It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
This week’s musical:
Easy to Love (1953) – Musical #108
Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Director:
Charles Walters
Starring:
Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, Carroll Baker, John Bromfield, Edna Skinner, King Donovan, Paul Bryar, Benny Rubin (uncredited),
Cameo: Cyd Charisse
Plot:
Ray Lloyd (Johnson) manages the Cypress Gardens resort, filled the water skiing and swimming shows, and beautiful girls in bathing suits and evening gowns. He has decided to remain successful, he must remain single and unmarried. One of his swimming performers Julie Hallerton (Williams) — while she feels overworked — is also in love with Ray. When she thinks Ray is inviting her on a fun trip to New York City, she finds it is all work, until she meets singing star Barry Gordon (Martin). While Barry sweeps Julie off her feet, Ray isn’t too sure he likes it.
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
This week’s musical: Easy to Wed (1946) – Musical #81
Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Director:
Edward Buzzell
Starring:
Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Keenan Wynn, Lucille Ball, Cecil Kellaway, Ben Blue, June Lockhart, Grant Mitchell, Josephine Whittell, Paul Harvey, Jonathan Hale, James Flavin
Themselves: Carlos Ramírez, Ethel Smith
Plot:
Connie Allenbury (Williams) and her father (Kellaway) sue The Morning Star newspaper for a $2 million libel suit when a piece of misinformation was published about her. The paper’s business manager Warren Haggerty (Wynn) is asked to postpone is wedding (again) to Gladys (Ball) to get the suit dropped. Haggerty brings in former reporter Bill Chandler (Johnson) to woo Connie, while also getting married to Gladys, so that Connie will be caught in a scandal.
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugan, James Burke (uncredited), Sally Forrest (uncredited), Douglas Fowley (uncredited)
Plot:
Set in the early 1900s, K.C. Higgins (Williams) inherits the Chicago Wolves baseball team and the team is shocked when they find out that K.C. is a woman. Pals and part-time vaudeville performers Eddie O’Brien (Kelly) and Dennis Ryan (Sinatra) are on the team. Dennis has a crush on K.C. and Eddie clashes with her because he both wants to date her and doesn’t want a woman leading the team. There are further issues when gambler Joe Lorgan (Arnold) tries to prevent the team from winning the pennant.
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Ted de Corsia, Mel Blanc, Mike Mazurki, Theresa Harris (uncredited), Joi Lansing (uncredited), Dee Turnell (uncredited)
Himself: Xavier Cugat
Plot:
Eve Barrett (Williams) is a champion swimmer who is convinced to start a Neptune’s swimsuit company in a partnership with Joe Backett (Wynn). Eve becomes a successful swimsuit designer with Joe. A South American polo team comes to town for a match, and Eve and Joe plan a swimming extravaganza and fashion show to partner with the big event. Eve’s man-hungry sister Betty Barrett (Garrett) hopes to find a romance with a polo player, and mistakes the team’s masseur Jack Spratt (Skelton) for the lead player, José O’Rourke. The real José O’Rourke (Montalban) pursues Eve, while she is thinking he is two-timing her sister.
What do you do when you’re an athlete and the Olympics are canceled? Become one of Hollywood’s top stars.
At least, that’s what Esther Williams did.
17-year-old Esther Williams (third from left) with the Los Angeles Athletic Swim Club team in 1939.
In 1939, 17-year-old Esther Williams was the United States women’s 100 meter freestyle national champion at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championship. She represented the Los Angeles Athletic Club with the winning time of 1:09, which was better than all but one of the swimmers for the next six years, according to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
The AAU formerly worked closely with the United States Olympic Committee.
Williams was assured a spot on the United States team for the 1940 Summer Olympics which were going to be held in Tokyo, Japan. But the games were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II.
She felt her career as a swimmer was over when the Olympics were canceled and she didn’t receive a swimming scholarship to the University of Southern California, she wrote in her autobiography “The Million Dollar Mermaid.”
