Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Sell Us Your Item
For up to a $19.85 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Big_Box_Bar... Add to Cart
$35.73  & FREE Shipping. Details
Have one to sell? Sell yours here

TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Volume One (Bathing Beauty / Easy to Wed / On an Island with You / Neptune's Daughter / Dangerous When Wet) (2007)

Esther Williams , Lucille Ball  |  NR |  DVD
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

List Price: $49.92
Price: $36.07 & FREE Shipping. Details
You Save: $13.85 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Tuesday, May 21? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
This week only, save 69% on select three-movie combo packs on Blu-ray in our Kids & Family Deal of the Week. Offer ends May 25, 2013. Learn more

Frequently Bought Together

TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Volume One (Bathing Beauty / Easy to Wed / On an Island with You / Neptune's Daughter / Dangerous When Wet) + TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Vol. 2 (Thrill of a Romance / Fiesta / This Time for Keeps / Pagan Love Song / Million Dollar Mermaid / Easy to Love) + Skirts Ahoy!
Price for all three: $92.56

Buy the selected items together

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Product Details

  • Actors: Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Cyd Charisse, Van Johnson
  • Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 5
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: Turner Classic Movie
  • DVD Release Date: July 17, 2007
  • Run Time: 506 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000PC8AL4
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,877 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Volume One (Bathing Beauty / Easy to Wed / On an Island with You / Neptune's Daughter / Dangerous When Wet)" on IMDb

Special Features

  • Includes:
  • Bathing Beauty (1944)
  • Robert Osborne hosts TCM's "Private Screenings with Esther Williams"
  • Oscar-nominated short "Main Street Today"
  • Academy Award-winning cartoon "Mouse Trouble"
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Easy to Wed (1946)
  • Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short "Sure Cures"
  • Classic cartoon "The Unwelcome Guest"
  • On an Island with You (1948)
  • Vintage Romance of Celluloid series short "Personalities"
  • Classic cartoon "The Bear and the Hare"
  • Neptune's Daughter (1949)
  • Outtake musical number "I Want My Memory Back" Esther Williams sequence from 1951's Callaway Went Thataway
  • Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short "Water Trix"
  • Oscar-nominated cartoon "Hatch Up Your Troubles"
  • Promotional radio interviews with Esther Williams
  • Dangerous When Wet (1953)
  • Outtake musical number "C'est la Guerre"
  • Audio-only bonus: Johnny Mercer demo recordings of "Fifi," "I Got Out of Bed on the Right Side," and "I Like Men"
  • Promotional radio interview with Esther Williams
  • Pete Smith Specialty comedy short "This Is a Living?"
  • Classic cartoon "The Cat and the Mermouse"
  • Esther Williams musicals trailer gallery

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Laughs, romance, music--just add water! Get into the swim of Hollywood's Golden Era with musical number outtakes, classic shorts, cartoons, and more. Bathing Beauty: a big splash in her first starring role: Williams is a teacher at a women's college--and wacky Red Skelton enrolls to be near her. An astonishing flames-and-fountains aquatic finale. Easy to Wed: A spiffy remake of the screwball classic Libeled Lady, with Esther as the lady libeled. Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and Lucille Ball round out a funny four-sided love triangle. On an Island with You: Paradise for musical-comedy fans! Esther (in a series of swimsuits and sarongs) plays a film star on a tropical location shoot. With Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, and Jimmy Durante. Neptune's Daughter: The polo team's in town and so is the fun for Esther, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, and Betty Garrett. Includes Frank Loesser songs and one of Esther's greatest splash-happy finales. Dangerous When Wet: Cartoon legends Tom and Jerry join Esther in the light-hearted extravaganza about a girl who swims the English Channel--and meets a dashing Frenchman (Fernando Lamas).

Product Description

Queen of the aqua musical," Esther Williams made a big splash as America's Mermaid! This collection includes Bathing Beauty (Red Skelton. 1944/101 min.), Dangerous When Wet (Fernando Lamas. 1953/95 min.), Easy to Wed (Van Johnson. 1946/106 min.), Neptune's Daughter (Red Skelton. 1949/95 min.) and On An Island With You (Peter Lawford. 1948/107 min.) 5 DVDs. Color/NR/fullscreen.

Customer Reviews

Let me start off by saying I love movies! Sabrina Pardo  |  21 reviewers made a similar statement
It's a great addition to my dvd collection. sally willis  |  14 reviewers made a similar statement
Almost everything about these films is lush, beautiful, and spectacular. Magic Fingers  |  7 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally Esther is Surfacing...... July 17, 2007
Format:DVD
Finally we get to see Esther Williams flicks in radiant colors and updated sound! Not that the DVD transfers are perfect, Criterion-league: there are specks and scratches from time to time, and blacks tend to bleed, particularly in the early ones (e.g. Bathing Beauty). But what a pleasure it is to have this joyful entertainement back, put together with care and intelligence. There's bonus material galore, though not all of it dealing with the star.

