Although this was not Williams' screen debut, it was her first Technicolor musical. The film's working title was Mr. Co-Ed, with Skelton having top billing. However, once MGM executives watched the first cut of the film, they realized that Williams' role should be showcased more, and changed the title to Bathing Beauty, giving her prominent billing and featuring her bathing-suit clad figure on the posters.[3]
In Los Angeles, songwriter Steve Elliot prepares to marry Caroline Brooks, who has pledged to give up her job as a college swimming instructor. Likewise, Steve plans to quit his songwriting career, even though New York producer George Adams has already hired him to write new songs for a water ballet show.
When George overhears Steve discussing his "retirement" with Caroline, he vows to prevent it and enlists Maria Dorango, an aspiring actress posing as a Latin-American singer, to help him. Moments after a justice of the peace pronounces the redheaded Steve and Caroline man and wife, Maria rushes in, claiming that Steve is her husband and the father of her three redheaded children, who are then paraded in. Although Steve pleads his innocence, Caroline storms off in a rage and returns to her teaching post at Victoria College in New Jersey. A determined Steve and his friend, Carlos Ramírez, follow her there but are denied entrance to the all-female school.
Later in a New York nightclub, Steve meets drunken lawyer Chester Klazenfrantz and learns that Klazenfrantz has been hired to change the charter of Victoria College, which has never officially designated itself as all-female. Armed with this information, Steve returns to Victoria and insists on applying for admission. Unaware of Caroline's relationship to Steve, Dean Clinton suggests to the faculty that he be admitted for a two-week probationary period, during which they would give him 100 demerits, thus qualifying him for expulsion before Parents Day.
Once enrolled, Steve tries to speak with Caroline, but she refuses to listen to his explanations and tells him she is seeking an annulment. Later in music class, stodgy Professor Hendricks attempts to discredit Steve, whose presence on campus has created a furor among the students, by ordering him to write his own version of the Scottish ballad, Loch Lomond, and teach class the next day. With help from several talented students, Carlos, the music teaching assistant, and Steve's friend Harry James and his orchestra, Steve meets Hendricks' challenge and is awarded an A.
That night, Steve visits Caroline at her house but is turned out after Willis Evans, a conservative botany professor who is in love with Caroline, arrives. When Caroline realizes that Steve is hiding in her closet, spying on her, she commands Willis' Great Dane, Duke, to guard the closet door while reminding Steve that unless he is back in his room in five minutes, he will be expelled for breaking curfew. With only seconds to spare, Steve manages to trick the dog long enough to escape back to his dingy basement room. Steve is then visited by George, who threatens to vilify him in the press unless he finishes his songs. When Steve swears deadly revenge on the person who hired Maria, however, George backs down and offers to help Steve do his homework.
Concerned about the approaching Parents Day, Dean Clinton commands Steve's professors, who have penalized him with only fifty-five demerits, to bear down on him. To that end, Madame Zarka, Steve's ruthlessly strict eurythmics instructor, forces him to wear a tutu and dance with the female students. Steve is embarrassed and unwilling to humiliate himself, but when Zarka starts giving out demerits, he proceeds to do a ballet number. A now desperate Dean Clinton asks Caroline to go out with Steve and ensure that he arrives back at Victoria after the curfew. Caroline agrees, but during the evening, Steve convinces her of his innocence, and as they drive back to school, they make plans to return to California together. Unbeknownst to them, Maria is on campus looking to expose George, who has been trying to get rid of her, to Steve. At the same time, a campus sorority descends on Steve's room hoping to initiate him, and Jean Allenwood and a student Janis show up with news that her parents (mother played by Margaret Dumont) and Dean Clinton are on their way over to inspect the room to confirm if the rumors of a male student being on campus are true. In a nod to the Marx Brothers, as Steve desperately hides all the women in two closets and keeps Caroline from discovering Maria, George unexpectedly arrives. Although Steve succeeds in hiding George and himself and fooling Dean Clinton and the Allenwoods, Maria soon makes her presence known to Caroline, who once again leaves in a fury, with everyone else exiting in a comical parade.
Later, Steve promises to write songs for George's water ballet show on condition that he make Caroline the star. George agrees, and after Maria is finally able to tell Caroline the truth, Caroline happily reunites with Steve. When the water ballet is over, Steve chases George into the water for vengeance, but when Steve remembers that he doesn't know how to swim, Caroline rescues him and gives him a kiss.
Dorothy Kingsley, who wrote the script, had done some writing on Girl Crazy. Jack Cummings brought her on to Bathing Beauty.
