Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with a screenplay by Everett Freeman, this above average Esther Williams vehicle is a biographical drama about Annette Kellerman who, despite being born with crippled legs, became a championship swimmer in her native Australia, achieved notoriety for being the first woman to wear a one-piece bathing suit at a public beach (near Boston), and made several movies in Hollywood.The film, which was Oscar nominated for its Color Cinematography (George Folsey's ninth of thirteen unrewarded Academy Award nominations), features several spectacular Busby Berkeley- choreographed aquatic ballet sequences, ostensibly performed at New York's Hippodrome. Donna Corcoran plays Annette as a ten year old child with a disability.Walter Pidgeon plays Annette's father Frederick Kellerman who, because he lacked the students and the funding necessary to continue his music conservatory, decided to take his daughter to London where he hoped to work as an assistant to another teacher. No mention of her mother is ever made (unless I missed it).On their voyage, the Kellermans met James Sullivan (played by Victor Mature) and his assistant Doc Cronnol (Jesse White), and their boxing kangaroo named Sydney. Sullivan, a carnival man and self promoter, recognized Annette's name immediately per her swimming successes, and tried unsuccessfully to hire her - he'd wanted to promote her as a mermaid from 'Down Under' but her father refused to consider it per his plans for his daughter in the ballet, or as a musician.However, Sullivan's persistence, and the Kellermans' poverty, eventually leads to a publicity stunt whereby Annette swam a 26 mile marathon down the Thames River to Greenwich. With her popularity soaring, Sullivan sells the kangaroo for their passage to New York where he attempts to sell an unprecedented water ballet idea to the Hippodrome's manager Alfred Harper (David Brian).Unable to convince Harper to take a chance, Sullivan takes Annette and her father up the coast to the Boston area where, while attempting to create more publicity, she's arrested (by Charles Watts) for indecent exposure for wearing a one-piece swimsuit in public.During her trial, Annette proposes a compromise design which the judge (James Bell) accepts despite the prosecutor's (Frank Ferguson) protestations. Interest in Annette soars and the four of them make a bundle of money during nine consecutive weeks of swim stroke and diving demonstrations by Annette; Doc is the bookkeeper.But when another promoter named Aldrich (Howard Freeman) proposes a lecture tour for her, Sullivan blows his top; in lieu of proposing to her, he insults her saying she's no more than a trained seal. In the days when airplanes are an untested fascination, he buys one from still another carnival promoter and he and Doc hit the road. Meanwhile, Annette receives a telegram from Harper who's finally willing to give her a change to perform at the Hippodrome, on the same bill as prima donna ballerina Pavlova (Maria Tallchief).Annette's success at the Hippodrome leads to a marriage proposal from Harper, and a movie offer from Hollywood. On their way West, Annette and Harper meet Sullivan, who's heading to Hollywood with Doc himself with their new act, Rin Tin Tin (obviously, this is a fictionalized biography)!An accident on the set of Annette's movie Neptune's Daughter (which was released in 1914, and not to be confused with Williams' own 1949 film), brings Sullivan and her together again. In real life, they were married, but this movie ends with Harper bowing out so that true love can run its course.

utgard14 Entertaining biopic of Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer turned vaudeville and early Hollywood star. Esther Williams is a natural fit for the role and does a fine job. Of course, it's an old-school Hollywood biopic so there's more fiction than fact in their telling of Kellerman's story. That sort of thing never really bothers me but it does some so be advised ahead of time this isn't a documentary. Esther is lovely as ever and has some excellent aquatic numbers choreographed by the great Busby Berkeley. A couple of these numbers are classics that every Esther fan will want to see. The rest of the cast, including Walter Pidgeon, Victor Mature, and Jesse White, is solid. The only problems are that the movie is overlong and the romance with Mature is less than exciting. But it's Esther Williams swimming in Technicolor and that definitely needs to be the headline.

weezeralfalfa One of the best of the film series featuring Esther Williams' swimming talents, that usually included some choreographed 'water ballets'. It has one of the better screen plays for her films, being a tribute to the first international swimming star: Australian-bred Annette Kellerman. No doubt, much of the screen play is quite fictionalized. This is probably especially true of the details of Annette's relationship with her promoter and future husband , American James Sullivan, played by familiar leading man Victor Mature.Although most identified with his several roles in biblical-oriented films or ancient Egyptians, Mature had been paired with some of Hollywood's most glamorous ladies in musicals or romantic dramas for more than a decade, yet was still quite handsome, cocky, and personable, at age 40. Sullivan's participation in a race across the US in a very primitive plane is probably as fictional as his supposed promotion of the German shepherd Rin Tin Tin as a potential Hollywood star....David Brian serves as Sullivan's faithful partner(Alfred) in his various oddball enterprises and world travelings. Walter Pigeon plays Annette's father, who decides to move to the UK, where Annette gains further notoriety in her swimming feats. The real Annette made 3 unsuccessful attempts to become the first woman to swim the difficult English Channel. Donna Corcoran plays Annette as a girl, whose legs are weak from polio and thus she has been encouraged to swim much to strengthen her legs, which eventually fully recover. After consulting several sources, it's still unclear to me if polio was the actual cause of her problem. The polio scare was at its height around the time this film was made, shortly before an effective vaccine became widely available. When Annette was a girl, polio was a much less common cause of muscular paralysis in children, infants being much more commonly affected, and often dying.The film dramatizes Annette's trial for indecent exposure in wearing her customized one piece form-fitting bathing suit on a beach near Boston. She thereafter became noteworthy in serving as a model for the evolution of modern women's beach/swimming attire. Later, she starred in a series of Hollywood silent films, one of which featured her quite nude at times: a first in Hollywood films, but not mentioned in this film. The film ends with Annette in a hospital, trying to recuperate from an incident in which she was propelled through a glass viewing section of a swimming tank, after the glass gave way, seriously injuring her spine. This is based on a true incident. However, it happened in Bermuda, not while making a Hollywood film. Also, the problem wasn't a spinal injury, but severe lacerations from the jagged glass. Interestingly, while making his film, Esther suffered a very severe injury in a broken neck from a high dive, necessitating a long delay in finishing the film. Thus, the nature of the reported injury and its circumstances much more resembled Esther's injury than Annette's. There are, of course, several spectacular 'water ballet' segments, appropriately choreographed by Busby Berkley, in one of his last such roles, having been most active in this regard in the '30s. Included are some signature overhead kaleidoscopic shots... Esther looks quite stunning in all of her outfits, in or out of the water.Present for one performance is Maria Tallchief,as Pavlova: world famous traditional ballet dancer. Maria was, in fact, acknowledged to be such: unexpected for the daughter of an Osage Native American!Various familiar period or classical music pieces are played as background music. "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is periodically heard or sung, serving as the theme song. There is a formulistic rocky period in the Annette-Sullivan relationship, when she has a well-established high class suitor, in contrast to Sullivan's romantic wandering seat-of-the-pants persona.

MartinHafer While my comment above is hardly a glowing endorsement, I liked this movie far more than I thought I ever wood. The movie is a biography of Annette Kellerman, who was a champion swimmer at the turn of the century and created quite a scandal when she began swimming in comfortable bathing suits--something "decent" women didn't do back in her day! From swimming champ to long distance swimmer to movie star, the film follows her career. Ms. Williams does a fine job as does co-star Victor Mature. I think the reason I liked this movie so much was because since it was a bio-pic, much of the usual over-the-top swimming choreography was missing or at least subdued. A decent movie with plenty to hold your interest.