Traversons La Manche

MGM's resident mermaid Williams gets an ever-so-slightly more challenging part in this musical outing. Often, Williams just did (dazzling) water ballets sprinkled amongst a lot of romantic entanglements and shenanigans. It's much the same here, but at least she gets a chance to do a story that has a few real moments of emotion and even strife. She plays the eldest daughter of an especially healthy farm family who is chosen to swim the English Channel in an international event. Carson plays a relentless promoter while Lamas is a wealthy and charming distraction. The story details Williams and her family undergoing the necessary training and preparation for the big swim, encountering a few hurdles along the way. It culminates in a surprisingly strenuous and moving climax in which a badly exhausted Williams can barely move a muscle in the open sea. Several peppy musical numbers occur throughout the movie including an opening number in which the family begins their daily fitness ritual and an ensemble piece featuring the mother (Greenwood) in a bizarre, wacky, but fun dance routine.

There's also a lengthy dream sequence (a major highlight of the film) in which a luminous Williams swims with the famous cartoon characters Tom and Jerry and other animated sea creatures based on the other actors in the film. (Hilariously, Lamas is depicted as an octopus, which aptly sums up the man's on and off screen persona of an insatiable ladies man.) Parts of the film lag a bit as it meanders to it's fairly predictable end, but Carson brings a lot of energy and humor to his role and other cast members provide nice work as well. Lamas and Williams display clear chemistry together, though she maintains that they did not have an affair during the film (just one racy ride home from the studio in which she had her hand under his robe most of the way!) They married about 15 or so years later once he had cooled his libidinous jets somewhat and she was free of her deadbeat second husband. Cruelly, Lamas' formidable body is kept under wraps much of the time. Their only major swimming sequence together is filmed entirely above the water.

Get ready to be wet and happy all over! William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood are head of this family that practices healthy habits: eating right and plenty of exercise, which of course includes swimming. Enter Esther Williams who is in her element in this feel-good lightweight comedy musical. Fernando Lamas is an added plus to this story of a family that tries to swim the English Channel. Their chemistry and good looks make for much of this film's appeal. But, it works on so many other levels, too, with enjoyable and peppy songs and great acting by its supporting character actors William Demarest, Charlotte Greenwood (who has a very memorable dance number), and Jack Carson as her agent. Plus, a famous cat-and-mouse team is featured to good use. With that much talent, you can't go wrong. So, jump in and get wet all over. You'll feel better.

Actually I give it a 7.5 but since it won't let us do that, I rounded it off to an 8. This is a good clean early 1950s film. Esther is great in a lot of her things. Many of her films are sweet fictional comedy/romances such as "Bathing beauty" and "This time for keeps" (those two films have her most wonderful water ballets of all). My favorite Esther films are the two I just mentioned, "Thrill of a romance", "Neptune's daughter", and "Easy to love" (which has her great skiing escapade). I also like her couple of competitive events style films such as "Million dollar mermaid" (which also has 2 great water ballets) and "Dangerous when wet". I also enjoyed "On an island with you" and "Pagan love song" with their tropical Pacific island locations.

The film starts with Esther's enthusiastic athletic family led by her pa who's played by William Demearest (who was also great in Twilight zone episode "What's in the box" which he starred with a much older looking Joan Blondell, who was great in her young beauty days in Busby Berkeley's 1930s films). They march out of their country farm home to their backyard swimming hole singing "I got outta bed on the right side" to go swim laps. After their morning routine, Esther sees a small truck driver who is blocked from driving by her family's cows in the road. I liked Esther's couple of witty sarcastic funny remarks she makes at driver Jack Carson (Jack: "you gotta go milk those cows?" Esther: "No, they're very clever, they milk themselves". And then, Jack: "can I meet you?" Esther: "go to the corner of fifth and Main and wait, if you don't see me by next Thursday, you'll know something happened".). Jack's response is "boy, the farm girl's really with it". Jack advertises liquapep (a health tonic) and is hosting a rally in town. The family attends the liquapep rally. Esther's sister Katy goes on stage to sing "I like men". This is the second film where Esther had a very boy crazy sister who seemed way ahead of her time with that assertive boy chasing attitude. The other one was Esther's sister Betty Garrett in "Neptune's daughter". Anyways, Katy's number wins them a ribbon, and the whole family is then chosen to go to England to swim the English channel.