Included in the Bathing Beauty disc is a substantial interview Ms. Williams did with Robert Osborne for Turner Classic Movies. Ms. Williams comes across as somebody who has always been level headed, with a realistic view of life, aware of alternatives and skeptical of show-biz, always marveled at her good fortune (wondering when it would end), with the self-assurance gained from awareness of her personal worth. Nothing delusional there: underneath the Hollywood glamour, throughout her career and beyond, she has retained the mindset and integrity of a committed, champion athlete, i.e., it's the hard work, constancy and achievement that count, not the glitz or the noise (she was slated to participate in the 1940 Olympics had WWII not interfered). All these personal qualities come across in her films, and probably made her a star, unique in her genre. Before, during and after, there was no other. Though she was a fine craftsman and learned her trade well as an actress, she really only played one character, Esther Williams. Audiences flocked to "Esther Williams movies," with all fantasy such would entail (of course, production values count). It is difficult not to feel that she'd be a great friend to have. During the interview Robert Osborne can barely contain his delight.

Suspend disbelief, just enjoy. I hope we don't have to wait as long for Volume 2, which would include Million Dollar Mermaid and Easy to Love.

For fans, I would also recommend reading her down-to-earth autobiography.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Seriously...when I think of actors / actresses who are L-O-N-G overdue for the DVD treatment, Esther Williams is at the top of the list. Kudos to TCM for putting 5 of Ms. Williams' amazing films...including my all-time favorite "On An Island With You"...in an affordable box set. I'm sure Volume 2 will be greeted with equal enthusiasm by her fans and I know I'll pre-order it the minute it's available.

So what's the big deal? Aside from the legendary aquatics and the intricately choreographed numbers, the films of Esther Williams are key examples of "They Don't Make Movies Like That Anymore" movies. They don't, and they can't, because the world is really a different place. The simplicity and innocence and sweetness are qualities that exist in a readically different form in 2007.

If your idea of cinematic romance is Tom Cruise telling Renée Zellweger that she "completes" him, or Renée telling Tom that he "had her at hello," these might not be the right films for you. They're more geniune, more honest, and warmer. They represent the absolute best that MGM had to offer.

While "On An Island With You" may not be Ms. Williams' signature film, it has all of the elements that made her films great. Ricardo Montalban, dressed in full navy uniform, strumming a guitar under a tropical tree and crooning the opening theme as Esther swims in a shady lagoon? Genius! The four-way, star-crossed lovers subplot featuring Williams, Montalban, Peter Lawford and Cyd Charisse? The Montalban / Charisse dance number? Jimmy Durante and Xavier Cugat? What's NOT to like in this movie?

The other four films are just as good, but "Island" is a personal favorite.

Thanks to TCM. Can't wait to see which films are included in Volume 2.
Was this review helpful to you?
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
These films are something like underwater Busby Berkeley films, so if you like the MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, and/or you like Busby Berkeley's work you'll likely appreciate this collection. I rate this set as five stars for those people who appreciate the light-hearted romantic comedy and music of these types of films. If you are looking for gut-wrenching drama or film noir and are not open to these kinds of films, look elsewhere. Also, if you like the comedy of Red Skelton or Lucille Ball, they both show up in some great comic performances in a couple of these films.

Bathing Beauty (1944)
Costars Red Skelton in a comedy about a songwriter who enrolls in a women's college to win back his estranged swimming-teacher wife. Highlights include music from both Harry James and his Music Makers and Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra, Skelton in a pink tutu doing unforgivable things to Tchaikovsky and a spectacular, trendsetting `chlorine-and-chorine' finale.
Special Features:
Robert Osborne hosts "TCM's Private Screenings with Esther Williams"
Oscar-nominated Short "Main Street Today"
Academy Award-winning cartoon "Mouse Trouble"
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Easy To Wed (1946)
This is a remake of the 1930's screwball comedy Libeled Lady, although outside of the skeleton of the plot the comparisons are few. Particularly funny is Van Johnson afloat with a baleful spaniel who knows a lot more about duck hunting than he does, and a drunken scene featuring the antics of Lucille Ball. Actually, Lucy steals the show in more than a few scenes here. When the local paper runs an untrue story claiming an heiress (Esther Williams) is a husband stealer, she prepares to sue for libel. So an employee of the newspaper (Keenan Wynn) comes up with a plan to improve the paper's chances in court: He'll arrange a sham wedding between his fiancée (Lucille Ball) and another newsroom employee (Van Johnson), send said employee to woo the heiress, and thus have a real husband-stealing story.
Special Features:
Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short "Sure Cures"
Classic cartoon "The Unwelcome Guest"
Theatrical trailers of "Easy to Wed" and "Libeled Lady"
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

