The original working title for this film was "Mr. Co-Ed" in acknowledgment of Red Skelton's role as a male student at an all girl's college. However when shooting was finished it became clear that Esther Williams stood out as the "Bathing Beauty" of the title, so that's what MGM went with. It became their third largest grossing film up to that point, unimaginably finding itself in the same company as "Ben Hur" and "Gone With the Wind". I'm finding it rather hard to believe.
If you're watching the picture with a critical eye there's not a lot that will stand a credibility test. When Steve Elliott's (Skelton) wedding to Caroline Brooks (Williams) is hijacked by Steve's business manager George Adams (Basil Rathbone), Caroline calls a marriage time out and heads off to Victoria College to resume a teaching job she once held there. The pretext is rather flimsy, who'd believe Red Skelton siring three Mexican kids named Pedro, Pablo and Pancho?
Obviously there was a time in this country's history when pictures like this were popular, and Red Skelton's brand of physical humor could carry the whole thing almost by himself. Today a lot of it seems just plain embarrassing, like Red's pink tutu gimmick and the wake up pantomime. You have to give the man credit though, his timing in the Swan Lake dance routine with the rest of the class seemed rather extraordinary for a comic, you couldn't beat that Daddy with a boogie brush to use the era's vernacular.
The two players who kept me off balance however were Rathbone and trumpet player extraordinaire, Harry James performing with his Music Maker Orchestra. They looked so much alike to me that the only way I could tell them apart was when the music was playing. Come to think of it, I don't recall James and Rathbone ever appearing in the same scene together. Hmm.
The picture wound up making Esther Williams a big star and she went on to make two more films with Red - "Neptune's Daughter" and "Texas Carnival". Based on the success of her first picture here with MGM, she wound up with top billing over Skelton. Not that he wasn't a big star in his own right by that time, it's just that she was bigger.
If you're watching the picture with a critical eye there's not a lot that will stand a credibility test. When Steve Elliott's (Skelton) wedding to Caroline Brooks (Williams) is hijacked by Steve's business manager George Adams (Basil Rathbone), Caroline calls a marriage time out and heads off to Victoria College to resume a teaching job she once held there. The pretext is rather flimsy, who'd believe Red Skelton siring three Mexican kids named Pedro, Pablo and Pancho?
Obviously there was a time in this country's history when pictures like this were popular, and Red Skelton's brand of physical humor could carry the whole thing almost by himself. Today a lot of it seems just plain embarrassing, like Red's pink tutu gimmick and the wake up pantomime. You have to give the man credit though, his timing in the Swan Lake dance routine with the rest of the class seemed rather extraordinary for a comic, you couldn't beat that Daddy with a boogie brush to use the era's vernacular.
The two players who kept me off balance however were Rathbone and trumpet player extraordinaire, Harry James performing with his Music Maker Orchestra. They looked so much alike to me that the only way I could tell them apart was when the music was playing. Come to think of it, I don't recall James and Rathbone ever appearing in the same scene together. Hmm.
The picture wound up making Esther Williams a big star and she went on to make two more films with Red - "Neptune's Daughter" and "Texas Carnival". Based on the success of her first picture here with MGM, she wound up with top billing over Skelton. Not that he wasn't a big star in his own right by that time, it's just that she was bigger.