Champion swimmer turned Hollywood novelty star Esther Williams celebrated a wet decade @ M-G-M with this heavily fictionalized bio-pic of celebrated Australian lady aquatic Annette Kellerman, aka ‘The Girl in the One-Piece Bathing Suit.’ And what a relief, after shoehorning one ‘Can-You-Top-This’ water ballet specialty after another into her films, to have those glorious TechniColored water-tank ‘Numbos’ legitimately motivated as stage turns on the Hippodrome stage. (ESTHER: What’s my motivation for getting wet? INTERCHANGEABLE DIRECTOR: To give us a reason to make the film.) Mervyn LeRoy megs this one with typical generic smoothness (Velveeta substituting for Real Cheddar), and not an ounce of believable period flavor or local color. Walter Pidgeon phones it in as Annette’s encouraging Dad (she overcomes childhood rickets; he overcomes lousy hairstyling) while stolid David Brian & a pleasingly vulgar Victor Mature play rival suitors. But forget all that, you know why you’re here, it’s to see the two showcase Busby Berkeley spectaculars right in the middle of the pic, each announced by cascading water jets and both exulting in George Folsey’s TechniColor lensing to properly glorify the feminine pulchritude, male beefcake and Berkeley’s bizarrely sexualized musical fantasies. The second one positively pornographic.
DOUBLE-BILL: Go back to GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 to see LeRoy & Berkeley work in better balance.
LINK: Check out the real Annette Kellerman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYi7Kbdesp0
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