Warner Archive provided me with a free copy of the Blu-Ray I reviewed in this article. The opinions I share are my own.
Charles Walters‘ Dangerous When Wet (1953)
In a move that both serves the film’s target audience and lets non-musical fans know what they’re signing up for, Dangerous When Wet begins by breaking into song and never looks back. No time is wasted. Esther Williams fans are given the Esther Williams film they were promised (instead of an Esther Williams film that bolsters Red Buttons like Neptune’s Daughter).
Not only can Williams be found in the pool in this movie, but her character, Katie, has agreed to represent the US (alongside members of her health-conscious family) in a competition to swim across the English Channel. It’s meant to be a publicity stunt to sell Liquapep (a magical elixir in the same mold as Vitameatavegamin), but some of the facts were misrepresented, and Katie finds herself regretting saying “yes.”
Fernando Lamas (who’s meant to be French for some reason) is Katie’s love interest, André, while Jack Carson plays the Liquapep saleman who ropes Katie into competing.
Williams is the embodiment of charm in this movie, as she breaks the fourth wall and follows in the footsteps of Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh by swimming with Tom and Jerry. For those braced for something hokey, the race sequence in this movie is anything but a joke, and the great thing about Williams is she always presented as cleverer than the men around her. No naïve, farmer’s-daughter-in-the-big-city tropes here.
Dorothy Kingsley wrote the screenplay and my favorite scene is when Katie is discussing what she would do with the prize money with French entrant, Gigi (Denise Darcel, who also stars in Westward the Women). Instead of having them list off indulgences, Kingsley has them wanting to invest in their businesses and it shows how seriously the film takes their pursuits. The packaging may be frilly, but Dangerous When Wet lives up to the “dangerous” part of its name.
Bonus Features:
“C’est La Guerre” is a song sung by André and Gigi that was cut. It’s hard to tell where the song was supposed to fall in the story, which speaks to why it was cut.
“The Cat and the Mermouse” (1949) is a Tom and Jerry cartoon that epitomizes what makes Tom and Jerry so special in that, for all their antagonism, they will come through for each other. This must have been a reference point for the animation in Dangerous When Wet because there are a lot of correlations.
“This Is A Living?” is an MGM short preoccupied with dangerous jobs. It’s inclusion feels like an acknowledgement of how dangerous the water stunts that Williams did could be.
Finally, in an audio interview, Williams is asked by Dick Simmons to provide some water safety tips as promotion for the movie.
Dangerous When Wet is available on Blu-ray now from Warner Archive and to purchase from Movie Zyng.
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