There'd been a million writers on it [before me] but the script was just bleh, lying there. They couldn't shoot it, even though they had commitments with Esther Williams and Red Skelton, with Harry James the trumpet player, and with Xavier Cugat the cha-cha-cha man. They had shot the musical numbers and they had no story! They had shot a great number with Xavier Cugat, only nobody in the script had any reason to be there to see this number! I had to think up something and then send a page down [to the set] for them to shoot. It was really wild. That's not the way you should make a picture, on the whole. I had a real baptism of fire. But the picture worked out, it was a big hit, Esther's first big picture.[4]
Skelton was advised to shave his red chest hair for the swimming sequences. He protested and after conferencing with his wife, only cut the hair once the studio paid him $200 in cash and saved all of the curls in a plastic bag.[5] Another scene with Skelton proved difficult to complete with his character trapped in a house with a large aggressive dog outside. The scene was due to be scrapped until Buster Keaton visited the set and quickly suggested a satisfactory resolution.[6]
The pool sequences were shot on location at the Lakeside Country Club in the San Fernando Valley. The film was shot during January and the grass on the rolling country club lawns was dead and brown. Director George Sidney brought in a paint crew and had the dead grass spray-painted green, which lasted the entire week of shooting. However, that ruined the grass, and the studio had to send in crews in the spring to reseed the lawn.[7]
Williams' date to the first preview of the film in Pomona was her soon-to-be husband, Sergeant Ben Gage.[3]
Release
The film premiered at the Astor Theater in New York City. For the event, MGM publicity set up a six-story-tall billboard of Williams diving into Times Square with a large sign that said, "Come on in. The water's fine!"[8]
Critical response
Response for the film was "glowing",[3] as Williams wrote in her autobiography. In a 1944 review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther scoffed at the title but also wrote: "Miss Williams' talents as a swimmer — not to mention her other attributes — make any title the studio wants to put on it okay by us. When she eels through the crystal blue water in a rosy-red bathing suit or splashes in limpid magnificence in the gaudy water carnival which John Murray Anderson has brought to pass, she's a bathing beauty for our money, even though dragged in by the heels. In other words, Bathing Beauty is a colorful shower of music, comedy, and dance. As July pants hotly on June's heels, it is a pleasant refreshment to have at hand."[9]
Box office
Bathing Beauty was a box-office success. According to MGM records, the film earned $3,284,000 in the United States and Canada, and $3,608,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,132,000.[1] It was one of the most popular films of 1946 in France with admissions of 5,438,665.[10]
Home media
Esther Williams emerges from the water during the finale.
The six-minute ballet class sequence was used in The Clown, a 1953 film inspired by The Champ (1931), which stars Skelton as a once-famous Ziegfeld Follies star.
Several moments from the film became famous: swimmers lining one edge of the pool dive in sideways in domino fashion, Williams being introduced and received like Venus emerging from the water, her high swan dive, and her being surrounded by other swimmers who form a circle. The overhead shots of these elaborate choreographed sequences became iconic, especially for Williams and choreographer Busby Berkeley.
María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish-born actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist who rose to international prominence in the 1960s on American television, as well as starring in several films.
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria before and after World War II. He was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur. The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.
Esther Jane Williams was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving.
Abbe Lane is an American singer and actress. Lane was known in the 1950s and 1960s for her revealing outfits and sultry style of performing. Her first marriage was as the fourth wife of Latin bandleader and musician Xavier Cugat, more than thirty years her senior.
Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), primarily directed by Vincente Minnelli, with segments directed by Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, and George Sidney, the film's original director before Minnelli took over. Other directors that are claimed to have made uncredited contributions to the film are Merrill Pye, Norman Taurog, and Charles Walters. It stars many MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams.
You Were Never Lovelier is a 1942 American musical romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. The supporting cast also features Adolphe Menjou, Xavier Cugat and Adele Mara. The music was composed by Jerome Kern and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The picture was released by Columbia Pictures and includes the elaborate "Shorty George" and romantic "I'm Old Fashioned" song and dance sequences.
"Green Eyes" is a popular song, originally written in Spanish under the title "Aquellos Ojos Verdes" by Adolfo Utrera and Nilo Menéndez in 1929. The English translation was made by Eddie Rivera and Eddie Woods in 1931.
Million Dollar Mermaid is a 1952 American biographical drama film about the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr. from a screenplay by Everett Freeman. The music score was by Adolph Deutsch, the cinematography by George Folsey and the choreography by Busby Berkeley.
A Date with Judy is a 1948 American Technicolor musical romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Wallace Beery, Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor. The film is based on the radio series of the same name.
This Time for Keeps is a 1947 American romantic musical film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante, Johnnie Johnston and opera singer Lauritz Melchior. Produced by MGM, it is about a soldier, returning home from war, who does not wish to work for his father's opera company or to continue his relationship with his pre-war lover.
Neptune's Daughter is a 1949 American Technicolor musical romantic comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalbán, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat and Mel Blanc. It was directed by Edward Buzzell, and features the debut of the Academy Award–winning song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Frank Loesser.
Dangerous When Wet is a 1953 American live-action/animated musical comedy film starring Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas and Jack Carson, directed by Charles Walters and featuring an animated swimming sequence starring Williams with the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry.
Two Girls and a Sailor is a 1944 American musical film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Van Johnson, June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven. Set on the American homefront during World War II, it's about two singing sisters who create a lavish canteen to entertain members of the military, thanks to financial contributions from a mysterious donor. The picture features a host of celebrity performances, including Jimmy Durante doing his hallmark "Inka Dinka Doo", Gracie Allen, and Lena Horne. Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Thrill of a Romance is an American Technicolor romance film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1945, starring Van Johnson, Esther Williams and Carleton G. Young, with musical performances by Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra and opera singer Lauritz Melchior. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe and written by Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman.
Texas Carnival is a 1951 American Technicolor musical film directed by Charles Walters and starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton and Howard Keel.
On an Island with You is a 1948 American musical Technicolor romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe. It stars Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalbán, Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Beaumont and Jimmy Durante.
Maria Elena "Lina" Romay was an American actress and singer.
The Clown is a 1953 American drama film starring Red Skelton with Jane Greer and Tim Considine, and directed by Robert Z. Leonard. The story is derived from The Champ (1931).
Her Kind of Man is a 1946 American crime film noir directed by Frederick De Cordova, and starring Dane Clark, Janis Paige and Zachary Scott. The film is not to be confused with His Kind of Woman (1951) starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.
Chica, Chica, Boom, Chic is a song composed by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon and recorded by Carmen Miranda for her 1941 film That Night in Rio.
References
1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
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