On an Island with You (1948)
This musical comedy feature moonlight swims, swaying palms, Technicolor sunsets and...cannibals. Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse get the swimming, swaying and sunsets and Jimmy Durante, of course, gets the cannibals. Williams is a swimming movie star pursued by two handsome suitors on the set of her latest film. Features Xavier Cugat and his orchestra playing some lovely songs.
Special Features:
Vintage Romance of Celluloid series short "Personalities"
Classic cartoon "The Bear and the Hare"
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Neptune's Daughter (1949)
Betty Barrett (Betty Garrett) mistakes Jack Spratt (Red Skelton) for the South American polo team captain José O'Rourke (Ricardo Montalban), and relentlessly pursues him. Meanwhile, the real O'Rourke pursues Betty's sister Eve (Esther Williams). The resulting mistaken identities and romantic complications turn into a great mix of slapstick and flirtatious fun. Garrett and Skelton's comedy is particularly appealing. The film features songs by Frank Loesser including Baby, It's Cold Outside, winner of the 1949 Best Song Oscar. The film has a happy ending and culminates in a stupendous water ballet.
Special Features:
Outtake musical number "I Want My Money Back"
Esther Williams cameo sequence from 1951's "Callaway Went Thataway"
Oscar-Nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy "short Water Trix"
Oscar-nominated cartoon "Hatch Up Your Troubles"
Theatrical trailers of this movie and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Dangerous When Wet (1953)
This film has Williams playing Katy, a farm girl from a health-obsessed family who finds romance with Williams' future real-life husband Fernando Lamas while training to swim across the English Channel. In the film's key sequence, Williams swims along with cartoon stars Tom and Jerry.
Special Features:
Outtake musical number "C'est La Guerre"
Pete Smith Specialty comedy short "This Is a Living?"
Classic cartoon "Name to Come"
Esther Williams musicals trailer gallery
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

The descriptions of the special features are from a press release from Warner Home Video.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Movies
I highly recommend this movies they are filled with hours of pure entertainment you don't have to be an Esther Williams fan to enjoy this classic movies you would get lost in the... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Chelly R
5.0 out of 5 stars I love all of these movies!
I originally just wanted to find the movie, "Neptune's daughter" but I could only find it through buying this set, which I did. And I love all the movies in it! Read more
Published 1 month ago by AkariP
5.0 out of 5 stars Carlos rocks !!
This is a favorite of mine - Esther is always beautiful - but Carlos Ramirez (greatest baritone in all the world) steals the show. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lemans
5.0 out of 5 stars esther
this was a gift and it arrived saely - thanks so much - sorry the confirmation is just now being done.
Published 3 months ago by bmc870
5.0 out of 5 stars Great CD
It was wonderful. I ordered it for my wife who loves these old movies and she has watched it several times.
Published 3 months ago by Robert R. Thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars Aviation note regarding On An Island With You
The movie is about a movie company making a film in post-war Hawaii set on a Pacific Island somewhere, when the actual film was shot in Florida, which wasn't unusual for... Read more
Published 3 months ago by C. Andrews
4.0 out of 5 stars Esther Williams
I love this dvd, the gorgeous sets and the costumes are too die for!! What a beautiful woman and so talented. It's a great addition to my dvd collection.
Published 5 months ago by sally willis
5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of Esther Williams films...
Looks like the movies were made yesterday, and if your a Williams fan, you will be delighted with the collection!!!
Published 6 months ago by Alfred S. Vulpis
1.0 out of 5 stars MISSING A MOVIE! Didn't this bother anyone else?
I'm not complaining about the content on the DVDs. That's for another review. I'm furious that EASY TO WED, the main movie I bought this set for, is missing! Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mark Kirby
5.0 out of 5 stars I and My Pals Transported by Esther
I purchased this Volume 2 of the wonderful Esther Williams cinema collection for viewing once again the very rare "Pagan Love Song" (1950), which would serve to transport even the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by JOHN D DICKEY
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Forums

Topic From this Discussion
Available Subtitles
Sorry, it's English only
Jun 29, 2007 by David Horiuchi |  See all 2 posts
Have something you'd like to share about this product?
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions


Look for Similar Items by Category