Dangerous When Wet

Jack Carson plays a traveling salesman, promoting a potion called Liqua-pep on the county fair circuit. While driving through Arkansas, he meets a family that owns a dairy farm and are dedicated to physical fitness.

When Jack's character, Wendy, realizes the eldest daughter, Katy (that's how it's spelled in the credits)--played by Esther Williams--is a beauty and a tireless swimmer, he wants her to attempt the English Channel as a promotion for his snake oil. Eventually, she agrees.

Along the way, she meets a Frenchman played by Fernando Lamas (who Esther marries sixteen years later) who becomes her love interest.

Esther's films tend to be light fare, intending merely to entertain while allowing her to swim in a pool, a lagoon, or wherever the script might take her. "Dangerous When Wet" includes a few upbeat songs and the usual all-American touchstones. But it is best known for Esther's underwater swimming sequence with Tom and Jerry (Jerry danced nine years earlier with Gene Kelly).

MGM always released an Esther Williams movie as a bit of relaxing summer entertainment with the Swimming Sweetheart obliging everyone by looking pretty in a bathing suit as she plunges into those big swimming pools.

Here she plunges into the English Channel to compete for top prize. She's from a family of health addicts headed by William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood (who happen to look foolish during some of their song-and-dance routines) and encouraged by coach Jack Carson. Denise Darcel is her romantic rival--but wait, she has Fernando Lamas, a dashing Frenchman, ready to offer her romance aboard his yacht. It's all quite watchable, if silly, and definitely not one of Esther's finest moments.

A memorable highlight is her underwater fling with Tom & Jerry that is fun to watch and dazzling to contemplate. But the film itself is a light, airy entertainment that is strictly a no-brainer guaranteed to please the masses. And Esther, as usual, looks gorgeous in and out of a bathing suit. Real life hubby, Fernando Lamas, however, comes across as one of her less versatile leading men, no matter how handsome he is.

The musical interludes are few and far between. None of them are remarkable. What the film needed was a lift from a song like "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (as in 'Neptune's Daughter'), but instead there are a few dreary numbers such as "Ain't Nature Grand?" and "In My Wildest Dreams". The channel swimming scenes will have you rooting for Esther as you huff and puff with her! Could have been better, but what the heck.

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.

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.

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.