Bathing Beauty

Ziegfeld Follies was my first cinematic glimpse of Esther Williams in action, and she was wildly hypnotic. A water nymph in three dimensions, a woman making incredibly taxing and athletic movements look seamless and smooth. It was as if the water and her body were in an extended romantic dance, and this brief segment made me curious as to what treasures her films would hold. So I decided to start with Bathing Beauty, Williams’ first major film role, and the one that launched her as a bankable aquacade musical star.

Is Bathing Beauty a good movie? Well, not really, but it is a solidly built piece of entertainment, this will become a common thread in discussing Williams’ films. The film is obviously a patch-work, originally intended as a vehicle for Red Skelton called Mr. Co-Ed but retooled midway to add in more Williams aquatics, the film feels of two-minds at any given point. The story is a highly improbable thing, as can only be found in musicals or screwball comedies, which exists mostly to string together a series of amusing diversions for Skelton to mug his way through before finally handing the ridiculous finale over to Williams for a fire-and-water spectacular.

There are several strange moments in Bathing Beauty, like a series of random musical guests like Xaiver Cugat, Carlos Ramirez, or Harry James & His Orchestra, and a wasted Basil Rathbone preening as a fey villain, who doesn’t truly have much to do. None of this is a big concern as by this time MGM had already processed and streamlined the various formulas for their star vehicles. Even if an entire movie, like this one, isn’t that great, it still has charm to spare, a propulsive energy, and bright popping colors to distract from the thin plot, goofy dialog, and wasted supporting talent. Bathing Beauty is all surface spectacle, really silly and fun spectacle, but nothing that lasts very long in the memory aside from the grand finale.