Nebbia sulla Manica

Arkansas farm family is tapped to swim in a race across the English Channel as part of a promotional campaign for a health drink. MGM musical isn't smothered with the usual studio-gloss, and Esther Williams is spunky and likable, but the plot is still pretty thin. Esther's on-screen romance with Fernando Lamas generated sparks off-screen (they were soon married in real-life), yet only a smidgen of this chemistry makes it into the movie. Not bad, overall; it's probably best remembered for the wonderful dream sequence wherein Williams swims with various cartoon characters, including Tom and Jerry. **1/2 from ****

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.

Even in films with not-much-to-write-home-about stories (though a good deal of her films are still worth watching), Esther Williams was always watchable and more, with her swimming talent on film second to none. Tom and Jerry are two of my favourite animated characters, as a lifelong fan of animation, and a legendary animated-comic duo. Have always loved musicals too.

Williams is captivating in how fetching she is and she radiates in charm, her swimming talent hardly wasted. She has very clear chemistry with Fernando Lamas (though she has had partners with a little more charisma than he), and wonderfully supported by a peppy Barbara Whiting, an energetic Jack Carson and a perfectly cast William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood.

'Dangerous When Wet's' highlight is the sequence with Williams and Tom and Jerry, which is simply ingenious in every sense. Very close behind are Whiting's "I Like Men" and the very determined and moving English Channel swim scene.

Furthermore, 'Dangerous When Wet' looks great, being beautifully photographed and designed and the colours are rich and colourful. The songs are not exceptional but they are very pleasant and put one in a good mood, but it's the way they're staged that elevate them to a better level.

The script is lively and perky enough, while Charles Walters directs competently. The story while meandering a little in pace towards the end makes for by far one of the more eventful, more plausible and more atmospherically warm and likable Esther Williams films.

Overall, great fun and charming, anybody who like Williams and Tom and Jerry shouldn't miss it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Katie Higgins (Esther Williams) is the eldest daughter of a dairy-farming family of health nuts. Health tonic promoter Windy Weebe (Jack Carson) convinces her to enter a contest to swim the English Channel. After arriving in Europe, Katie finds herself pursued by a dashing Frenchman (Fernando Lamas). This is one of Esther's best movies. She's gorgeous here, as she always was -- the Queen of Technicolor. The cast is great. Highlights include Barbara Whiting's performance of the cheeky song "I Like Men," Esther's famous underwater ballet with Tom & Jerry, and pretty much every scene with William Demarest. It's a very funny and charming musical comedy. A must-see for Esther fans.