Alcade's daughter Serafina. Jonathan is sentenced to death.

When Serafina and the women of the town discover Jonathan's profession of dancing teacher, his execution is delayed until he teaches the waltz to the women of the town.