Customer Reviews

Bathing Beauty (1944)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A genuine 'morale movie' from WWII, this movie is genuine entertainment! Dancing, swimming, Technicolor, and good, clean fun! It's amazing that more people don't know about this movie; it seems to be more well-known in China than the U.S. Where's the DVD?

Esther Williams is known for her swimming and light romance/musical films. This is a great comedy with Red Skelton. I thought it was a nice change of pace and well done. The music is first class and in my opinion it's worth buying for the musical numbers alone. There's a fabulous organ piece, a hilarious take on an Irish Ballad with Harry James and his Music Makers as well as music by Xavier Cugat who I absolutely love and is a big reason why I buy the Esther Williams movies. Esther Wms and Red Skelton marry but the wedding is interrupted by a woman hired by Red's publisher to make false accusations again Red Skelton, claiming he is her husband and father of their 3 children. Esther returns to her job in an all-girl school w/a loophole in their charter that allows Red to register as a student. The laughs and music never stop. It's a very entertaining and lovely film. The VHS was great quality and I'm very happy with it.

Bathing Beauty was a musical visit to my youth; rekindling memories of WW 2 and Senior School. Williams swimming scenes and stylish strokes and the music (especially Ethel Smith on the Hammond organ) made watching the movie fun, especially as those instruments, which combined harmonics to synthesise the sound(s) desired, were so versatile once one understood the function of the drawbars. I think this is the movie which best displays the sound of the Hammond, now, unfortunately, almost extinct!

My "talks" on "The Big Band Era" will be enriched by the other bands featured too.

We are very happy about this old movie that is very apropriate for any age contrary to today's kind of movie.

We received it in a short time and very well packaged.

After she appeared in 1942 as Mickey Rooney's love interest in ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (VHS only), MGM created the sub-genre of "aqua musical" for up-and-comer Esther Williams. BATHING BEAUTY was the initial offering in this popular Technicolor series and the first dip in the cinematic pool for "America's Mermaid."

Williams and Red Skelton headline a solid cast that includes an even stronger musical lineup: The Guadalajara Trio (doing a delightful version of "Bim, Bam, Bum"), the Xavier Cugat and Harry James outfits, plus virtuoso organist Ethel Smith. (Cameos: Mickey Rooney's dad, Joe Yule portrays a bartender. Buster Keaton's wife swims. Janis Paige, who starred on Broadway in "The Pajama Game" in 1954, debuts here as "Janis.")

SYNOPSIS--

Swim instructor Caroline Brooks (Williams) angrily returns to her teaching job at a New Jersey girls school when her brand new marriage to songwriter Steve Elliott (Skelton) is disrupted by scheming show producer George Adams (Rathbone). In order to speak with his estranged bride, Steve forces admission to the college, which has never been legally declared "all female."

To rid the campus of this pushy interloping tunesmith, Dean Clinton (Bryant) places Steve on two weeks' probation, during which time she plans to hit him with 100 demerits and mandatory expulsion. Steve also encounters heavy resistance from faculty, students AND a distant Caroline, who wants their marriage annulled.

"Bathing Beauty" is available on DVD (along with four other musicals) in TCM SPOTLIGHT - ESTHER WILLIAMS, VOL. 1.

Skelton and Williams followed this picture up with minor roles in the 1946 extravaganza, ZIEGFELD FOLLIES. (VHS) (DVD)

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(7.2) Bathing Beauty (1944) - Red Skelton/Esther Williams/Basil Rathbone/Bill Goodwin/Ethel Smith/Donald Meek/Margaret Dumont/Janis Paige (uncredited: Russell Hicks/Eleanor Keaton/Joe Yule Sr.)