Songwriter Steve Elliot (Red Skelton) falls in love with swimming beauty Caroline Brooks (Esther Williams). He decides to marry the girl and retire. The only one unhappy is his producer George Adams (Basil Rathbone). George executes a scheme which breaks up the married couple. She runs back to her alma meter, an all-girls college in New Jersey. He tracks her down but can't get on campus. He comes up with an unusual solution.
This has Esther Williams doing her swimming. It has its musical. Once the premise gets going, Red Skelton is unleashed in his comedy. He's funny as long as he's making fun of himself. He does a whole routine pretending to be a girl getting up in the morning, but that feels like he's making fun of the girls. He needs to be the butt of the joke. In that vain, I think I have a funnier premise. The school is really strict as an all-female institution and he pretends to be a female student. That would be fun cross-dressing screwball mayhem. The ballet class should be funnier but the teacher is way too intentional in her violence. Slapstick cannot be real violence. The big comedy comes from a cross-dressing Red. He really should do that for the whole film.
This has Esther Williams doing her swimming. It has its musical. Once the premise gets going, Red Skelton is unleashed in his comedy. He's funny as long as he's making fun of himself. He does a whole routine pretending to be a girl getting up in the morning, but that feels like he's making fun of the girls. He needs to be the butt of the joke. In that vain, I think I have a funnier premise. The school is really strict as an all-female institution and he pretends to be a female student. That would be fun cross-dressing screwball mayhem. The ballet class should be funnier but the teacher is way too intentional in her violence. Slapstick cannot be real violence. The big comedy comes from a cross-dressing Red. He really should do that for the whole film.