50
Metascore
5 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineLeRoy's direction is apparently nonexistent, but what this movie really lacks is a good musical score with tunes by someone like Harry Warren, Richard Rodgers, or Cole Porter.
- 60Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderAnother audacious MGM aquacade, this 1952 Mervyn LeRoy extravaganza stars Esther Williams as the famed Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman and Victor Mature as the man who discovers first her and then Rin Tin Tin. But the real star is, as always, Busby Berkeley, who contributes more of his Ken Russell-ish wet dreams.
- 50The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherLike the stage show, this Technicolored shindig, which laughingly pretends to be a biography of the famous swimmer, Annette Kellerman, is a luxuriance of razzle-dazzle that includes Hippodrome acts, water ballets, bathing suit shows, diving performances, low comedy, anachronisms and clichés. It also includes an abundance of Miss Williams and Victor Mature, but it does not include the felicities of a reasonably fascinating script.
- 50The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelThe picture's only claim on one's attention is in the two sequences staged by Busby Berkeley.