If the musical genre has become a footnote in cinema history (face it folks, Moulin Rouge! and Chicago did little to revive this) then the “aqua musical” isn’t likely to be in the vernacular of anyone except the most ardent film connoisseurs and those still with us from the Golden era of Hollywood.

But despite the fact that the sub-genre is truly extinct, it still stands remembered for the Hollywood icon that the genre was created for and who churned out consistent water-based hits for nearly two decades – Esther Williams.

Williams never intended to be a movie star, and never really went out of her way to become one. Growing up, she loved swimming and was setting world records before she reached her mid-teens. Her only goal was to get to the 1940 Olympic Games, but those dreams were shattered by WWII and America’s refusal to send their athletes overseas. But working retail in Los Angeles put her in a close enough position to attract the attention of the entertainment industry. With gorgeous good looks, incredible underwater talent and not at all shy about how she’d look in a swimsuit, Esther Williams – with no acting training whatsoever – became one of MGM’s biggest stars.

Aside from Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Esther Williams’ films – including all of her water ballets – have avoided DVD release for the formats entire existence. Finally, Warner Brothers, with help from Turner Classic Movies where these films are frequently are shown, have finally assembled a box set of five of her films which offer a pretty good cross-section of Williams’ beauty and talent.

Bathing Beauty – (1944)Songwriter Steve Elliot (Red Skelton, Whistling in Dixie) is happily engaged to Caroline Brooks (Esther Williams) but their amorous courtship has distracted Steve from completing music for his boss George Adams (Basil Rathbone, The Adventures of Robin Hood). Desperate for his songs, George devises a plan to make it look as though Steve has been hiding the fact he has three children from another woman. As false as this is (and as silly as it sounds) Caroline takes off immediately returns to work at the all-women college she was attending. Steve, willing to do anything to get his girl back, finds a loophole in the school’s charter that allows men to attend. The funny bits ensue as Steve does everything he can to re-win Caroline’s heart while the school does everything it can to get him expelled legally.

The plot is a standby that was about as original then as it is now. This doesn’t change the fact that despite being very clichéd, it’s also quite funny. Red Skelton is at the top of his game. He was an extraordinary physical comedian and Bathing Beauty shows off a great performance from him. One scene which has him dressed in a tutu with ballerinas in an eurhythmics class is nothing short of hilarious, and a duet (which eventually becomes a octet) with the adorable doe-eyed Jean Porter of “I’ll Take the High Note” is a high-note to this film. The heavy reliance on Skelton as opposed to Williams might surprise people expecting her presence in what’s credited as the first of the Aqua Musicals to be quite larger. Well it wasn’t intended that way. Originally this was planned as a Skelton vehicle and titled Mr. Co-Ed. It wasn’t until the producers were stunned by the frequent upstaging that Williams did that the title (but not her second-billing) was changed to reflect Williams’ aquatic talents. Even then though, the water-based scenes are relegated to the very beginning and very end of the film. The final sequence, while not credited as such is a huge choreographed spectacle and the first of its kind to be filmed with synchronized swimming. While it isn’t credited as such, I doubt that it was storyboarded without the inspiration of Busby Berkeley at least in spirit, if the man wasn’t standing there himself.

The film does have its faults though. The plot is very silly and unbelievable, but that’s typical for the wartime diversion film that this is. The supporting cast is almost universally wasted and someone with star-power like Rathbone should have been given plenty more to do. Some of the music doesn’t seem to fit properly where it’s placed, but that is more than forgivable because all the music is very good, especially Harry James’ trumpets and Ethel Smith’s organ playing. Bathing Beauty isn’t the best musical ever made, but it is a damn good one and if you’re going to rent only one or two films in this set, this is probably the place to start.

Easy to Wed – (1946)
The Morning Star newspaper prematurely publishes an article that defames Connie Allenbury (Esther Williams) as an ice queen constantly on the prowl of married men. Despite the best efforts of the newspaper to recall all issued papers before being sold, forty of them leak and one gets into the hands of Connie’s father J.B. Allenbury (Cecil Kellaway) and together they decide to sue for libel to the tune of $2 million. Warren Haggerty (Keenan Wynn), a reluctant newlywed, hires playboy Bill Chandler (Van Johnson, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo) to seduce Connie. To make the plot sweeter, Warren has his fiancée Gladys (Lucille Ball, TV’s I Love Lucy) marry Bill so that the Morning Star can later expose that their characterization of Connie was spot on from the start. Nothing goes according to plan, however. Bill ends up falling for Connie, and makes great friends with her father as well. Gladys falls for Bill, thus feeling as though she’s been scorned by both of the men in her life, and Warren realizes that he really does love Gladys, but thinks he’s lost her to Bill – whom he doesn’t realize has fallen for Connie. Deception, undermining, and despicable people with loose morality have never been such fun.