When over there, with Jack in tow, we meet some other characters such as a pretty French woman with an eye for Jack, and Fernando Lamas (Esther's soon real life husband to be) with an eye for Esther. The family soon learns that what was thought to be a 20 mile swim, is actually more 30-40 miles due to the channel currents making you zigzag. Then the fam finds out how everyone except Esther has been disqualified, much to pa's upset. Romance begins to bloom between Esther and Fernando, and the acting between them two I'm sure didn't have to be practiced much due to their real life romance. I think I could tell the naturalness between them. This movie of course contains the famous Esther swimming with Tom and Jerry sequence, which was Esther's dream one night soon before the channel swim. I like how Esther's family is a family of seahorses, the French lady is a charming sea creature, and Fernando is an octopus (who sings "In my wildest dreams" as Fernando while Esther's awake on his yaht, and he sings it in the dream as the octopus). I liked the mixing cartoons with real life, "Anchors aweigh" with Jerry mouse and Gene Kelly was another classic.

The race across the channel with Esther and the following boats keeping an eye on her and the other swimmers was very good and interesting, and there were some similarities there to Esther's river Thames swim in "Million dollar mermaid". Esther having been an almost Olympic swimmer (which didn't happen due to the Olympics being cancelled due to the war) really helped Esther get the opportunity to do something great with her swimming in another way. Becoming a famous swimmer and water ballet girl on films was in a sense just as if not maybe more exciting than competing in the Olympics, since she was trying something entirely new. She also officially started synchronised swimming as an official sport. That and her water ballets in her films. She was America's mermaid.

In Dangerous When Wet Esther Williams finds herself the oldest daughter of three in the Ozark family of William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood, her sisters being Donna Corcoran and Barbara Whiting. Medicine show salesman Jack Carson is passing by and all the clichés about the farmer's daughter start occurring.

When Carson comes calling Demarest starts bragging about his family all being physical culturists, Ozark style. When he gets to talking about Esther Williams swimming the Chattahoochee River which is nowhere near the Ozarks, Carson gets interested. He's peddling some kind of snake oil medicine, but he sees Esther swimming the English Channel he sees her as one tasty bit of advertising. Carson's libido ain't totally put on hold.

But he's cooled down a might when Esther meets a romantic Frenchman played by Fernando Lamas. Their real life marriage came much later. Not to worry because a French Channel swimming aspirant Denise Darcel has her eyes on Carson.

Dangerous When Wet is best known for a dream sequence where Esther does a water ballet with Tom and Jerry and some other cartoon characters. In her memoirs Esther says that one of her least favorite experiences was with Gene Kelly who gave her an awful time in the dance numbers in Take Me Out To The Ballgame. The muscles she developed as a swimmer were not conducive to dancing as she explained and Kelly knew this and still gave her a bad time. One of his innovations was a ballet with Tom and Jerry in Anchors Aweigh. I think Esther decided to show him that she could do what he could in her own field. And Esther certainly succeeded.

Jack Carson is his usual braggart type and William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood show a thing or two with a little soft shoe they do. All and all Dangerous When Wet is a great example of the MGM musical and an Esther Williams water spectacular rolled into one.

Esther Williams has the misfortune to be born to a family of irrepressible morning people. You know the type: always perky and cheerful first thing in the morning and ready to beat it into you if you're not. Esther enters a contest to swim the English Channel, and for some reason the time of the race is set only the night before. Wouldn't you know it, that's the night she's chosen to go out drinking with Fernando Lamas.

All in all, a delightful piece of fluff. This is the one where Esther dances a water ballet with Tom and Jerry.