One of underwater star Esther Williams’ most popular vehicles, MGM’s Technicolor musical Neptune’s Daughter is a light, enjoyable, even campy fare.
Williams, who plays Eve Barrett, a bathing-suit manufacturer and model, is paired with Red Skelton as Jack Spratt, the masseur at a fancy polo club, who falls for Eve’s sister (Betty Garrett).
To prove worthy of her love, Jack poses as a Latin polo star Jose O’Rourke (Ricardo Montalban), resulting in all kinds of comic complications.
The slapstick setpieces include a horse-mounting routine and a climactic set-to between Skelton and petty crook Mike Mazurk,
Mel Blanc is cast as a slow-talking Mexican, and Cugat plays “himself.”
One of Williams’ most commercial film, Neptune’s Daughter opened on June 10, 1949, and became one of the year’s ten top-grossing pictures.
Oscar Context:
The film’s musical high point is the Oscar-winning “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” performed first by Williams and Montalban, and then again by Skelton and Garrett.
Credits
Running time: 92 minutes.
Directed by Edward Buzzell
Written by Dorothy Kingsley
Released: June 1, 1949
DVD: July 17, 2007
MGM
