Dangerous When Wet
Director: Charles Walters
Year Released: 1953
Rating: 2.0
Katie Higgins (Esther Williams), who comes from an athletic family (her pop is William Demarest!), goes to Europe to try to swim all 20+ miles of the English Channel ... and is wooed by two suitors, American salesman Windy (Jack Carson) and French schmoozer André (Fernando Lamas). It takes every opportunity to keep Williams from being dry, throwing her in a pond, a swimming pool, the ocean, and adds some song numbers on top ... and then an underwater bit with Tom & Jerry, in which they have to save her from a horny octopus wearing a beret: like the "tonic" Windy is peddling, the FDA-unapproved "Liquipep," it's a lot of ingredients that do don't do much of anything when combined. Apparently Williams wasn't thought highly of as a performer on terra firma, so Walters keeps his camera at a distance ... but if you ask me she holds her own, and was more at-ease than many "leading actresses" that have come across the screen.
