weezeralfalfa
Released 5 years after Esther Williams' initial starring role in a 'swimusical', in the very well received "Bathing Beauty", Red Skelton is again prominently featured, and Xavier Cugat's band again has several lively productions. This time, instead of a romance between Esther's and Red's character, a more standard formula plot has Esther being wooed by famous polo player Jose O'Rourke, in the form of conventional handsome and suave Ricardo Montalban, while Red is pursued by Betty Garrett's typecast man-hungry character, who mistakenly believes him to be O'Rourke. You will likely recognize Betty from her role as a man-hungry taxi driver, who tries to bed Frank Sinatra, in "On the Town", released the same year. Ricardo and Esther make a rather bland romantic couple, compared with Red and Betty, in which Red has to pretend he is a South American, knowing only a few words of Spanish, as Cugat, for example, soon figures out. Despite all the glaring clues that Red can't be whom she thinks he is, Betty incongruously continues to believe, until near the end, that Red is O'Rourke. Cugat's band makes several appearances, the first 2 being especially noteworthy, and are the clear highlights of this film for me. Included in the first production is a nameless dance couple, who do a fancy dance routine, in very colorful outfits. This production is actually split into two parts, with Betty the primary featured performer in the second part, with some input by Red. The second production features a primitive jungle tribe theme, with some wild dancing to "Jungle Rhumba". There is a water show near the end, but it's nothing special. Besides Cugat's productions, the several musical numbers were composed by Frank Loesser. Betty's character expresses her fascination with men, in "I Love Those Men": part of Cugat's first production. During the swimsuit fashion show, Loesser's composition "On a Slow Boat to China" is sometimes heard in the background. Believe it or not, the words were considered by the Hays commission to be too racy to be sung by the principle characters to each other! Ricardo later expresses his fascination with Esther in "My Heart Beats Faster", as they dance around a bit. In their respective private residences, First Ricardo and Esther, then Red and Betty, sing the well-remembered counterpoint duet "Baby, It's Cold Outside", in playful scenes. The story is that Loesser actually composed this in '44, but it remained a privately-done song until MGM bought it for this film. It actually won the Oscar for Best Original Song, in a year with thin competition.In place of Red's joining a ballet class, in "Bathing Beauty", here he joins an otherwise all female swimming team doing warm-ups beside the pool, in order to escape a man chasing him. Not as amusing as the ballet caper , but will probably please Red's fans, he ending up with his neck pinned under a croquet wicket!The section where Red has to actually play polo, supposedly as O'Rourke, is totally unbelievable, if amusing. First, it takes a team of people to get him on a horse, which turns out to be a jumper, rather than a polo pony. This is merely the first of several horses, including a bucking bronco, that Red rides on and off the field of play. During the match, Red falls off his horse and is dragged by his stirrup for a spell, breaks his mallet, and hits a bag of polo balls on the sideline, scatting balls all over the field. Nonetheless, he manages to score enough goals to give the South American team a win, and thus preserve the reputation of the real O'Rourke, who has been kidnapped by a gang, who have bet on the South American team losing.(South America apparently is being treated as one country!)Keenan Wynn, aside from acting as the occasional narrator, has a rather minor character role....This was the second and last pairing of Esther and Ricardo as the leads.This film is presently part of a DVD collection of some of Esther's films.
mark.waltz
A terrific foursome lead the way in this screwball musical about mistaken identity of the most absurd kind. It all concerns a handsome polo player Ricardo Montalban who romances bathing suit manufacturer Esther Williams while silly Red Skelton is pursued by her flirtatious sister Betty Garrett who mistakes Skelton, ridiculously so, for the Latin Lothario.While the entire cast is excellent, it is the effervescent Garrett who stands out. Many of MGM's featured players or second leads stole the show from the star, and Garrett is up there with Virginia O'Brien, Ann Miller and Janis Paige as the sassy flirty gal who may not land the hero but takes off with the best material. Garrett shines in the Latin themed I Love Those Men, and even in an outtake cut from the film shows her metal. The Oscar Winning Baby, It's Cold Outside features all four leads and is winningly staged. Of course, Esther swims, and the finale is lavishly staged.Montalban, the most likable Hispanic actor of his time, has an easy-going charm that never seems cocky or smug. He sings and dances with ease and looks great in tight clothing. Skelton deliberately speaks with the worst Spanish accent on film but is over-shadowed by Mel Blanc who is extremely funny using his Speedy Gonzalez voice. While Keenan Wynn opens and closes the film as a sort of narrator, he is rather wasted. That is really a demotion considering three years before he was one of the leads in Easy to Wed. Mike Mazurki adds his typical dumb mug performance as a gangster trying to fix the final polo match which has some very funny slapstick sight gags.
bkoganbing
Two of MGM's biggest box office attractions teamed once again for the film Neptune's Daughter in 1949. Esther Williams and Red Skelton certainly brought their own respective fan bases for this film. With these two MGM was fighting the good fight against the increasing drawing power of television which would certainly soon claim Skelton.Esther Williams and scatterbrained mantrap sister Betty Garrett are peddling a new line of swimwear and no one could certainly model her own designs better than Esther Williams both in and out of the water. But she's constantly worried about all the boyfriends that Garrett is finding and then discarding. Better to keep a close eye on her.Enter masseuse Red Skelton at the club resort that Williams and Garrett are staying. He's got no luck with women at all. So he seeks advice from South American polo player Ricardo Montalban who's a devil with the ladies. Red not only seeks advice, but he appropriates Montalban's character name of Jose O'Rourke. That causes some real problems when Montalban courts Williams and Williams learns somebody named Jose O'Rouke has been calling on Garrett.Red has some really inventive comedy routines one involving tricking Mike Mazurki into thinking he needs a spinal adjustment while he's being held against his will. And the climax is a hilarious polo match where Skelton substitutes for Montalban in a polo match where gamblers are trying for a fix. I've seen many different sports lampooned in film, but Neptune's Daughter is the only film around that took to satirizing polo.Frank Loesser who was really coming into his own as a writer of both music and lyrics did the score for Neptune's Daughter. Loesser had a big hit in Charley's Aunt running on Broadway and was working on another project when Neptune's Daughter came out, a musical based on Damon Runyon characters called Guys And Dolls. Played instrumentally, but not sung is his previous hit On A Slow Boat To China done during a fashion show sequence involving Esther Williams's swim suits.And Loesser brought home the film's Oscar for best song with Baby, It's Cold Outside. Montalban and Williams do it first and later there's a comic obbligato from Skelton and Garrett. The big selling record for this song came from Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark in a duet recorded just before Clark was killed in a plane crash. It's a delightful and bouncy number that readily lends itself to satire. I have bootleg recording of a radio broadcast where Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester do it. Turn that one over in your minds.Topping it all off is a water ballet by Esther and they typically got bigger and better in films as she tried to top herself. Williams was really fortunate that her career was with MGM because it would only be a major studio that would have invested the production values in her films.Because of that this very charming musical comedy holds up very well for today's audience.
ryancm
Hey, this is a topper. One of the best of WILLIAMS swim films, mainly because it has the great Betty Garrett. Her scenes are wonderful, and she and Red Skelton are wonderful together. The Red and Betty seduction scene where he's trying to act like a Spaniard is sensational and wait until he tastes Garretts appetizer. Sheer genius. The new DVD copy is terrific, sharp and clear. Yes, its MGM's clean-cut studio bound movie, but it's what MGM did best. Haven't seen the other WILLIAMS movies in the collection yet, but am looking forward. Also looking forward to another volume and hope that her best, yet under-rated SKIRTS AHOY is included. See this for pure fun.
