Bathing Beauty was initially planned to be a starring vehicle for Red Skelton but MGM knew Esther Williams was bound for stardom on the screen.

The film was released on Blu-ray by way of the Warner Archive Collection in October. Bathing Beauty is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio with side mattes and a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio track.

Steve Elliot (Red Skelton), a songwriter, is about to quit his job upon marrying college instructor Caroline Brooks (Esther Williams). It doesn’t matter that he’s already hired by New York producer George Adams (Basil Rathbone) to pen the tunes for a water ballet show. Unbeknownst to Steve is that George overheard his conversation with Caroline. What George ends up doing is hiring aspiring actress Maria Dorango (Jacqueline Dalya) to ruin Steve and Caroline’s marriage and claim him as the father of her three red-headed kids. When Maria bursts in, Caroline immediately buys it and returns to Victoria College in New Jersey.

Steve attempts to win her back, only the all-female school denies letting him and Carlos Ramírez into the school. Enter attorney Chester Klazenfrantz (Donald Meek) and Steve and Caroline’s lives are about to change. Despite Victoria College being an all-female school, the charter doesn’t explicitly state it. What does Steve do but use this information to apply for admission. Interestingly enough, Dean Clinton (Nana Bryant) doesn’t know about his marriage to Carolina. Moreover, the dean plans to expel him by Parents Day in two weeks’ time.

The whole situation is just ripe for comedy in Bathing Beauty. Anything that can go wrong will either go wrong or be used to turn it into an opportunity for more laughs. Steve is assigned to a music class with Professor Hendricks (Francis Pierlot). The music professor issues him an order to write his own version of Scottish ballad Loch Lomond, expecting him to fail. Steve comes through on the assignment with a little help from his friends and gets an A.

Most surprisingly is a moment where George visits Steve and is met by talk of deadly revenge. Again, Steve doesn’t know that George hired Maria. Later on, Steve talks with Caroline and it appears they’ve made progress in a reconciliation. It’s at this point where things are about to blow out of comedic proportion. Maria wants to expose George, Steve is due to be initiated into a sorority, and parents are visiting campus after hearing rumors of a male student. Margaret Dumont is playing one of the parents so it’s only perfect sense that Bathing Beauty pays homage to her starring in Marx Brothers comedies.

Everything comes to a climax with Bathing Beauty‘s iconic water ballet, parodied many times over the years. Again, this is the film that turned Esther Williams into a star. In another universe, where World War II and the Holocaust never happen, Williams could have been an Olympic star instead–she was a competitive swimmer prior to turning to acting. But because WWII happened, Williams became MGM’s newest star of the screen and appeared in many Technicolor films. Among those films were Take Me Out to the Ball Game with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.

Red Skelton and Esther Williams have solid chemistry in Bathing Beauty but the studio was smart to recognize that Williams–in her third screen outing for MGM–was going to be a star.

Bonus Features

• TCM PRIVATE SCREENINGS with ESTHER WILLIAMS, hosted by Robert Osborne
• Classic M-G-M cartoon MOUSE TROUBLE (HD)
• Classic M-G-M short MAIN STREET TODAY
• Original Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: George Sidney
SCREENWRITERS:
Dorothy Kingsley, Allen Boretz, and Frank Waldman
CAST: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, with Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin, Jean Porter, Nana Bryant, Carlos Ramírez, Ethel Smith, Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra with Lina Romay, Harry James and His Music Makers with Helen Forrest

MGM released Bathing Beauty in theaters on June 27, 1944. Grade: 3.5/5

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