jacobs-greenwood Directed by Charles Walters, and written by Dorothy Kingsley, this Esther Williams film also stars her future husband Fernando Lamas, who swims with her during this musical romantic comedy. Though absent much of the spectacular synchronized swimming that's a staple in virtually all of her other films, this one does feature an extended animated sequence in which Ms. Williams swims with Tom & Jerry and other cartoon characters. Also appearing are Jack Carson, Charlotte Greenwood, and William Demarest.The Higgins family is a healthy one, the family that swims together stays together. Unfortunately, their family farm isn't doing so well. What they really need is a prize bull to breed better dairy cows than they currently have, and a few repairs here and there. Enter Windy Weebe (Carson), a vitamin serum ("Liquapep") traveling salesman that meets the farmer's daughter, Katie Higgins (Williams). When he happens upon the fit family and learns that Ma (Greenwood), Pa (Demarest), Junior (Donna Corcoran), and Suzie (Barbara Whiting) recently swam in a 14 mile river race, along with Katie who won it, he knows he's found a perfect promotion for his wares. He convinces "the Colonel" (someone we never see who Windy speaks to via the telephone) to sponsor the family in an attempt to cross the English Channel. The family is willing to go along with it because of their financial need, and because Windy tells them the distance is only 20 miles.Once in France, the Higgins family learns that crossing the channel is really a 30 to 40 mile swim because of the route one must take to traverse its currents. However, they begin their training in earnest anyway, which occasionally involves promoting Liquapep, the vitamin product none of them can stand to swallow. On one particularly foggy day, Katie meets rich playboy André Lanet (Lamas), while he's rowing to his yacht; Windy meets another swimmer Gigi Mignon (Denise Darcel). Of course, a romance begins between Katie and André (and Windy & Gigi) which threatens her training schedule and the possibility that she's be fit enough to accomplish the task.Additionally, Pa mortgages the family farm and bets it all on someone in their family winning the race. It also becomes clear that only Katie will be able to attempt the crossing among the family. I'm sure you can guess the result.

mark.waltz The challenge of crossing the English channel becomes the focus for swimming champion Esther Williams who comes from an athletic family. Of course, when you've got Charlotte Greenwood as a mother who can kick her legs sideways up to her head without calling for Ben Gay then flies into a split, you know you've got to keep up. After they get out of bed on the right side, they face the challenges of training her for this competition, and find romantic entanglements as well, Williams with the handsome Argentinian Fernando Lamas, who in real life would eventually become her husband. Middle daughter Barbara Whiting is the typical Ann Miller/Betty Garrett/Janis Paige/Virginia O'Brien second lead and sings of her attraction to the opposite sex in the complicated song titled "I Like Men" (as opposed to Kathryn Grayson in the same year's "Kiss Me Kate" who declared just the opposite), and the entire cast, including Williams' brassy agent Jack Carson, papa William Demarest, younger sister Donna Corcoran and the French damsel Denise Darcel get together for the truly delightful "Ain't Nature Grand" where Greenwood gets to take center stage and show what she had done twenty years before on Broadway and ten years ago in Fox musicals with Betty Grable. A delightful cream puff of a musical, Williams shows that when she had a fun script and something to do except wear a bathing suit, she could have a ball on screen and let it show. Here, her big water number (other than the channel crossing in the finale) is an animated water ballet with none other than Tom and Jerry, making their first full length screen appearances ever since dancing with Gene Kelly in "Anchor's Aweigh". Here, Tom gets to do more than serve Jerry, and they are also joined by a cute turtle doing the back stroke and an amorous octopus who happens to sing like Lamas. Great fun. Take the kiddies.

moonspinner55 A farm family from Arkansas is tapped to swim in a race across the English Channel as part of a health drink promotional campaign. MGM musical isn't smothered with the usual studio-gloss, and Esther Williams is spunky and likable, but the plot is still pretty thin. Esther's on-screen romance with Fernando Lamas generated sparks off-screen (they were soon married in real-life), yet only a smidgen of this chemistry makes it into the movie. It is probably best remembered for the wonderful dream sequence wherein Williams swims with various cartoon characters, including Tom and Jerry. Not too bad: **1/2 from ****

looseWasp Esther Williams has the misfortune to be born to a family of irrepressible morning people. You know the type: always perky and cheerful first thing in the morning and ready to beat it into you if you're not. Esther enters a contest to swim the English Channel, and for some reason the time of the race is set only the night before. Wouldn't you know it, that's the night she's chosen to go out drinking with Fernando Lamas.All in all, a delightful piece of fluff. This is the one where Esther dances a water ballet with Tom and Jerry.