Starring Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon, and Jesse White
Directed by Richard Thorpe and Busby Berkeley
Music and Lyrics by various
Williams had wanted to play Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman for years. Kellerman was more-or-less the blueprint for Williams' later success, a champion amateur swimmer of the early 20th century who later became a star on Broadway and in the movies. Williams brought Kellerman herself in to convince MGM that it would be perfect for her next extravaganza. They went all out with this one, bringing in Victor Mature from Fox as her leading man and letting Busby Berkeley go wild with water pageantry. How well does a beloved swimming star of one era represent another? Let's begin at the Kellerman Conservatory in a suburb of Sydney, Australia as little Annette (Donna Corocan), who was stricken with polio and walks in braces, watches girls her own age dancing and find out...
The Story: Annette's musician father Frederick (Pidgeon) finds her swimming in a near-by bay. He's against it at first, until she insists it's made her legs stronger. Indeed, Annette (Williams) swims so often, she's eventually able to walk normally and join the ballet class. By her teens, she's winning amateur swimming championships.
After a downturn in the Australian economy causes Fredrick to lose most of his students, he sells the conservatory and takes a job in London. When the job falls through, Annette tells promoter Jimmy Sullivan (Mature), whom she met on the boat going there, that she'll swim to Greenwich as an ad for his boxing kangaroo. Annette's feat is a far bigger success than any kangaroo, prompting Sullivan to take her and her father to New York to star in the enormous Hippodrome theater. Manager Alfred Harper (David Brian) tells her she needs to be better-known in New York before they'll take her on.
Annette attempts another long swim in Boston, but gets in hot water with the local authorities for wearing a then-daring one-piece bathing suit. She gains so much notoriety from the indecency trial, Jimmy showcases her in carnival diving shows. He's more threatened when a lecturer wants to do something classier and finally walks out on Annette. She doesn't have long to be upset. The Hippodrome finally calls, asking her to be a specialty number. She and her lavish shows are huge successes, enough for Hollywood to call. Tragedy strikes as she's making one of her movies, finally bringing Jimmy back to her side and making Alfred realize who she really loves.
The Song and Dance: This is more like it. For once, Williams' big numbers aren't shoehorned into a barely-there plot, but are the reason the plot exists. Despite a lot of the story being fabricated, it's still five times more interesting than something like Thrill of a Romance. No wonder Williams so badly wanted to play Kellerman. She's equally good showing off those one-piece bathing suits in Berkeley's aquatic fantasias and putting Jimmy in his place. Mature never did fit well in musicals, but he's not bad as the slightly smarmy promoter who falls for this Broadway mermaid. Pidgeon and White do equally well as Annette's doting father and the poor assistant promoter who keeps getting stuck with the worst parts of Jimmy's schemes. The costumes are gorgeous and for once, mostly historically accurate, including the infamous one-piece bathing suit that caused such a scandal, and the Technicolor is some of the best from any MGM movies of the 50's.
The Numbers: The film starts with the students at Kellerman's music school playing various classical pieces, including the miniature ballerinas Annette so envies. She does so well with swimming, she's eventually able to join them. Ballet makes a brief return later in the film at the Hippodrome. Annette admires ballerina Anna Pavlova (danced by another famous ballet diva, Maria Tallchief), who swirls to a stunning version of her famous The Dying Swan in a massive white tutu.
Of course, the real reason this movie exists is for those three famous Berkeley extravaganzas. The first one has Williams, clad from the crown on her head to her glittering toes in gold sequins, doing huge dives among spurting fountains. Annette begins the second to The Nutcracker gliding around poles in a flowing tutu. She ends up swimming into an enormous clam. The third brings in the chorus and tons of red and yellow smoke as girls in yellow swimsuits and boys in red briefs do Berkeley formations around Williams in a glistening ruby bathing suit. This one ends with a lot of scarily high dives off swings and the chorus surrounding Williams on an enormous sparkling platform.
Trivia: In real life, Kellerman's parents encouraged her swimming to help with her weak legs and were the ones who enrolled her in classes. She had already been involved with show business long before she met Jimmy Sullivan, having done mermaid shows and diving exhibitions as a teenager in Melbourne. She did attempt to swim the English Channel several times, but never made it across. The truth of her Boston publicity stunt seems to be in doubt as well. Kellerman also protested that Jimmy Sullivan was a quiet, unassuming man and not a loud-mouthed huckster. She did get hurt when a tank cracked and broke during the filming of A Daughter of the Gods, but only had cuts and bruises, not a damaging spine injury. (And Sullivan was never in charge of Rin Tin Tin!)
Kellerman's not the only one who got injured during the filming of one of her movies. Williams wound up in a body cast after one of the high dives during the first number with the fountains, thanks to that huge crown being too heavy for the stunt.
Of Kellerman's movies, only Venus of the South Seas and part of Neptune's Daughter exist today.
What I Don't Like: Though the story is more interesting than most of Williams' films, it's still a mess of biographical cliches. Those three numbers are so incredible, I wish they could have gotten another one in there somewhere, maybe in the beginning in Australia or in the end before the tank cracked. Then again, this is already pretty long for a biography, especially in the second half when the water ballets end and the romance picks up. Also, there's the simple fact that Kellerman isn't even all that well-remembered in her native Australia anymore, let alone in the US.
The Big Finale: Who am I to argue with a Million Dollar Mermaid? Williams thought this was her best film, and I have to agree with her. Highly recommended for her fans, ballet lovers, or fans of the big musicals of the 1950's and 60's.
Home Media: Warners seems to agree with Williams as well. This may be her easiest movie to find, on streaming and on disc via the Warner Archives.
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