Film Review: Neptune's Daughter (1949)

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

Narrator of the film is Joe Backett (played by Keenan Wynn), owner of Neptune bathing suit production company. Aquatic ballet dancer Eve Barrett (played by Esther Williams), after initial rejection, decides to become his partner, but not only to provide publicity, but also to take part in designing company’s products. When Eve’s sister and room mate Betty (played by Betty Garrett) learns about South American polo team arriving to the city to play highly publicised match at local country club, she decides to go and meet its handsome playboy captain Jose O’Rourke (played by Ricardo Montalban). He, on the other hand, requires services of a masseur, and they are being provided by Jack Spratt (played by Red Skelton). When Betty arrives, she mistakes Jack for Jose. Jack is attracted to Betty and decides to pretend that he is Jose. That leads to all kinds of misunderstandings when Jose 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 Jose.

Esther Williams, thanks to rare combination of swimming talent, good looks and acting ability, became 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 paper-light plot based around simple comedy of errors that nevertheless gives opportunity for Williams to show some chemistry with Ricardo Montalban, Mexican actor with whom she had worked in two previous films. Williams’ performance is even more impressive in light of her being pregnant with first child during production, a fact that she managed to hide from 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 Lesser’s song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, which was brought as replacement for “Slow Boat to China”, which had been deemed sexually suggestive by ultra-prudish censors of Hays Office. Ironically, Loesser’s replacement would ultimately win Oscar for Best Original Song and, even more ironically, many decades later become target of bans and censorship by “wokesters” over lyrics that allegedly promote date rape. The biggest problem for Neptune’s Daughter is presence of Keenan Wynn, otherwise fine character actor whose character seems superfluous. Some of today’s viewers might complain about “politically incorrect” ethnic stereotyping, like in the form of Mexican stable hand Pancho, who is played by legendary voice actor Mel Blanc. Buzzell’s film nevertheless works as easily digestible piece of Classic Hollywood entertainment with bright Technicolor images, likeable songs and good looking actors that can bring audience in world that looks magical. It looked even more magical to the 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 warming of relations between USA and Yugoslavia. Buzzell’s film, distributed under title Bal na vodi (literally “Ball on Water”), left strong impression on audiences and was given homage in eponymous 1985 film directed by Jovan Aćin (known under English title Hey Babu Riba).

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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