Or maybe we had this much fun before. Easy to Wed is a complete (in many cases word-for-word) remake of Libeled Lady, a William Powell & Myrna Loy (The Thin Man series) film from a decade earlier with only the most minor of changes, although they might have seemed more drastic at the time. The original was black and white, and Easy to Wed is in beautiful Technicolor, a fishing sequence is replaced with duck shooting and more musical numbers are added. Otherwise, the plot is exactly the same with new people in the same parts. Nothing is particularly bad about this of course, Lucille Ball (an actress I personally never found appealing) puts in a very funny performance, and a scene where she gets drunk with Van Johnson is a particular highlight. The film never climbs past average though. Van and Esther’s chemistry together isn’t near as good as William & Myrna – not even in the same ballpark – and there are hardly any water antics from Williams, although that does help show her range and increasing talent as an actress. But the biggest problem isn’t that comparison, it’s that all the musical numbers, while still enjoyable, all seem completely added in (which of course they were). Only the organ playing of Ethel Smith comes across as a musical sequence worth remembering. It’s definitely the lesser film of the set. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from watching this, but check out Libeled Lady afterwards to see the same thing done far better.

On an Island with You – (1948)
In Hollywood, post WWII, a movie is being made called On an Island with You which stars Ricardo Montez (Ricardo Montalban, TV’s Fantasy Island) as a deserted Lieutenant and two would-be island girl suitors who constantly fight over his attention. “Real Life” mimics art, because the actresses that play those sexy island women, Rosalind Reynolds (Esther Williams) and Yvonne Torro (Cyd Charisse, The Band Wagon) are engaged to, and pining over, respectively. Seeking to make their film as authentic as possible, the film studio hires Lt. Lawrence Kingslee (Peter Lawford, The Picture of Dorian Gray) to provide input on how a real Lt. would handle situations and make sure costumes are correct. Kingslee is more interested in Ms. Reynolds than he is the correct positioning of Montez’s uniform ribbons. In a scene where is supposed to stand in for Montez and fly away with Reynolds stowing in the cargo hold, he flies away all right – to an undisclosed island with a deserted Allied hanger. It’s here that he plans on wooing the woman of his obsessions and revealing the past that Reynolds has long-since forgotten. If the native cannibals don’t have something to say about it first!

Prior to getting this fantastic set in the mail, On an Island with You was the only film included that I hadn’t seen. In fact, I never even heard of it. But reading the press release synopsis got me so excited about this film that it almost pained me to watch the DVDs in order. With the combined star power of Esther Williams, Peter Crawford, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse and Ricardo “THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!” Montalban how can a DVD reviewer go wrong? Answer: He can’t! While not in any way groundbreaking, On and Island with You is an incredibly fun tale that goes by without feeling like anything more than few minutes have passed. The opening reveal sequence came as a complete surprise. I won’t say much, but it’s a great mood-setting false opening. The production is lavish. There are some pre-Singin’ In the Rain digs at Hollywood. The behind-the-scenes activities going on with the film-within-the-film’s production are so silly and the “filmmakers” have such odd quirks that it’s hard to believe that they weren’t based on real people. There are some pretty serious logic flaws in the plot. I mean, we have a Lieutenant that has shown obvious stalker tendencies towards the lead actress actually be put into a position to kidnap this woman. Oh, and don’t get me started on poor Esther Williams’ atrocious fake-and-bake tan or Lawford’s tree-stump acting job. But overall, there is enough pure classic Hollywood fun and great music (Jimmy Durante’s songs are a huge highlight) on display here that I’m surprised it isn’t considered a genre classic.

Neptune’s Daughter – (1949)
Boy-crazy Betty Barrett (Betty Garrett, On the Town), desperate for a Latin lover confuses Jack Spratt (Red Skelton) for the Captain of the South American polo team. Spratt, who is the real Captain’s masseuse, has never been with a woman and so goes along with the charade. Meanwhile, Betty’s sister Eve (Esther Williams) begins dating the real Captain Jose O’Rourke (Ricardo Montalban) and she becomes distraught thinking that her new boyfriend is playing the field, and will ultimately destroy poor Betty’s heart. Hilarious antics ensue.

