Film Review: Neptune's Daughter (1949)

There are Hollywood films that aren’t particularly good or ground-breaking, but that have earned their place in history books as examples of the power the American film industry had over the rest of the world. One of those is Neptune’s Daughter, a 1949 musical comedy directed by Edward Buzzell.

The film’s narrator is Joe Backett (played by Keenan Wynn), owner of the Neptune bathing suit production company. Aquatic ballet dancer Eve Barrett (played by Esther Williams), after initial rejection, decides to become his partner—not only to provide publicity, but also to take part in designing the company’s products. When Eve’s sister and roommate Betty (played by Betty Garrett) learns about a South American polo team arriving in the city to play a highly publicised match at the local country club, she decides to go and meet its handsome playboy captain, José O’Rourke (played by Ricardo Montalbán). He, on the other hand, requires the services of a masseur, which are being provided by Jack Spratt (played by Red Skelton). When Betty arrives, she mistakes Jack for José. Jack is attracted to Betty and decides to pretend that he is José. That leads to all kinds of misunderstandings when José begins romantically pursuing Eve. Things are further complicated when local gangster Lukie Luzette (played by Ted de Corsia) learns about the match and decides to fix it by kidnapping José.

Esther Williams, thanks to a rare combination of swimming talent, good looks and acting ability, became a legendary star of aquatic musicals. Neptune’s Daughter belongs to this subgenre, although the spectacular aquatic dance number appears only at the very end and is relatively short. Before that, the audience is given a paper-light plot based around a simple comedy of errors that nevertheless gives Williams the opportunity to show some chemistry with Ricardo Montalbán, the Mexican actor with whom she had worked in two previous films. Williams’ performance is even more impressive in light of her being pregnant with her first child during production, a fact that she managed to hide from the MGM studio. But she is in many ways outshone by comedian Red Skelton, who gives dignity to some really silly dialogue lines and has great chemistry with Betty Garrett.

Neptune’s Daughter features some decent physical comedy, especially near the end, and there are good musical numbers. The most famous of them is Frank Loesser’s song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, which was brought in as a replacement for “Slow Boat to China”, the latter having been deemed sexually suggestive by the ultra-prudish censors of the Hays Office. Ironically, Loesser’s replacement would ultimately win the Oscar for Best Original Song and, even more ironically, many decades later become the target of bans and censorship by “wokesters” over lyrics that allegedly promote date rape.

The biggest problem for Neptune’s Daughter is the presence of Keenan Wynn, an otherwise fine character actor whose character seems superfluous. Some of today’s viewers might complain about “politically incorrect” ethnic stereotyping, as in the form of the Mexican stable hand Pancho, who is played by legendary voice actor Mel Blanc.

Buzzell’s film nevertheless works as an easily digestible piece of Classic Hollywood entertainment, with bright Technicolor images, likeable songs and good-looking actors that can draw an audience into a world that looks magical. It looked even more magical to audiences that had been deprived of Hollywood films due to complicated Cold War politics. Neptune’s Daughter was one of the first American films to be shown in Yugoslav cinemas after the warming of relations between the USA and Yugoslavia. Buzzell’s film, distributed under the title Bal na vodi (literally “Ball on Water”), left a strong impression on audiences and was given homage in the eponymous 1985 film directed by Jovan Aćin (known under the English title Hey Babu Riba).

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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