Esther Williams is another beautiful golden age girl, like Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler, Eleanor Powell, June Allyson, Myrna Loy, Ingrid Bergman, and others. They're all wonderful. And the music from that era is wonderful too. The music at the very start of the film was heavenly music, beautiful music with the background women's sweet sounding opera voices and/or the sweet violin sounds. It was so common in the 30s, 40s, and early 50s. I also love most swing style music in general from that era with the violins, muted trumpets and trombones, and woodwinds. And of course, I also love the wonderful singers from that era, Judy Garland, Katheryn Grayson, etc. It seemed a better age than today in many ways.
"On an island with you" is a very good film. We got another of the water ballets here that Esther is so famous for, which is very good. I also like the "movie within a movie" theme here. A movie crew, which includes Jimmy Durante (the shnoz) as the director, is filming a movie in Hawaii. I sorta found funny when Durante gets off the phone from his superiors in LA who are complaining and seemingly blaming him for the sun setting too soon and they're not getting enough scenes. Durante is filming Esther, Ricardo Montalban, and Cyd Charisse in a tropical musical. One of the musical numbers being filmed is an interesting sort of a tribal dance number with Cyd and men in masks and spears. There's another great erotic dance scene between Cyd and Ricardo (where Durante even says afterwards "they were beautiful together, and I don't think I like it" (Ricardo was engaged to Esther)), and a beautiful sequence at the beginning with the heavenly music with Esther and other beautiful girls swimming around palm trees. During filming, a military air force man, Peter Lawford notices Esther and immediately becomes obsessively infatuated with her. Esther is already romantically linked up with Ricardo but Peter doesn't care, he still wants her. At a nightclub, Durente notices Peter's obsession with Esther and tries to keep him away from her (added is a funny little line when Jimmy sits with him and says "this is a cozy table for two, you and me"). Peter stubbornly refuses to change how unhealthily obsessed he is with her, and this is the big fault of the movie. Peter kidnaps her, and flies them both to an island a hundred miles away. This is not OK. Peter should be arrested for such a move, but after they're both taken back to where they came from. Esther defends Peter. I never could understand why. There's a reason why I took away three points, SPOILER: Peter Lawford ends up with Esther. That is not good, Peter did not deserve her at all. The writers having Peter win the girl makes it look like what he did was not that big a deal, and the film was still treating him as the good guy in spite of what he did. That's what really hurt the film. The other seven points I gave was that I still loved Esther, I still loved her water ballet, I still loved her swimming, I still loved the music, I still loved some of the dialogue between the characters, and I still loved some parts of the story. One funny add in was an older woman with her granddaughter trying to audition for a part and uses her English accent, Durante says "too British, won't do", she then asks her grandma "how can anyone be too British?". Another funny bit later when she shows up again saying a line trying to talk like Durante, and Durante says "better go back to the other way, this way, no one will understand you". I've liked whenever I've seen someone trying to talk or act like Durante, such as Frank Sinatra in "It happened in Brooklyn" when singing "A song must come from the heart". Then come the very good parts at the nightclubs with this girl singing "The dog song" with pretty good Spanish style while holding a tiny chihuahua (which Durante called a mouse). Durante himself sang a couple of good numbers of his, "Mr. Dobbins" and "The struttaway" in his typical Durante style.
"On an island with you" is a very good film. We got another of the water ballets here that Esther is so famous for, which is very good. I also like the "movie within a movie" theme here. A movie crew, which includes Jimmy Durante (the shnoz) as the director, is filming a movie in Hawaii. I sorta found funny when Durante gets off the phone from his superiors in LA who are complaining and seemingly blaming him for the sun setting too soon and they're not getting enough scenes. Durante is filming Esther, Ricardo Montalban, and Cyd Charisse in a tropical musical. One of the musical numbers being filmed is an interesting sort of a tribal dance number with Cyd and men in masks and spears. There's another great erotic dance scene between Cyd and Ricardo (where Durante even says afterwards "they were beautiful together, and I don't think I like it" (Ricardo was engaged to Esther)), and a beautiful sequence at the beginning with the heavenly music with Esther and other beautiful girls swimming around palm trees. During filming, a military air force man, Peter Lawford notices Esther and immediately becomes obsessively infatuated with her. Esther is already romantically linked up with Ricardo but Peter doesn't care, he still wants her. At a nightclub, Durente notices Peter's obsession with Esther and tries to keep him away from her (added is a funny little line when Jimmy sits with him and says "this is a cozy table for two, you and me"). Peter stubbornly refuses to change how unhealthily obsessed he is with her, and this is the big fault of the movie. Peter kidnaps her, and flies them both to an island a hundred miles away. This is not OK. Peter should be arrested for such a move, but after they're both taken back to where they came from. Esther defends Peter. I never could understand why. There's a reason why I took away three points, SPOILER: Peter Lawford ends up with Esther. That is not good, Peter did not deserve her at all. The writers having Peter win the girl makes it look like what he did was not that big a deal, and the film was still treating him as the good guy in spite of what he did. That's what really hurt the film. The other seven points I gave was that I still loved Esther, I still loved her water ballet, I still loved her swimming, I still loved the music, I still loved some of the dialogue between the characters, and I still loved some parts of the story. One funny add in was an older woman with her granddaughter trying to audition for a part and uses her English accent, Durante says "too British, won't do", she then asks her grandma "how can anyone be too British?". Another funny bit later when she shows up again saying a line trying to talk like Durante, and Durante says "better go back to the other way, this way, no one will understand you". I've liked whenever I've seen someone trying to talk or act like Durante, such as Frank Sinatra in "It happened in Brooklyn" when singing "A song must come from the heart". Then come the very good parts at the nightclubs with this girl singing "The dog song" with pretty good Spanish style while holding a tiny chihuahua (which Durante called a mouse). Durante himself sang a couple of good numbers of his, "Mr. Dobbins" and "The struttaway" in his typical Durante style.