FERNANDO’s CORNER: Posted on January 31st, 2015
“ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU”
Today I watched for the first time “On an Island With You“ (1948), an entertaining Esther Williams’ vehicle which has little of her swimming skills in it but lots of other entertainers’ assets, most notably the funny Jimmy Durante’s antics as an ex-vaudeville performer turned into assistant director and Esther’s character’s pal. She plays a movie star filming a movie on an island in the South Seas.
The film also features the very lovely and long-legged Cyd Charisse as a supporting actress in William’s film who has two marvelous dancing sequences with a young Ricardo Montalbán. Also in it are Xavier Cugat and his band; Peter Lawford, playing a likable Navy Officer infatuated with Williams; and Leon Ames as his understanding superior. Colorful and harmless pure entertainment. Ideal to whisk your worries away.
Dance scene with Charisse & Montalbán:
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“DANGEROUS WHEN WET”
“Dangerous When Wet“ (1953) was the first Esther Williams I ever saw in my life and it was one of my favorites for years; in fact, I hadn’t seen it for decades. One of the pivotal moments of this feature for me was when Esther swims with Tom & Jerry. What a joy!
Besides, this was the first film Esther made with her future husband ( for keeps ) Fernando Lamas and they had a fine thing going for them in this movie, even back then. The supporting cast is uniformly appealing, especially Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Carson, Bill Demarest and Denise Darcel. Great entertainment from MGM!
THE TRAILER:
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