I know, the plot synopsis doesn’t exactly scream out “classic.” The mistaken identity is as clichéd and common as comedy gets, and to be perfectly honest, Neptune’s Daughter doesn’t do all that much original with the situation. But when is comes to Esther Williams proudly displaying her moneymaking body and underwater acrobatics, this film is one of the best examples available. Interestingly, Esther’s character here is a swimsuit designer/sales woman, a side-career which she continued in real life. So this makes ample opportunities for Ms. Williams (and other models) to don a number of different swimsuits and sarongs, and allow for poolside activities which help make the water sequences fit in with the film’s narrative much better than most of Esther’s other films on this set. The music takes a turn for the better in this film as well, including an Oscar-nominated rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Sung by both of our leading couples. What I thought was the most interesting aspect of Neptune’ Daughter is that it deals quite a bit with very feminist themes for a film of its era. Betty is very forward in her desire for men, parading herself around predatorily. Eve is faced with the life-altering decision of continuing with her business in the executive sense or leaving it to pursue marriage to Jose. If not for the fact that she does eventually turn down the business for sake of marriage, it could have stood out as very woman forward. But even with the less than inspirational results, the fact that the subject was broached in a Hollywood film of its time makes it interesting to watch.

Dangerous When Wet – (1953)
The super health-conscious Higgins family is coaxed by a peddler named Windy (Jack Carson) to becoming the poster family for his Liquapep vitalization drink. Taking a special interest in Katie Higgins (Esther Williams) Windy decides he can woo her by making her a star and convinces her father, Pa Higgins (William Demarest) to sign up her and the rest of the family to be the first family to swim across the English Channel. Once in England, they learn that the actual swim is far more dangerous – and longer – than they were told. With all the crosswinds and currents, the twenty mile swim becomes more like thirty or forty. The Higgins family, whose farm now is on the brink of bankruptcy, is forced to drop out of the race when the London Daily Mail decides that the trek is too dangerous, and only Katie stays in the race in order to save the farm. But with all the fraternizing she’s been doing with champagne maker Andre (Fernando Lamas) is she skilled enough for the great swim?

The final picture in this set isn’t the best, but it’s certainly one of the more interesting ones. For the first time, we get to see Esther interact with future husband Fernando Lamas. Lamas seems more sure of himself and truly romantic than Montalban, but it doesn’t translate to him being a very good actor. Regardless, it’s easy to believe that Lamas’ attraction to Williams is real, whereas a competing French channel swimmer Gigi’s (Denise Darcel) attraction to Windy is much less so. The key sequence that makes Dangerous When Wet memorable is an animated dream sequence where Esther Williams goes swimming with Tom and Jerry. It’s a fun scene similar in tone to Gene Kelley’s dance with Jerry in Anchors Aweigh. It does nothing for the central plot, but it tongue-in-cheekly makes fun at some of the other characters in the film by making animated sea creatures in their image. The final swim through the channel is as perilous, adventurous and dangerous as the film explains. It’s easy to get sucked into the drama at the end, when the sense of sore muscles, hypothermia, and fatigue are felt by the audience as much as the characters.

The five films included here aren’t necessarily the five I would have picked for Esther’s first foray into DVD. However, it is a nice cross-section of Williams evolving talent both in, and out, of the water. Volume 2 can’t come fast enough!

The DVD Presentation
With even the youngest film in this collection being more than 50 years old, it’s remarkable that the transfers on this set look as wonderful as they do. Each DVD’s film has been painstakingly remastered, but outside of a few minor blemishes everything – especially the colors – look wonderful. Esther Williams looks better than ever. She sounds good too, as the Mono soundtrack included on all of these are crystal clear with no noise that shouldn’t be there. English subtitles are available for those that need them.

Note: There are some jarring jump cuts in Neptune’s Daughter, but they’ve always been there to my recollection. It isn’t a fault of the mastering, that’s for sure.

And the Extras Are?
The extras are plenty, and they are scattered throughout the five-discs in this set. I’ve arranged them here thematically, trying to preserve some semblance of order amidst the chaos of these features.

Interviews!
Private Screenings with Esther Williams – (47:39)
Private Screenings was television show similar to Inside the Actors Studio where various entertainers would be asked questions about their careers by interviewer Robert Osborne. This episode ran on TCM in 1996 and if it isn’t the most definitive interview with Esther Williams ever, I don’t know what is. The actress doesn’t have much of a problem going over the greatness of working in Hollywood as well as the problems that it posed on her personal life, failed romances and her ultimate abandoning of acting outright. Interesting stories are told of her relationships with other actors and directors. If you want to learn more than this interview reveals, the only way you going to is to read Esther’s biography. It’s that comprehensive, and it’s the best feature on this set.
Dick Simmons Radio Interview – (4:53)
An audio only feature, this interview with Esther Williams was recorded as a promo for Neptune’s Daughter. It’s a wonderful period interview where Esther talks at length about the film, her family and her line of bathing suits.
Dick Simmons Radio Interview – (4:51)
The second Simmons audio interview with Esther was recorded during her Easy to Love and Dangerous When Wet era. The primary focus of the interview though is for Esther to discuss swimming safety tips.

