This Time For Keeps (1947)

A returning soldier (Johnny Johnston) finds himself being pushed into both a career in opera and a marriage, neither of which he wants. When he falls in love with an aquacade star (Esther Williams), he keeps his problems and past from her. Directed by Richard Thorpe (IVANHOE) with the water ballets and dances choreographed by Stanley Donen (SINGIN' IN THE RAIN). Easily Esther Williams' worst movie and I've seen all of them. This slight story is padded out with Williams' water ballets, Johnston's love songs, opera pieces sung by the bellowing Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior (who plays Johnston's father), novelty numbers by Jimmy Durante and Latin numbers by Xavier Cugat. All the padding does is to elongate the tedium. It doesn't help that Williams is stuck with the dull Johnston as a leading man. On the plus side, there's the handsome three strip Technicolor lensing by Karl Freund (Lang's METROPOLIS) and some nice location shots of Mackinac Island in Michigan including the Grand Hotel which served as a backdrop for SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980). With Dame May Whitty as Williams' grandmother, Kenneth Tobey, Dick Simmons and the sad faced child actress, Sharon McManus.