edwagreen Lauritz Melchior's rich tenor voice, especially at the beginning and end of this 1947 is worth the price of the entire film.The plot is quite simple. An over zealous man and woman announce the engagement of his son to her daughter, respectively. Problem is that the guy, Johnnie Johnston, has found love with Esther Williams, who entertained him at a convalescent home for war-injured soldiers.We have an all-star cast here. Jimmy Durante is Esther Williams's piano player who immediately distrusts Johnston. As a family friend, he favors the producer of the show she works at. The original cast includes Dame May Witty, quite inquisitive as the grandmother of Williams, but with her austere look in color, she has that facade as she did in Mrs. Miniver, but in a comical way.

richard-1787 This movie is a waste of talent and time - yours if you watch it. The script often makes no sense - nor does the title, as one reviewer pointed out - and it sinks the whole enterprise. Esther Williams' swim numbers aren't at all interesting, nothing like those in movies like Jupiter's Daughter. Melchior gets to sing a lot, but he doesn't sing very well - it's often just loud, as in M'appari. He is much better in Thrill of Romance. The best performance in the movie is, to my mind, Durante's - though it's not one of his better movie appearances. The best number is his The Lost Chord, and that's not a great number.All of these performers have given much better performances elsewhere. Go watch those, and leave this unfortunate mistake to rest in peace.

Sheila_Beers I saw this film many years ago and had forgotten the title until I was looking up "Johnny Johnston" on the website. I remember Johnston from the years he was a panelist on "Password," then hosted by Allen Ludden. When Johnston was introduced on "Password," it was mentioned he once was married to Kathryn Grayson of "Showboat" fame. I remember Johnston as a very attractive blond man with a terrific smile and sparkling personality when he served as a panelist. Yet, I did not realize Johnston had portrayed the love interest of Esther Williams in "This Time For Keeps." At any rate, I will track down DVDs of this movie and others in which Johnston appeared and the CD remakes of his vocal recordings (hit singles and movie soundtracks)during the 1930s and 1940s. It is unfortunate his talent was not more appreciated during his lifetime, as he passed away January 6, 1996.

guil fisher What better entertainment. Once again, Esther Williams proves she's the queen of the MGM swimming spectacles. In glorious technicolor and looking like the dish she is, Miss Williams gives a delightful frothy performance. Her water scenes are very glamorous with underwater swimming scenes that take your breath away [kidding aside]. Add to this the comedic and charming Jimmy Durante who's a sort of fatherly type looking out for his swimming star. He too does some swimming, if you can believe it. The love interest in this flick is not one of the MGM stable studs you usually see [Van Johnson, Howard Keel or Fernando Lamas] but a pop singer of the times, Johnny Johnston, who has little film to his credit. He sings well, looks like a decent enough guy, but just doesn't have the stuff leading men are made of. A pleasant performance but not strong enough to allure the mermaid out of the water tank. Then there's Dame May Whitty, one of England's and MGM's stronger character women [remember her in Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES?] playing Esther's grandmother who once was a famous bareback rider in the circus, if you can believe it. And Lauritz Melchoir, the opera singer, who MGM was trying to make their newest singing star, playing the boy's papa. Not likely. More like grandpapa. But listen, for pure entertainment, silly plot and oh, those glorious swimming scenes and Esther Williams in gold lame bathing suits, who cares? Look for Richard Simmons in the rejected suitor scenes. He is always turning up in this type of role in most of the MGM musicals as boy friend, producer or whatever. Same type of role in ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU, another Williams musical, this time with Peter Lawford and Ricardo Montalban as her suitors. And round and round we go. But don't stop, Esther, you are a living doll, wet or dry.