Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)

The recent release of The Esther Williams collection Vol. 2 showcases one of the 1940's - 50's most popular stars. The set contains 6 films from the swimming sensation including "Thrill of a Romance" (45), "Fiesta" (47), "This Time for Keeps" (47), "Pagan Love Song" (50), "Easy to Love" (53) and one of her last aquatic musicals, "Million Dollar Mermaid" (52). The biographical tale of turn of the century Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. But this film is as much about Williams herself, being the perfect vehicle for Esther to dive and swim around a pool. Showing off her amazing talents in a story that no other actress could have accomplished without multiple edits or a stunt double. It is also an interesting marker to view how far woman's rights and the image of the female had come in the short span of 50 years

The story centers around the real life Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. Disabled at a young age by polio, her parents enrolled her in swimming lessons to help strengthen her legs. By the time she was a teenager, she not only had improved from her disability, but was becoming a national swimming and diving sensation. In 1905, at the age of 18, she became the first woman to attempt to swim the English channel and became a leading advocate for the right for women to wear a one-piece bathing suit. From there, she would go on to the vaudeville circuit being credited for helping to invent the sport of synchronized swimming after her 1907 performance of the first water ballet in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome. She would finally arrive in Hollywood and become a film star. In 1916, Kellerman would become the first major actress to do a nude scene when she appeared fully nude in "A Daughter of the Gods". The film was the first million-dollar film production, but no copies are known to exist. The majority of her films had an aquatic theme to them highlighting her swimming talents. Annette performed her own stunts, including diving 60 feet into a pool of crocodiles, and designing her own mermaid costumes. She also appeared in one of the last films made in Prizma Color, "Venus of the South Seas" from 1924. Restored by the Library of Congress in 2004, this 55-minute film, shot in color and underwater, is the only feature film starring Kellerman known to exist in its complete form. Unfortunately, "Million Dollar Mermaid" stays away from the more meaty elements of Annette's life, or glosses over them with more of a comedic slant, such as when she is arrested on a Boston beach for indecency for wearing one of her fitted one-piece bathing suits. But this is a 1950's Hollywood musical, starring one of America's sweethearts, Esther Williams, so you have to understand you will be getting a sugar-coated fantasy.

Esther Williams, the actress who portrays Kellerman, would also has a successful swimming career at a young age. She would become a National swimming champion in the 100 freestyle and had planned to compete in the 1940 Olympics before it was canceled with the outbreak of World War II. She would appear with Johnny Weismuller (of swimming and Tarzan fame) during the San Francisco World's Fair, where she was seen by MGM scouts. Her first appearance in film would be as a love interest opposite Mickey Rooney in "Andy Hardy's Double Life" in 1942. But it was the 1944 feature "Bathing Beauty", with it's water ballet finale that would establish her as a star. MGM would soon create a special sub-genre for her called "aqua-musicals" showcasing her swimming and diving talents. She would spend the next decade at MGM creating 18 such films along a similar light and musical style. "Million Dollar Mermaid" of 1952 would be one of her last aqua-musicals at MGM before moving on to Universal in 1956 to try her hand at more dramatic roles. Like Kellerman, Williams also performed many of her own stunts, resulting in her rupturing her eardrums numerous times and nearly drowning on several occasions. During one of the elaborately musical numbers on "Million Dollar Mermaid", she would break her neck filming a 115 ft dive off of a tower which landed her in a body cast for several months. She would eventual recover, she claims to still have lingering complications from this accident. Although she was married at the time of filming, Esther would reveal in her autobiography that she had a passionate affair with her costar Victor Mature. Citing that at the time her marriage to "an alcoholic parasite" was in trouble and feeling lonely she turned to Mature for love and affection, and he gave her all she wanted.

"Million Dollar Mermaid," also known as "One Piece Bathing Suit", was directed by Mervyn LeRoy (most famous for producing "The Wizard of Oz") and co-starring Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon and Jesse White. The film begins with Kellerman as a young Australian girl longing to dance, but unable because her legs are in braces. She bravely wanders off to a swimming hole where she enters the water and "begins to swim." We soon see multiple edits of her winning swim race after race. On a boat ride to Europe with her father, she meets Jimmy Sullivan, a vaudeville producer who will soon become her manager and love interest. The film follows her rise as a carnival act, headliner at New York's famous Hippodrome theater, and her eventual work in Hollywood. The whole story is the typical musical standard, girl meets boy, falls in love, loses boy and finally come together by the end of the picture. But since this is taken from a true story I wanted a little more. Maybe if it read "inspired by the life of Annette Kellerman" because it all seems a little too much like a tall tale to me. In fact most of the plot of the film is quite fictitious, including Kellerman's romance with Hippodrome producer David Brian and her accident on the set of "Neptune's Daughter." Although she would end up marrying her manager Jimmy Sullivan, he did not discover Rin Tin Tin. I guess I shouldn't look into "fiction" too much since it is just a vehicle for Esther Williams, and it is quite entertaining.


Saying that this film is a musical might throw some people off since it's missing two of the elements you'd aspect from that genre, namely singing and dancing. Many of Williams other films would have co-stars such as Jimmy Durante, Tommy Dorsey and opera stars to supply the musical numbers, but this particular film is without. But the aquatic sequences are staged and filmed like the most elaborate MGM musical numbers, even to the point of having the choreography done by Busby Berkeley (one of his last credited) and Audrene Brier. Berkeley's classic over the head shot showing the "chorus girls" making kaleidoscope moves below is only enhanced by the fluid synchronized swimming moves, as Williams drops from trapeze into the circle below. It is these numbers that make the whole film something special. They are surreal in nature, with the "swimmers" flying in on trapeze through bright red, technicolor smoke or zipping down 3-story water slides. I can't imagine the time to practice these pieces and the amount of takes it took to get what's on film. The possibility of just 1 of the 100's of swimmers to accidentally slip during each lengthy shot almost adds a tension to the piece. The now famous, "fountain and smoke" sequence is included in many documentaries on film, including "That's Entertainment III" (1994). The film would end up being one of the top money makers for MGM and would receive an Academy Award nomination in the Cinematography (Color) category.

It would actually be quite interesting if Hollywood or the Australian film industry would produce a more true to life film around Kellerman. Her life from early disability, to sports star, woman's rights advocate, vaudeville and finally movie star is perfect for the screen. I can see someone like Kate Winslet, a native Australian, completely doing it justice.