Billed right at the bottom of the official cast list, the lovely Janis Paige has only one line: "And I helped carry them!" Never mind! This is an extremely mindless if extremely colorful musical, hindered rather than helped by some of the now-dated swing music of Harry James and Xavier Cugat – despite Harry Stradling's attractively fluid and silhouette photography during these musical renditions. The movie is also not exactly elevated by the bumbling presence of an inane Red Skelton. Admittedly, Skelton is forced to battle with poor material and mindless routines, but he doesn't have to really plunge into them with such feigned enthusiasm. Fortunately, Skelton more than meets his match with Ann Codee who sparks up what could have been one of the more clichéd and embarrassingly gauche sequences. And after this Codee coda, even the songs seem to improve, particularly James' horn staccato with its imaginative framing shadows. Mr. Skelton's relentless mugging and the no-account histrionics of the French bedroom farce still intrude, but at least the farce is topped by Margaret Dumont. Fortunately, the hick story is got out of the way before the spectacularly costumed water ballet conclusion. Incidentally, Basil Rathbone has a few typical moments as the villain, though not enough to satisfy his fans. All in all, the movie's good moments outweigh its bad, but it's nevertheless a shame that the stupid plot and the boringly gross Mr. Skelton are not up to scratch.
Review of Bathing Beauty
