This is a review for the The 100 Years of Esther Williams Blogathon taking place this week and being hosted by Michaela of Love Letters to Old Hollywood
Tnx for letting me partake Michaela!
“I don’t want him to go. I want him to stay. You can live your own life if you want to, but leave mine alone.” – Ellen Hallet
Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Aug 2021)
Brief Synopsis – A women decides to help her friend by pretending to pursue the boss she is in love with across the country.
My Take on it – Before joining this blogathon, I knew almost nothing about the career of Esther Williams and randomly chose three films to watch that seemed to have interesting premises.
This movie has an intriguing idea that just doesn’t work well enough.
The story and characters don’t feel unique and tend to make things move along in a strange and boring fashion.
The musical numbers help keep the story afloat and allows for certain scenes to feel more fun than they probably should be.
Van Johnson is great here and he and Esther Williams have superb chemistry together as their characters start to fall in love with one another.
The story is far too predictable for its own god and that takes away a bit because there aren’t many surprises along the way.
The scheme set up by the two main characters seems like it should work in a movie, but in reality the way this story plays out feels a bit too far fetched for its own good.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – “Warm Hands, Cold Heart” (music and lyrics by Al Rinker and Floyd Huddleston), sung by Mel Tormé, was deleted from this film, leaving The Velvet Fog tuneless and with only a bit of dialogue. (From IMDB)
Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)
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MovieRob 
This is actually one of my favorite Esther movies, but I’ll admit it took a second (maybe even a third) viewing for it to get there. And I’m still not sure John Lund was the best casting, which does hurt the movie a bit. Still, Esther and Van Johnson are incredible together and I think they both give terrific performances.
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