I watched two new movies this week: On An Island With You (1948) with Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Cyd Charisse, and Ricardo Montalban. I have to confess, I was completely taken with Ricardo Montalban, so I moved Neptune's Daughter (1949) up to the top of my queue and watched that today.
Both of the movies were pretty cute, if a little loose on plot. Like many musicals, the high points were the songs. I admit, I'm not much of an Esther Williams fan. I think she's adorable and a beautiful actress, but I'm not very interested in her water ballets. On An Island With You has a really strange plot line and the final romances don't really have much buildup - the outcome is pretty predictable, but I wanted it to make a little more sense. Neptune's Daughter was very cute, but I didn't like the "happy ending" too much because, in my opinion, Keenan Wynn's character got a little gipped.
But like I said earlier, the songs really make up for a lot. In On An Island With You Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Cherisse dance two duets and they're absolutely fantastic! I was looking forward to Neptune's Daughter because I really wanted to see how they filmed "Baby, It's Cold Outside." I really like that song and they did a great job with it. There's another song, too, "My Heart Beats Faster" that's really good.
I have to say that the main selling point for me on these two movies is Mr. Montalban. I can't quite figure out how I've never seen his movies before, quite possibly because he did few musicals (unless I've overlooked some - in which case, please let me know!). But he's a good singer and a very good dancer and he's quite nice to look at! So, if you're looking for some cute, light musicals, look into these two.
