On an Island with You Reviews

You know, On an Island with You had a bit of potential to be much better, possibly one of the best of Esther Williams’ aquatic musicals, if it hadn’t been for Peter Lawford. His dour, creepy performance takes a problematic aspect of the script and amplifies it tenfold. The script, always a weak link in star vehicle musicals of any kind, throws in various musical guests (including Xaiver Cugat, who seems to be in all of these), comedic sidekicks (this one trades out Red Skelton for Jimmy Durante), and impossibly attractive leads (Ricardo Montalban is a walking/talking definition of RAWR in this, and Cyd Charisse is always lovely). But the most unsettling part of this is a brief sequence in the film in which Lawford’s love-struck naval technical advisor abducts Williams’ movie star and tries to romance her.

This segment of the film could have been glossed over or paved over more easily if the actors involved had been committed and interested in their parts. Williams is actively engaged throughout, giving a warm, winning performance. She’s not much of an actress, but she seems to have loosened up before the camera and always manages to make her swimming set pieces into something transfixing. Lawford is completely uninterested, delivering the entire film in a blank monotone with no feeling or recognizable human speech pattern, as if he’s been replaced by an android. His lack of a performance makes the romantic entanglements of the film that much worse.

Montalban and Charisse are the lovers pining away in the strange game of romantic musical chairs that Island plays. Montalban and Williams have an appealing chemistry, and he holds his own with Charisse in their big dance number together. A lead with his same kind of interest in the part and positive demeanor would have only made things better. And Charisse, normally wooden as an actress, is given things to play well within her limited range, along with two dance numbers which remind us why she was a star in the first place. It’s the things that work well in Island that make me think it had more potential, that make it entertaining and enjoyable, but one can’t forgive those questionable gender politics and Lawford.