Auf einer Insel mit Dir

"On an Island with You" offers, as Neil Doyle has already remarked on this forum, escapist entertainment to warm any fan of this genre with the magnificent colors and the music in the film. MGM was the studio that excelled in this type of movies and this Esther Williams vehicle offers a lot of fun. Although predictable, it offers the viewer a nice time at the movies.

Directed by Richard Thorpe, the movie takes us to a movie location where a film is being shot. The gorgeous Rosalind Reynolds is the star that combines acting with water ballet and incidental singing and dancing. Rosalind is attracted to a Navy Lieutenant that is serving as technical adviser to the movie. Larry Kingsley, in turn, seems to have fallen head over heels with the beautiful Rosalind.

Esther Williams looks ravishingly beautiful in her water scenes as well as in her scenes with Peter Lawford, who plays Larry. Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse play roles in the film and they become involved with one another with the blessing of her mother in a funny scene at the end of the picture.

The great Jimmy Durante almost steals the film from its stars. As Jimmy Doyle, the assistant to the director, he plays a key part in the movie and makes it his own. Xavier Cugat and his orchestra are also seen in the picture.

"On an Island with You" will not disappoint.

Thin and fairly dull Esther Williams vehicle, with Peter Lawford as her love interest. Williams and Lawford are both boring, and have no chemistry together. They are upstaged by just about every single other person in the cast, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Durante (whom you'd think was the star of the movie as much as he's in it), Kathryn Beaumont and even a chihuahua. Williams does have a good swimming number near the end, and she wears some fantastic costumes. I can't say anything good about Lawford. Recently departed dancer Cyd Charisse has the two best sequences in the movie, an erotic dance with Montalban and, the best scene in the movie, her dance on the stairs, aided by a group of masked natives. The Technicolor cinematography is beautiful throughout the movie, but it's downright dazzling in that number. At first I thought this was going to be a poor choice in honoring Charisse, but it turned out to be perfect. Child star Kathryn Beaumont went on to provide the voices for Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Wendy Darling. The DVD for this was stunning.

This is truly a great Musical Classic from 1948 with a cast of veteran actors and all at the height of their careers. Esther Williams, (Rosalind Reynolds) is a movie star who gives outstanding performances swimming gracefully with Richardo Montalban, (Ricardo Montez) and Peter Lawford, (Lt. Lawrence Y. Kingslee) who is a U. S. Navy technical adviser on the film who is suppose to fly a plane with Rosalind Reynolds hiding on the plane. Richardo Montez is in love with Rosalind Reynolds and expects to marry her after their filming of their movie. However, Lt. Kingslee met Rosalind a few years in the past and fell immediately in love with her and has every intention to marry her at all costs. Jimmy Durante, (Jimmy Buckley) along with Xavier Cugat and his orchestra gave great supporting roles to this great musical classic.

It's difficult sometimes to view an older film without using a modern lens and being oversensitive or judgmental. Case in point: On an Island with You, where Peter Lawford plays a Navy officer who kidnaps his romantic obsession, a movie star played by Esther Williams. What is acceptable behavior from men towards women has obviously changed a lot in the last sixty plus years since this was made. It's hard for me to believe that there was ever a time when the disturbing and outright criminal behavior of Lawford's character could pass for romantic. But sadly, that is the case and the movie fails because of it.

It doesn't help matters that Lawford, always a stiff actor, plays the character as though he is an unbalanced creep. Lawford has no chemistry with Williams, either. This is made more apparent when Esther shares scenes with Ricardo Montalban, whom she did have wonderful chemistry with. Lawford pales by comparison. On the plus side, it's a Technicolor movie with Esther Williams so you know the gorgeous quota will be met and then some. The musical and aquatic numbers are all good, though none are classics. Jimmy Durante does his best to keep things light. Cyd Charisse shows off her dancing skills, which is always nice. As it stands, it's a watchable movie (more so if you're a big Esther fan) but probably the weakest of all of Esther's starring vehicles.

One doesn't come to this type of picture with high expectations, but many such films rely on familiar story elements, star turns, colorful settings and lively music to deliver pleasant, unchallenging entertainment that will satisfy an audience. No studio did this better than MGM.

But something went wrong this time around. Maybe it was having four screenwriters contributing to a dull, contrived story. Maybe it was making a musical in which the leading lady is neither a singer nor a dancer, in which one of the male leads also neither sings nor dances, in which the other leading man dances but does not sing, and in which none of the foregoing trio has the slightest flair for comedy. What to do? Give Jimmy Durante a couple of night club scenes in which he can do some familiar turns (which he has done far better elsewhere), fill some time with Cugat's orchestra, have some "native" dancers cavort at a festival. You get the idea. Even Esther's wet scenes don't compare favorably with those in most of her other films. And Peter Lawford, a firmly-established would-be leading man without a shred of discernible talent? His character here, supposedly infatuated and preoccupied, becomes thoroughly distasteful, so much so that his romantic reconciliation with Esther becomes impossible to accept.

Any redeeming qualities in this picture? You bet. Cyd Charisse (whose role, like Durante's, has nothing to do with the plot) is featured in two dance routines with Ricardo Montalban. He is surprisingly good, and she is unsurprisingly great. Perhaps one of those four screenwriters suggested that since they were making a musical without any leading players who could sing, they had better use at least somebody who could claim to be a dancer. Good thinking, MGM. You made the right choice. As for the rest...the sooner forgotten, the better.