That was an excellent one.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The movie features a marvelous cast, each doing his or her specialty. But I especially like the unheralded Betty Garret as the ditzy sister who manages to steal several scenes. Williams has a few abbreviated swim scenes, but does more acting than paddling. Then too, making her a swimsuit designer gives us guys an eyeful of the modeling scenes. Frankly, though, I was disappointed with the big aqua number, which has legions of girls diving into the pool but little more. It's far from any kind of ballet that Williams is so good at. Of course, Skelton is made for movies like this where his slapstick comedy can blend into the overall shenanigans. However, a couple of his skits (mounting the horse & piling it on muscle- man Mazurki) went past their peak of hilarity. Good to see voice wizard Mel Blanc get a movie break after so many years of funny dialects on radio, TV, and cartoons. All in all, the movie's an entertaining and certainly colorful 90-minutes, but unfortunately not Williams' best.

MGM colleague Fanny Brice on Esther Williams: "Wet she's a star. Dry she ain't." She's mostly dry in this halfhearted Jack Cummings musical, and while she acts competently and even sounds like she's doing her own singing on "Baby, It's Cold Outside," hers isn't a dynamic screen personality. It's an assembly-line plot with a few good gags, and the cast -- handsome Ricardo Montalban, appealing Betty Garrett, silly Red Skelton, I'll-play-anything-to-keep-my-contract Keenan Wynn -- is game. But there's barely enough Frank Loesser to keep it feeling like a musical, and the plotting is so casual that Wynn, as the guy who doesn't get the girl, has to turn unaccountably into a good sport in the last reel just to make the happy ending feel happier. The color's pretty, and director Edward Buzzell (whose other big MGM musical, "Best Foot Forward," is far superior) keeps things moving. And Skelton, so annoying in so much studio product, is marginally less so here. But the sexism of the day (Williams, a career gal, is still man-controlled) is irritating, and even the underwater ballet feels perfunctory. One compensation: a superbly dirty, how-did-it-get-past-the-censors verbal exchange between Skelton and Garrett ("and now you will please turn over"), early on.

I am astonished about the low rating of this movie! There are of course many musicals which are boring and this one - I admit - does not feature very much. No great songs (despite "Baby it's cold outside - Oscar!), no great dancing and absolutely no great acting. But there is something to make the film special: The comedic timing is perfectly, the gags drop fluently. The supporting roles are fantastic: Red Skelton at his best and the absolutely wonderful Betty Garrett to team him (they should have made more movies!). Xavier Cugat and his orchestra play enthusiastic samba rhythms, the decoration of the picture is bright and joyful! There is no single boring moment, the whole film is like a short trip to the Caribbean sea with a fancy cocktail in your hand!

Esther Williams had some fairly amusing comedies in the '40s that had her jumping into a pool every so often to keep her "Million Dollar Mermaid" label intact. She not only swims here, but joins in the fun and even lends herself to a funny rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Ricardo Montalban while Red Skelton is doing his own version of the song with Betty Garrett. It's a wacky bit of fun about Red being mistaken for a polo player. He has some wild slapstick scenes--one of which has him joining a bevy of bathing beauties as he attempts to fit into a water ballet (reminiscent of his hijinks in "Bathing Beauty"). His partner in fun is Betty Garrett who delivers her own special brand of comedy with no strain at all. Ricardo Montalban is an excellent foil for Esther's romantic scenes as the wealthy polo player. The blurb on the video jacket offers a quote from the N.Y. Times: "The most entertaining of all the aquatic spectacles in which Esther Williams has starred." 'Nuff said. Enjoy!