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Bathing
Beauty
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 Rathbone and Jacqueline Dalya |
 Basil Rathbone and Red Skelton |
Adams advises Steve to bury himself in his music: "In times of stress, work is the only solution." But Steve is a man in love. He finds out that Caroline has gone back to her job at Victoria College, a women's college, in New Jersey. Steve goes to see her, but isn't allowed in. He's told that the only men allowed in are parents and teachers.
Not one to give up, Steve learns of a charter for Victoria College allows male students, so he applies to be a student. Red Skelton as the only male student at a women's college is a situation that allows Red to show off his comedic skills. He performs a classic pantomime skit showing the girls how a girl wakes up, gets dressed and puts on make-up. In another hilarious skit, Steve dons a pink tutu and joins the girls in their ballet class. There are also musical numbers disguised as "Music Class." Harry James and his Music Makers even play in one music class at this women's college! (No one is claiming that this is a realistic scenario. Just enjoy it.) Hit Parade organist and "Empress of the Hammond" Ethel Smith also plays a couple of lively numbers.
While Steve is at the women's college, Caroline continues to spurn him, and George Adams presses him to finish the score for the water ballet. Steve says that he hasn't been able to write anything since he met Caroline. He threatens to strangle whoever put the woman with the three boys up to lying at his wedding. Steve is determined to stay at the college until he wins back the love of his life.
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Bathing Beauty Combine beauty, comedy, melody and aquatic perfection with Red Skelton and what have you? A great big plushy, lushy M-G-M musical that will throw you into stitches when it isn't catapulting you into the throes of beauty. Every ingredient that is necessary for a plum-pudding surprise is used with s few extra nuts and raisins thrown in for good measure. There's the beauteous Esther Williams, for instance, whose swimming perfection is sheer artistry and what's more she's good to look at. And there's Red, who is so likably funny, to say nothing of the music of Harry James and Xavier Cugat that keeps things tripping along. The specialties are swell: Ethel Smith at the pipe organ, Carlos Ramirez warbling like mad, Lina Romay with her rhumba-dumba business and Helen Forrest's singing against a background of Harry James's music. And speaking of casts, just take a look at this line-up: Basil Rathbone as the villain, Jean Porter who sings cutely, Bill Goodwin as a professor and "wittle" Donald Meek in a funny "wittle" bit. The story comes way down here in the review because everyone else seems like so many Amazons trampling the poor little thing to death. And yet the picture really couldn't do without it as a motivation highway. It tells us that Red, a song writer, loves and weds Esther only to have the marriage end at the altar when Basil, anxious to have Red continue writing music as per contract, rings in a phoney extra wife and three redheaded improvisos supposed to be Red's progeny. Esther promptly flounces off to become a swimming instructor at a girl's boarding school and Red follows, which is where the fund begins. It's big and bouncy, like an overgrown baby. The numbers are spectacular and—well, you'll love every minute of it. Your Reviewer Says: Bonanza! —Photoplay, September 1944 |
The Dean of Victoria College involves Caroline in a plot to keep Steve Elliott out after hours, so that she'll have an excuse to expel him. Caroline doesn't want to deceive Steve, but reluctantly agrees. They go to a club where Harry James is playing. While Steve talks and dances with Caroline, she warms up to him again.
Driving back to the college, Caroline tells Steve about the plot to expel him for being out after hours. "I didn't know I was going to fall in love with you all over again," she confesses. They plan to pack their bags and leave. Caroline agrees to come to his room later and help him pack.
A zany comedy scene plays out in Steve's room, which involves him hiding women from Caroline, and trying to hide himself from a student's parents. George Adams and Carlos are there, too. One of the women hiding in Steve's closet is Maria, the woman who pretended to be Steve's wife. Caroline discovers her and screams. The student's parents watch, appalled, as Caroline breaks a picture frame over Steve's head, and several girls ride out of a closet on a multi-seat tandem bicycle. Carlos is on the last seat, playing his guitar and singing.
 Red Skelton and Rathbone |
 Red Skelton, Esther Williams, and Rathbone |
Back in George Adam's office Steve says, "I've ruined everything. I've embarrassed the Dean, disgraced Victoria College, and caused Caroline to lose her job." Adams still needs Steve to write songs for the water pageant. Steve agrees to write the songs if Adams will star Caroline in the pageant.
The final scene is the much-discussed water pageant. Just before it starts, Caroline learns the truth about the wedding sabotage, and forgives Steve. The water pageant is a splendid swimming extravaganza in a pool replete with fountains and flames. Caroline and a bevy of bathing beauties swim to a montage of Straus waltzes. (I wonder what happened to the songs Steve was supposed to write?) The film ends with George Adams jumping into the pool to escape Steve Elliott, who has learned that Adams ruined Steve's wedding with Caroline.
The original working title of the film was "Mr. Coed," a title that focused on Red Skelton. After the film was finished, it was previewed in theaters, and the audiences loved the swimming numbers. The studio changed the title to Bathing Beauty to shift the focus to Esther Williams. Esther shared top billing with Red Skelton.