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas, Jack Carson, Charlotte Greenwood, Denise Darcel, William Demarest, Donna Corcoran, Barbara Whiting, Ben Gage (uncredited)
Plot:
Katie Higgins (Williams) is the daughter of dairy farmer Pa Higgins (Demarest). The family is the healthiest in the county, starting their morning with exercise and a swim. However, financially their farm isn’t doing so great. When the family meets traveling salesman Windy Weebe (Carson), he convinces them to swim 30 miles across the English Channel with his product, Liquapep, as their sponsor. Katie meets handsome Frenchman Andre Lanet (Lamas) in the process.
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Paula Raymond, John Lund, Connie Haines, Amanda Blake, Clinton Sundberg, Mel Torme, Bobby Troup (uncredited), Mae Clarke (uncredited) Themselves: Lena Horne, Eleanor Parker, Red Skelton
Plot:
Secretary Ellen Hallit (Raymond) is in love with her boss Doug Morrison (Lund), who constantly has Ellen pretend to be his fiance to get him out tight spots with women. In an attempt to play matchmaker, Ellen’s roommate and best friend Christine (Williams) travels to Sun Valley, Idaho, where Doug is also vacationing. Christine’s plan is to get Doug to fall in love with her, so he will call on Ellen to help him out. However, things get more complicated when Christine meets and falls for bandleader Dick Layne (Johnson).
What started out as a song to get party guests to leave is now a Christmas favorite that has come under some scrutiny in recent years.
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has evolved into a song that is never left off a Christmas album. The catch? When it was written in 1944, songwriter Frank Loesser wasn’t thinking of the holidays.
Frank Loesser and wife Lynn Garland in 1956 performing their song.
Loesser originally wrote the song to only be performed at parties with his wife, Lynn Garland. The duet — labeling the parts wolf and mouse — involves a man trying to convince a woman that she should stay, because it’s snowing outside. She says no until she relents at the end. Continue reading →
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, Jimmy Durante, Leon Ames, Kathryn Beaumont, Dick Simmons, Marie Windsor (uncredited) Themselves: Xavier Cugat, Betty Reilly
Publicity photo for “On An Island with You”
Plot:
Actress Rosalind Rennolds (Williams) is making a film in Hawaii with her fiance Ricardo Montez (Montalban). But there are a few love triangles getting in the way of their marriage. Actress and co-star Yvonne (Charisse) is in love with Ricardo, and Lt. Lawrence Y. Kingslee (Lawford), the Navy technical advisor for the film, has a large crush on Rosalind. Lt. Kingslee met Rosalind when she was entertaining troops during World War II when he was picked as a volunteer for skit. Ever since, been in love with her. Lt. Kingslee’s love makes him take some extreme measures in order to be alone with Rosalind.
Trivia:
-Esther Williams’ character falls in a hole in the jungle in one scene. The director of “On an Island with You” did not cushion the bottom of the hole and Williams sprained her ankle, according to her autobiography, “The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography.”
-Cyd Charisse broke her leg during the filming of the “Pagan Dance,” according to an interview on Turner Classic Movies.
-Ricardo Montalban dubbed by Bill Lee
Child star Kathryn Beaumont
Highlights:
-Cyd Charisse and Ricardo Montalban dancing
-Cyd Charisse’s “Pagan Dance”
-Kathryn Beaumont’s Jimmy Durante impression
Notable Songs:
-Takin’ Miss Mary to the Ball performed by Jimmy Durante
-I Know Darn Well I Can Do Without Broadway performed by Jimmy Durante
-On an Island with You performed by Ricardo Montalban, dubbed by Bill Lee
-The Dog Song performed by Xavier Cugat and Betty Reilly
-Não Tenho Lágrimas performed by Xavier Cugat
My review:
I liked this film better than when I saw it for the first time during Summer Under the Stars 2004.
“On an Island with You” is colorful, humorous and has some excellent swimming and dancing numbers.
This has quite the star studded cast too with magnificent music from band leader Xavier Cugat.
Esther Williams’ swimming numbers are lovely, particularly a dream sequence that Peter Lawford has of Williams in a blue and green sequined bathing suit and another featuring surfboards and a gold lame bathing suit.