Short Films!
Main Street Today – (19:50)
This is an interesting war-time propaganda piece showing a town of people trying to figure out how they can continue their lives but still put in time to help with the war effort.
A Pete Smith Specialty: “Sure Cures” – (10:40)
Somehow this abysmally unfunny short about various ills and the “sure cures” that people have attempted for them was nominated for an Oscar. I’ve always disliked these types of shorts for the blasé voiceover that is given to them by an unseen narrator (in this case Pete Smith) who seemingly thinks everything he says is funny.
Romance of Celluloid: “Personalities” – (9:39)
This is an awesome newsreel program which showcases the up and coming stars including three girls screen-testing for the role to be an Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) girl. These girls are Esther Williams, Carole Gallagher and Frances Rafferty. Guess who got the part.
Callaway Went Thataway clip – (2:01)
While it isn’t presented as such, this is only a clip from a much larger 1951 film staring Howard Keel. This scene shows him meeting, and not recognizing, Esther Williams.
A Pete Smith Specialty: “Water Trix” – (8:36)
This short would be a valuable extra as it essentially was created to show how certain camera angles are accomplished for water stunts. Sadly, it’s hampered by Pete Smiths’ horrible joking narration.
A Pete Smith Specialty: “This Is a Living?” – (9:19)
Another annoyingly narrated short, this time focusing on the acrobats of the day. Impressive footage of people dangling over Manhattan and pre-Cirque du Soleil stage performances is included.

Cartoons!
Tom and Jerry - “Mouse Trouble” – (7:23)
An adorable classic with Tom ordering a book on how to catch mice and, naturally, failing in every attempt by that bastard Jerry.
Barney Bear – “The Unwelcome Guest” – (7:13)
A fun carton with Barney being constantly pestered by a skunk that’s after his cherries. A typical slapstick cartoon reminiscent of the Looney Toons.
Barney Bear – “The Bear and the Hare” – (7:11)
Here, Barney finds himself tormented by a “snowshoe rabbit” which is almost invisible against the thick snowy landscape.
Tom and Jerry – “Hatch Up Your Troubles” – (7:41)
Another great Hanna-Barbera production with Jerry unwittingly becoming the father of a woodpecker. Eventually, Jerry and his new friend both live out their life’s goal of torturing Tom.
Tom and Jerry – “The Cat and the Mermouse” – (7:37)
One of the more amusing “friendly” Tom and Jerry cartoons. This one is an underwater adventure where a merman Jerry is on the run from a submerged Tom, but Jerry ends up saving Tom from an octopus.

Outtakes!
“I Want My Money Back” – Neptune’s Daughter – (4:24)
An unused musical number featuring Betty Garrett. The video quality is only of slightly less quality than the film, although the sound quality isn’t very good. I wonder if the poor recording was why it wasn’t included in the film. It’s the only reason I can fathom.
“C’est La Guerre” – Dangerous When Wet – (2:54)
Another unused musical sequence, this time with Fernando Lamas. It’s a great song and SHOULD have been left in the film. Thankfully, we at least get it as an extra.

Recordings Performed by Johnny Mercer –
The final audio feature in the set is Johnny Mercer performing three of the songs that he wrote for Dangerous When Wet. Included here is “Got Out of Bed on the Right Side”, “Fifi”, and “I Like Men.” It’s pretty cool to hear the man who wrote these songs actually performing them as it offers a different take than the way they were included in the film.

Theatrical Trailers –
As a wonderful treat, Warner has thought to include the trailers for every film in this set. They even brought a few others into the mix. The Easy to Wed DVD includes the theatrical trailer for Libeled Lady, the film it remade. The Neptune’s Daughter DVD has the trailer for Take Me Out to the Ball Game which was the film Esther Williams made right after it. Dangerous When Wet has additional trailers for Duchess of Idaho, Pagan Love Song, Million Dollar Mermaid and Easy to Love. Is this a sample of what’s in store for Volume 2? I can only hope.

I would have liked to have more film-specific extras, but the interviews and outtakes are great inclusions. Plus we get thrown some other fun stuff in the form of short films and cartoons. How can you complain when you get so much, for so little?

The Bottom Line
You might not think so if you’ve read other reviews of mine, but I do realize that there are films out there that don’t contain zombies, vampires and/or Milla Jovovich, and some of these other flicks are even worth watching. I’ve been waiting the ten years that the DVD format has existed to get my hands around Esther Williams’ films and while it was a long wait, Warner has certainly delivered. It took me a week to digest every awesome morsel of this set and while Warner definitely earns kudos for feeding the beast, they’ve only just whetted my appetite for a future Volume 2… and 3… and 4.

Dear TCM & Warner,

Please get on this.

Love,
Shawn

P.S. Please release Light in the Piazza while you’re at it.