Million Dollar Mermaid Reviews

Dropping the comedy in favor of drama, Million Dollar Mermaid might be the perfect fusion of elements to best explain Esther Williams’ star appeal. Using the life of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman as a loose frame, Million Dollar Mermaid lets Williams act well within her range, provides her a top-notch supporting cast, and gives her a series of spellbinding, daring, and iconic water ballets to perform. Granted, at times the pacing can drag a little, but Williams finally seems to have found her footing as an actress, and MGM has found the perfect balance in her winning formula.

It helps that Million Dollar Mermaid actually has a big-name director, Mervyn LeRoy, unlike so many of her films which were directed by second and third-string journeymen at the studio. In addition to LeRoy, Busby Berkeley staged the various water ballets, which would explain why they’re more elaborate, ambitious, and ornate this time around. Each segment finds Berkeley’s geometric shapes swirling around the star as she leaps, drops, and rises out of the pool into the center of these patterns. No more impeccable an image of the surreal charms of Williams’ film can be found than a sequence which sees her rising on a platform adorned with sparklers in the middle of a pool.

Berkeley and Williams were a match made in cinematic heaven. By her own admission, she wasn’t given the directors or material to stretch or enable her capabilities as an actress, but she was smart enough to know that her charms and talents were entirely based on her athleticism and pin-up looks. Million Dollar Mermaid is worth viewing simply for the numerous scenes of Williams floating through the water. The “Fountain and Smoke” scene may just be the greatest number in all of Williams’ oeuvre.

No one goes into a Williams film for the dramatics, and Million Dollar Mermaid features its fair share of terrible dialog and inert action. The love stories in her films depended a lot on the men in her films, Red Skelton was never a believable romantic interest, Ricardo Montalban, Van Johnson, and Fernando Lamas were much better choices. Victor Mature livens things up, and Williams is clearly enjoying feeding off of his energy, but the film sidelines him for too long during the second act. His absence punctures a hole in the film, and it makes up for this by throwing a large series of aquatic numbers at us, not a bad choice to be honest. Walter Pidgeon and Williams create a sweet bit of father-daughter chemistry that is plausible enough, and it’s nice to see her surrounded by sympathetic co-stars.

Neptune’s Daughter was the first time I noticed that Williams’ combination of beauty and strength being given the proper tools to flower on film, Million Dollar Mermaid sees that blossoming continue. It would reach its apex in later films, but no other film would so perfectly encapsulate what made Esther Williams a movie star. Nor would any other film top the artistry and beauty of these water ballets. Million Dollar Mermaid may not be a great classic, no film of hers truly is, but it’s a dynamite bit of movie star myth-making.