Assigned as a technical adviser on a movie shooting in the South Pacific, a Navy Lieutenant (Peter Lawford) pursues the film's leading lady (Esther Williams) despite the fact that she's engaged to her leading man (Ricardo Montalban). How does one critique an Esther Williams movie? By the quality of her swimming numbers? This flimsy piece of Technicolor cotton candy is an amiable way of squandering a couple of hours but it offers nothing beyond the usual romantic mix-ups and Williams gracefully gliding through swimming tanks disguised as tropical lagoons. Cyd Charisse gets to do two dance numbers and Jimmy Durante milks the corniest jokes and, God bless him, still manages to make you laugh. Since this a 1940s MGM musical, of course, there's Xavier Cugat and his orchestra pounding out those Latin American rhythms. Oddly, the movie is inconsistent with the darker toned make-up sported by Williams' and Charisse when they play native island girls in the movie within the movie. In some scenes it's there and in other scenes, it's their natural skin tone. Florida substitutes for the South Pacific. Directed by Richard Thorpe. With Leon Ames, Marie Windsor, Dick Simmons and Betty Reilly.
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