On an Island with You

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.

Musical-comedy vehicle for swimming star Esther Williams set in Hawaii. Peter Lawford has a rather hopeless role as a moony-eyed Lieutenant who becomes obsessed with Esther, playing a movie actress; she's already involved with her co-star (Ricardo Montalban) and is also busy sparring with her unloved movie-rival (Cyd Charisse, in a demeaning part as a girl nobody seems to want). In its day, probably a very acceptable piece of fluff, but in this age of celebrity stalkers, Lawford's intrusive, seemingly off-balanced fan is unintentionally creepy (at one point he even kidnaps Williams, but she stops him from being arrested). Only for die-hard MGM musical buffs, although Esther's swimming sequences are not on their usual grand scale here. *1/2 from ****

Esther Williams, once again, proves that she is unequaled, in these MGM escapism musicals. The story is silly, but she is a star in the first degree. Whether wet, underwater, or gliding across the dance floor, she is a beauty to watch. Playing her swim partners in this film are Ricardo Montalban and Peter Lawford. Montalban comes across better. He did other films with Esther; FIESTA and NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER. Lawford doesn't come off that well. A bit stiff, but that's his role, and somewhat out of place opposite his gorgeous leading lady, he seemed uncomfortable. And he certainly can't swim.

Jimmy Durante does his usual performance of a lovable sidekick. He, too, played opposite Esther in THIS TIME FOR KEEPS, where he had more of a substance role to act. Then there's the lovely Cyd Charisse who in her early days as a feature player, prior THE BANDWAGON, gets a chance to show off those gorgeous legs in a terrific dance routine with Montalban. Xavier Cugat and his orchestra play some lovely songs.

If you want to sit back and watch Esther Williams in a swimsuit or an evening gown in a fun filled musical with no special plot, then enjoy this one.

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.

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.