But for me, even more stunning than the swimming numbers was the dancing in this film. Cyd Charisse’s dances are show stoppers in all of her films, but these are somehow even more exciting. I think this is partially because her numbers have the added bonus of Ricardo Montalban as her partner. The two dance beautifully together; something they also exhibited in the 1947 film “Fiesta.” I feel like Cyd Charisse and Ricardo Montalban could have made a great dancing team in MGM musicals had they been given that opportunity.
Jimmy Durante adds the comic relief in the film and offers some of the most entertaining songs, though Xavier Cugat’s tunes keep your toes tapping.
Another highlight in “On an Island with You” is a brief role played by child actor Kathryn Beaumont. For Disney fans, this is a great treat since Beaumont was the voice of Wendy in “Peter Pan” (1953) and Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” (1951). This was Beaumont’s second film and first credited role.
Esther Williams writes in her autobiography that “On an Island with You” was “another ridiculous plot.” She felt most of the plots to her films were as fluffy as cotton, which isn’t false.
However, the film offers the perfect mix of cool Technicolor entertainment and gorgeous dance numbers for an August afternoon.
It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
Starring:
Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Minna Gombell, Rita Moreno, Charles Mauu
Plot:
Half-American, half-Tahitian Mimi (Williams) dreams of getting off the island-where she lives with her rich aunt (Gombell)- and going to the United States. Ohio school teacher Hazard Endicott (Keel) moves to the island to run a small plantation his uncle left him and is happy to relax and be lazy on the island. Will Hazard convince Mimi to change her plans?
Trivia:
-Esther Williams was pregnant while filming Pagan Love song, which made her especially concerned about filming a scene in an outrigger, according to Williams’ autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid.
-Howard Keel broke had a broken arm during part of the film, and his cast is covered with a towel during a bike riding scene, according to Keel’s autobiography “Only Make Believe: My Life in Show Business.”
-Originally was supposed to star Cyd Charisse and Van Johnson, but Charisse got pregnant, according to Esther Williams autobiography.
-Originally supposed to be directed by Stanley Donen, but after having a difficult time with Donen in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” Williams requested otherwise, according to her autobiography.
-Esther Williams sings two of her own songs but is dubbed by Betty want in “The Sea of the Moon”
-Produced by Arthur Freed
-Based on the book “Tahiti Landfall”
Howard Keel and Esther Williams in Pagan Love Song
Notable Songs:
None. They were all lousy.
My review:
From the adorable, colorful poster you think “Oh this film has so much potential!”….But this isn’t one of Esther Williams better films. I’m not sure if it’s as bad as “Jupiter’s Darling,” but it’s up there. And the fact that Williams is made up in tan makeup as a part Tahitian isn’t even the worst of it.
Everyone in the film laughs non stop and smiles like an idiot for most of the movie–I guess to show that everyone-even the Ohia school teacher- loves Tahiti. But non-stop laughing in a 72 minute movie can get pretty annoying.
If you read the plot above, you can see there is absolutely nothing to this plot. As I was watching it, I even found myself thinking, “So…what’s the point of this story?” (And that’s coming from someone who has watched and enjoys silly fluff films).
The filming of this movie was about as unhappy as the viewing experience, according to both Williams’ and Keel’s autobiographies.
The director had never shot on location, Keel and Arthur Freed had a falling out, Keel was unhappy with the score and songs, Williams was nervous about sailing in an outrigger over jagged reef while pregnant, Keel had a broken arm, and it rained a large portion of the filming, according to their autobiographies.
For a film set at the beach, starring Esther Williams who is wearing a sarong 40 percent of the film, you would think there would be swimming galore. In reality there are only two swimming scenes:
-Esther Williams singing a tune while a group (her swimming class) swim in a diamond behind her.
-Williams and Keel swim in a lavish dream sequence in the last 10 minutes of the film.
For me, the most notable feature in this film is that you get to hear Esther Williams’ own singing voice in a couple of songs, while she was usually dubbed. For the more serious ballad, Betty Wand dubbed Williams but from what little we hear, Williams sounds decent.
Films that came out of the “Freed Unit” (produced by Arthur Freed), are generally glittery, fantastic forms of entertainment. Which is why I find it so shocking that “Pagan Love Song” is a real stinker.
This week’s musical:
This week’s musical:
Comet Over Hollywood 