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Bathing Beauty Another one of those musicals in Technicolor which have proved to be winners at the b.o., "Bathing Beauty" has been produced in the lush, lavish manner which, by now, has become as familiar as the Metro trademark. Escapist in all respects, this picture will do from good to excellent business in all situations. With Red Skelton, Harry James and his orch, Xavier Cugat and his band, and newcomer Esther Williams, who will gain prestige through word-of-mouth, for the marquee, this one is long on music, gals and beauty, but short on story and, except for two sequences, comedy. Esther Williams, who formerly appeared in "Andy Hardy" films and briefly in "A Guy Named Joe," is pulled to stardom by her swim-suit straps. Dressed in either bathing togs or street finery, she is a pretty picture indeed. The former swimming champ displays her aquatic and acting abilities in the role of a collegienne who travels the rock road of love with songwriter Red Skelton. She should prove to be an asset in future pictures, on the basis of her performance here. Skelton is his usual effervescent self, bouncing in and out of the script, getting in and out of scrapes with his girl, and the authorities at the college she attends. His two specialty numbers are especially funny: one, where he attends a ballet dancing class with the girls of the school, dressed in a short, fluffy, pink dress with dancing slippers, endeavoring to go through the motions, and being slapped around by the instructress; the other, which he did in vaude for years prior to landing in films, is his impression of a gal getting up in the morning, prettying herself and dressing. Unlike musicals prior to this one, Metro has invested in beautiful sequences rather than cast. Water ballet costumes by Sharaff, and the water ballet, produced under the supervision of John Murray Anderson, are memorable. One sequence with Miss Williams swimming in a pool, and water sockets gushing high, is climaxed by the appearance of torches of flame between each water spray, the water then being turned off and quenching the flames. It is unusual in every respect, probably the most ingenious water ballet sequence ever filmed. Cugat's Latin-American specialties are given added zest by the singing of Lina Romay and the ballading of Carlos Ramirez. James' crew holds the spotlight for five tunes that should have the jitterbugs jumpin', and a tune with Helen Forrest featured. Ethel Smith, Hammond organ specialist, alumna of radio's Hit Parade, swings out with a duo of tunes as well. Altogether, 11 musical numbers run through the picture. Producer Jack Cummings apparently was given the "go-ahead" signal on unlimited expenditures. "Bathing Beauty" is filled with expensive settings and costuming. Director George Sidney could easily have tightened up the script; his modus operandi seems to have been to allow each of the performers as much freedom as possible. Sten. —Variety, May 31, 1944 |
In her book The Million Dollar Mermaid (Simon & Schuster, 1999), champion swimmer Esther Williams wrote that the 90 by 90 foot pool built on Sound Stage 30 for the final swim number cost $250,000. The 25-foot deep pool "had all kinds of special effects equipment for underwater fountains and geysers and fireworks, not to mention a central pedestal on a hydraulic lift." (p. 110)
"Te Quiero Juste" ("Magic is the Moonlight"), sung by baritone Carlos Ramírez, became Esther's signature song. Esther Williams was lovely both in and out of the water in this, her first swimming film. Bathing Beauty was a success at the box office, and launched a series of swimming musicals starring Esther Williams.
It may be interesting to note that synchronized swimming did not exist as a sport until after Bathing Beauty appeared in theaters. The amazing finale showed synchronized swimming as it had never been seen before. Esther Williams wrote, "When Bathing Beauty came out in 1944, moviegoers saw the possibilities of beautifully choreographed dancing in the water with a corps de ballet swimming in unison. About a year later, the first synchronized swimming meet was held in Chicago. Unwittingly, I was godmother to a sport!" (The Million Dollar Mermaid, p. 394)
And what about Basil Rathbone? His part was fairly small, and not terribly interesting. He did a competent job, as usual, but this film really belonged to Red Skelton and Esther Williams.
 Esther Williams, Jacqueline Dalya and Rathbone |
 Jacqueline Dalya and Rathbone |
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Musical Numbers in Bathing Beauty
| "Te Quiero Juste" ("Magic is the Moonlight") Music: María Grever Performed by Xavier Cugat's orchestra, sung by Carlos Ramírez |
"Alma Llanera" Music and Lyrics: Pedro Elías Gutiérrez Sung by Lina Romay and chorus, with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra |
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| "I'll Take the High Note" Music: Johnny Green Lyrics: Harold Adamson Sung by Red Skelton, Jean Porter, Janis Paige, Carlos Ramírez, Helen Forrest, Harry James, and Buddy Moreno Performed by Harry James and his Music Makers, with Ethel Smith on organ |
"Waltz of the Flowers," from The Nutcracker
Suite Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Danced to by Red Skelton and classmates |
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| "Bim, Bam, Bum" Music and Lyrics: Johnny Comacho, Noro Morales, Harold Adamson Sung by Lina Romay with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra |
"Hora Staccato" Music: Grigoras Dinicu and Jascha Heifetz Performed by Harry James and his Music Makers |
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| "Trumpet Blues and Cantabile" Music by Harry James and Jack Matthias Performed by Harry James and his Music Makers |
"I Cried for You" Music and Lyrics: Arthur Freed, Gus Arnheim, and Abe Lyman Sung by Helen Forrest with Harry James and his Music Makers |
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| "By the Waters of Minnetonka: An Indian Love Song" Music: Thorlow Lieurance Lyrics: J.M. Cavanass Performed by Ethel Smith on organ, with MGM Studio Orchestra |
"Boogie Woogie" Music: Carlos Ramírez and Harry James Performed by Harry James and his Music Makers |
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| "Tico-tico no Fubá" Music: Zequinha de Abreu Lyrics: Ervin Drake Performed by Ethel Smith on organ, with MGM Studio Orchestra |
"The Thrill of a New Romance" Music: Xavier Cugat Performed by the Xavier Cugat Orchestra |
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| "Loch Lomand" Traditional Scottish folk song Performed by Ethel Smith on organ Sung by college students (This song was sung by Nigel Bruce in Pursuit to Algiers) |
"Die Fledermaus" Overture Music: Johann Strauss Performed by the MGM Studio Orchestra |
Watch the Bathing Beauty trailer here:
See Page Two for more reviews and photos from the film. See Page Three for pictures of posters, lobby cards and promo photos.
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Bathing Beauty is available on DVD as part of TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Vol. 1
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Images on this page and pages 2 and 3 are from the film Bathing Beauty, copyright Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
