Bathing Beauty
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1944) Dir. George Sidney
Blu-ray: Warner Archive $21.99
Hollywood history tells us that Bathing Beauty was intended as a Red Skelton musical-comedy seemingly inspired by aspects of Charley’s Aunt but when a new sensation, swimming champion Esther Williams, was brought in as leading lady, it was hastily rewritten and aquatic sequences beefed up (good idea) to augment the litany of big bands (many of them Latin-flavored, this was the era of the Good Neighbor Policy) and the title changed from Mr. Coed to what we have now but history can be simply rewritten thanks to the new Warner Archive Blu-ray: the real star here is Technicolor. The restoration from the original negatives is so astoundingly remarkable that you can sit back and almost taste, hear, and smell the colors as well as see them.
The plot, such as it is, and be forewarned, if this had been the script for a 1966 Elvis Presley vehicle, you’d say, “Hey, this is the silliest one yet!”: Songwriter Red Skelton and swimming instructor Esther Williams are at the altar, and they both intend to quit their jobs after marriage, but lurking producer Basil Rathbone needs more songs out of Red to keep his shows out of the red, so he conjures up a lady who claims to already be Mrs. Skelton (and who has three red-haired children as evidence), causing Miss Williams to flee back to her all-girl’s school to instruct young ladies in the fine art of synchronized underwater dancing, only Red enrolls in the school on a technicality and tries to woo Esther back by clowning, mugging, dancing, singing, pantomiming, and dragging Harry James and his orchestra into a school pep rally; typical college stuff like that. Naturally, Esther relents and agrees to star in a massive aquacade since she already has the swimsuit for it.
In case we didn’t emphasize it enough, the Technicolor is really the star here, and as bright a star as you’ll find. With other studios releasing massive boxed sets of films, Warner Archive could do worse than considering a big box just of their Technicolor restorations, that’s how wonderful they’ve all been. That said, there are a variety of popular bands of the day on display; in addition to the aforementioned Mr. James, highlights include Xavier Cugat (who does a bit of his famous cartooning as well) and a real wow, Ethel Smith, late of the Hit Parade we’re told, who plays a smattering of bring-down-the-house numbers on her Hammond organ, including her familiar hit Tico Tico.
Famously, here in the Balcony we’ve had a love-hate relationship with Red Skelton; we appreciate his talent and his go-for-anything approach to comedy, but he often is simply too overbearing to take (those “Whistling” pictures are nigh unwatchable). That said, this film showcases all the things he does best and we were never tempted to reach for the fast-forward button. As for Miss Williams, we’ll admit, we are not overly familiar with her films, but in addition to remarkable swimming prowess she’s attractive and has undeniable movie-star charisma. I’m not sure we’d pay to see her as Lady Macbeth, but for what this film called for, we liked her a lot.
As it often does, the Warner Archive filled out the disc with some fun extras, including a long (47 min.) interview with Esther Williams by Robert Osborne and a pair of vintage 1944 shorts, the wonderful Main Street Today 2-reeler with Ray Collins as a factory owner trying to beef up production to help win the war, and Mouse Trouble with Tom & Jerry, plus the original Bathing Beauty theatrical trailer.
Here in the Balcony, we will personally stand in line for the next Warner Archive Technicolor restorations.
