Million Dollar Mermaid

From the 1940s to the 1950s, swimming, singing, dancing star Esther Williams was MGMs top grosser, and MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID, directed by Mervyn LeRoy (GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933, SWEET ADELINE), is widely considered Williams's best work. In it, Williams stars in the real-life story of Annette Kellerman, Williams's predecessor as a professional swimmer who turned into a movie star. Kellerman is an Australian who battles her childhood physical handicap by swimming in the local pond. Kellerman soon becomes Australia's swimming champion and moves to Europe to compete in the big leagues. Arriving in England, she meets publicist James Sullivan (Victor Mature), who arranges for her to swim 17 miles across the Thames. For the next stunt, Sullivan has Kellerman appear in a one-piece suit in Revere, the beach closest to Boston. She is arrested for indecent exposure, but the scandal achieves the publicity necessary to start Kellerman's film career. With underwater sequences choreographed by Busby Berkeley, MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID is not to be missed. (Verleiher-Text)