gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions.Nice film. Williams is excellent. Melchior is superb. Witty is charming.Orphans. Nora, Grandma and Deborah are all that's left of Nora's family. Durante is Nora's stand-in father. Dick only has a father. Dick's old fiancé only has a mother.Grandma used to be a professional circus equestrienne. I wish we would have seen shots of her early days. That would have been wonderful, even if they were long shots of a quite young stand-in performer on the circus horses. I particularly like Nora's description of her grandma's detailed performing during the circus career. I could almost see Grandma jumping and twirling from one moving horse to another. I am thinking the circus acts in Water for Elephants. I have studied the history of the circus, for a long time.Deborah is portrayed by one smart little actress; S. McManus. I saw her in Anchors Aweigh, with Gene Kelly. I think that Ms. McManus was a very talented little girl. She has a much larger part in this film than in the Gene Kelly one. In that film, I don't think that she even has any dialogue -- just dances a hat dance with Kelly. You always hear of Kelly dancing with the animated Jerry the Mouse, in Anchors Aweigh.Durante never fails to amuse and entertain. He always has it together. He is always deadpan hilarious.I always love technicolor musical films, and this one does not disappoint. The colors show up well.I enjoyed seeing Mackinac Island, since I am a fan of Somewhere in Time. I had never seen this island portrayed in the snowy wintertime, so I was fascinated to see that season shown in this film.Dame Witty passed away not along after release of this film. More is the pity. I enjoy her performance in this film.I love the little Chihuahua doggie held in the arm of Cugat. Woof, woof. So doggone cute.This Time for Keeps must mean that Nora and Dick finally settle down with each other. Dick dumps his old fiancé, and Nora rejects her two admirers of Gordon and Durante.Time period: post-World War Two. Dick has spent several years in Uncle Sam's military service. He is home now. His father wants him to join the opera company, but Dick likes swing music. This is a transition from older to newer musical tastes, plus a conflict between older and younger generations. Later on, however, Dick would further have to switch to rock and roll, in order to keep up with changing popular musical times.Wartime America, and post-war economic and social history: Did the opera slow down during the war? Same for the swimming shows? Why did Nora dump the circus for the aquatic career? There is a post-war economic recovery going on in real life. Do Nora and Dick get married and end up having 3.5 baby-boomer children? Do they all end up living in a ticky-tacky 1950s manufactured development house, complete with manicured lawn and black-and-white TV set? Shades of I Love Lucy.The Chiquita Banana song is interesting. It reminds me of a certain TV commercial.You will notice that the so-called Hollywood golden years took place pre-and-post-World War Two, including the major technicolor song and dance films plus the swimming movies and combinations of both. In the 1950s as these types of films were thinning out, studio heads were changing and top talent contracts were ending. Production budgets were not clearing the high profits intended. Audiences were ditching the movies in favor of that square little b/w box, where they could stare transfixed at home -- making their own popcorn. These beautiful musical films are now magical time capsules, of a bygone entertainment historical era.I am a degreed historian, actress, singer, dancer, film critic and movie reviewer.

MartinHafer I recently have watched about a dozen Esther Williams movies. Some were quite good and most were pretty watchable despite the silly plots. However, I must say that of all the ones I've seen, this one is by far the worst. I think that unless you are the sort of person who wants to see all of her movies, this one is imminently skippable.The film stars Williams as, what else, Nora, an underwater performer. She falls in love (though we know no reason why) with a very dull man named Dick Johnson (I am NOT making that up)--played by Johnny Johnston. However, in a subplot stolen right from "The Jazz Singer", Dick's father is very controlling and expects the young man to not only be an opera singer like himself but also marry the woman HE has picked out for the son! Not surprisingly, the father's actions created serious misunderstandings and nearly break up Nora and Dick. But the problem is Nora really, really loves Dick. Can her love of Dick triumph in the end? The weakest link in the film is Johnston. While his voice is magnificent, he had as much charisma as a piece of moldy cheese...no,...perhaps less. Looking so plain and possessing very little personality, you have no idea why Nora loves this guy so much. As for me, after a while I really didn't care. Overall, a very simple plot that is too much like "The Jazz Singer" and with a leading man who makes paste seem exciting.By the way, the underwater ballet scene near the beginning is among Esther's most famous. Yet, as you watch it you'll probably rightfully wonder how the audience who was supposedly watching it could possibly even see these tricks! Think about it--from the stage in the movie, all they could see (barely) is the top of the water!!

hmb Many scenes are filmed on Michigan's Mackinac Island, which to this day bans cars in favor of horses and bicycles. After seeing the movie, you can walk down every street and note that nearly 60 years later, nothing has changed.

guil fisher What better entertainment. Once again, Esther Williams proves she's the queen of the MGM swimming spectacles. In glorious technicolor and looking like the dish she is, Miss Williams gives a delightful frothy performance. Her water scenes are very glamorous with underwater swimming scenes that take your breath away [kidding aside]. Add to this the comedic and charming Jimmy Durante who's a sort of fatherly type looking out for his swimming star. He too does some swimming, if you can believe it. The love interest in this flick is not one of the MGM stable studs you usually see [Van Johnson, Howard Keel or Fernando Lamas] but a pop singer of the times, Johnny Johnston, who has little film to his credit. He sings well, looks like a decent enough guy, but just doesn't have the stuff leading men are made of. A pleasant performance but not strong enough to allure the mermaid out of the water tank. Then there's Dame May Whitty, one of England's and MGM's stronger character women [remember her in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES?] playing Esther's grandmother who once was a famous bareback rider in the circus, if you can believe it. And Lauritz Melchoir, the opera singer, who MGM was trying to make their newest singing star, playing the boy's papa. Not likely. More like grandpapa. But listen, for pure entertainment, silly plot and oh, those glorious swimming scenes and Esther Williams in gold lame bathing suits, who cares? Look for Richard Simmons in the rejected suitor scenes. He is always turning up in this type of role in most of the MGM musicals as boy friend, producer or whatever. Same type of role in ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU, another Williams musical, this time with Peter Lawford and Ricardo Montalban as her suitors. And round and round we go. But don't stop, Esther, you are a living doll, wet or dry.