Back to School Again - Bathing Beauty

MGM, 1944
Starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Basil Rathbone, and Bill Goodwin
Directed by George Sidney
Music and Lyrics by various

We hit the books - in and out of school - with two very different takes on academics this week. This was Esther Williams' first starring role in a movie. It was originally Skelton's vehicle, but the MGM brass were so enchanted by her performance, they changed the billing and the title to focus on Williams. Were they right, or is this story of a man enrolling in a girl's school all wet? Let's begin at a pool in Los Angeles and find out...

The Story: Songwriter Steve Elliot (Skelton) is in love with swimming teacher Caroline Brooks (Williams) and badly wants to marry her, to the point where he intends to give up his writing career. New York producer George Adams (Rathbone) is horrified. Steve claimed he'd write songs for his big upcoming water pageant before he met Caroline. He hires actress Mario Dorango to storm into their wedding and claim she and Steve are married. Caroline believes it and flies off for her job at a girls' college in New Jersey.

Determined to be near her, Steve manages to use a loophole in the college's charter to be accepted as a student. The teachers do everything they can to get him expelled before Parents Day in early October, from challenging to re-write a Scottish ballad to having him wear a tutu and dance in the ballet class, but nothing works. He keeps trying to talk to Caroline, who refuses to listen to him. Dean Clinton (Nana Bryant) asks Caroline to take Steve out and keep him away so he can get caught sneaking in after hours. Caroline does...but she begins to wonder if maybe she hasn't made a mistake, at least until half the school ends up in Steve's room!

The Song and Dance: There's a lot of entertaining numbers to be found in this unusual academic tale. Skelton has a great time loose in the girl's school. His best moment is probably in the ballet class, where he tries to dance along with the girls in his ridiculous pink tutu, only to get a sticky paper stuck on his hand and be unable to get rid of it. Williams participates in two dynamic water ballets, including the gorgeous one at the end. Rathbone is appropriately smarmy as the Broadway producer who's thinking more of himself than his supposed friend.

Favorite Number: We open well with singer Carlos Ramerez performing "Magic is In the Moonlight" with Xavier Cugat and his orchestra in a romantic Spanish-tinged number. Organ virtuoso Ethel Smith performs wonderful renditions of "By the Waters of Minnetonka" on her instrument before being joined by the girls with South American instruments for the Latin-tinged "Tico-Tico no Fuba." Skelton's challenge in music class to re-write the ballad "Loch Lomond" results in "I'll Take the High Note," a swinging routine with Skelton, the girls, Ethel Smith, and Harry James and His Orchestra.

By far the most famous number from this one is the big water ballet finale. It's pretty obvious Busby Berkeley choreographed this one. There's splashes of color, girls in sizzling pink and green against blinding blue waters, making formations as Williams glides through the center. It's a harbinger of many such dazzling water spectacles her her movies to come, and it's still gorgeous to look at to this day.

What I Don't Like: The plot is annoying as heck. You have to wonder if Caroline really loved him, given she didn't even give him a chance to explain suddenly having a wife. Despite MGM building up Williams, she's a bit dull in a thankless role and really doesn't have that much to do beyond her water ballet. It's really still Skelton's show. This kind of seems like MGM tossed together whichever actors and orchestras were sitting around the studio and threw them into a thin school plot that's colored with a tinge of Latin from Cugat and his people.

The Big Finale: Great numbers make this mainly for fans of Skelton, Williams, or the big MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's.

Home Media: The two Esther Williams collections featuring this movie are currently out of print. Your best bet is streaming or looking for it occasionally on TCM.

DVD - Silver Screen Icons: Esther Williams Vol. 1
Amazon Prime