Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

JohnHowardReid NOTES: Marjorie Fowler is Nunnally Johnson's daughter, Gene Fowler, Jr. is his son-in-law. Guy and Constance Jones also wrote There Was A Little Man, filmed in the same year it was published - 1948 - as Luck of the Irish. Fred Clark who plays Basil was not a professional actor but a real-life butler - for Humphrey Bogart.SYNOPSIS: Not a clone of "Miranda" at all. In any event, "Miranda" was not published in the U.S. until 1948, two years after the Jones' book. In this one, the mermaid is a device - a charming device - to circumvent the Hays Office. It's a sadly wistful little sex "comedy" of youth and old age, beautifully summed up in William Powell's line, murmured with an off-hand sadness, an almost casual regret: "Fifty - the old age of youth; the youth of old age."COMMENT: A much under-rated and misunderstood film. I blame myself too. First time I saw it, I found it a complete mystery that such a slight piece of whimsy could have been adapted from a novel of no less than 242 pages. Did Johnson throw all the novel's amusing characters and incidents away, I wondered, to concentrate on the one-joke mermaid? Ah, youth! Actually, the mermaid doesn't come in for thirty minutes - charmingly introduced in what would have been Irving Pichel's one really inspired piece of direction, were it not undermined by Mrs Fowler's intercutting a banal reaction shot of William Powell. But even daughters cannot ruin Johnson's delightful idea of making the mermaid silent. What a contrast to the garrulous Miranda! True, Miranda sings, but off-camera, a siren song deftly blended by the voices of Winifred Harris and Lydia Bilbrook. Miss Blyth herself is not one of my favorites, but Russell Metty's soft, flattering photography lends her face an endearingly perfect vulnerability. Her appeal to Powell is from the very start, protective.Powell's performance is one of the most skillful of his career. He and Johnson manage to balance between creating an involving, amusing and sympathetic character without toppling into farce, disdain or outright unbelievability. The support players and characters are a big assist here. Clinton Sundberg is most amusing, yet totally credible, and makes the most of his richly witty lines. Lumsden Hare is a more familiar type - the stage Englishman - but who could fail to respond to his irritated running gag and the perversely named "Flying Squad" which is passed by everything on the road?This film was obviously made on a tight "A" budget. The sets are both artistic yet dramatically functional. All the same, obvious backdrops and special effects reveal to the trained eye that the film was entirely lensed in the studio. Even the underwater location sequences in Florida were made by a second unit with an extremely-difficult-to-detect double for Miss Blyth (who does her own swimming in the close-ups). Pichel's direction, alas, is somewhat ponderous and heavy-handed, altogether too emphatic, although players like William Powell most of the time and Clinton Sundberg all the time are able to deliver their lines with just the right touch of casual off-handedness that embellishes dry wit.Metty's superlative photography has already been commented upon. It only remains to laud the delightful music which contributes so much to both pace and atmosphere; and the technical wizardry of the mermaid itself.

bkoganbing When William Powell was lent out to Warner Brothers for Life With Father it marked for him a transition to roles more suited for his age. In her memoirs Esther Williams noted that Powell felt very ridiculous trying to play a convincing love scene with Esther. MGM lent him out to Universal for Mr. Peabody And The Mermaid and while the film is not a classic like Life With Father, it is still a charming fantasy that holds up well after over 60 years.The film is told in flashback by Powell narrating his involvement with a mermaid to a sympathetic psychiatrist Art Smith. Powell is on vacation in the Caribbean with wife Irene Hervey and he's finding it hard to admit he's reaching that crucial age of 50. In real life Powell was 56 when he made Mr. Peabody And The Mermaid.Hugh French who's a vacationing lizard and would be gigolo puts the moves on Irene. Powell gets to do some deep sea fishing and catches a mermaid by hooking her tail. The mermaid is Ann Blyth who is absolutely enchanting as she steals the film without a word of dialog. Her facial expressions are priceless signifying wonder and terror and both at the same time. Blyth gets a temporary home in the resort aquarium and Hervey suspects Powell of trying to romance vacationing Broadway singer Andrea King. King in fact gets to meet Blyth and she's not quite the same after that.This fantasy had elements of it in the Ron Howard film Splash, but Mr. Peabody And The Mermaid will still delight audiences even today. I only wish Universal Studios had invested in some color cinematography.

Hellotink I first saw this film when I was 10 years old and I am now pushing 60's. I have only seen it a couple of times since then. It is one of those little known "GEMS" which is hidden away in time. This magical film takes you to a place where mermaids are real and childhood dreams do come true. William Powell,plays a man in his 50's who finds a beautiful mermaid and decides to take her home with him. Ann Bythe plays the mermaid, who will steal your heart. I hope more people ask about this incredible fantasy so maybe it will come out on DVD. If you believe in fairies,magic and mermaids, this is the movie for you. And if you don't, then you really need to see this film. Please, Great"God of the DVD'S" release your powers and grant us this wonderful film on DVD.

barbarella70 Slightly bizarre little '40's comedy about a middle-aged married man's mid-life crisis solved by the discovery of a young mermaid while fishing in the Caribbean. William Powell (The Thin Man series) carries the picture on his charm alone and Ann Blyth (Veda in Mildred Pierce) makes a very cute and seductive sea creature. Some droll set pieces -Peabody's attempt to purchase a swim top for his catch, the various encounters with the busy-body's who come to snoop- work quite nicely and Powell actually creates some genuine moments of heartfelt desire but it runs out of steam before long, turns dark, then ends with a thud. Regardless, the film is a harmless little buried treasure and more than worth a look.