Dangerous When Wet (1953) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Dangerous When Wet
Year: 1953
Director: Charles Walters
Country: US
Language: English

Get your mind out of the gutter, this isn't one of THOSE movies. I mean, this does feature some decent looking women in skin-tight bikinis, but this is the 50's and Tom & Jerry make an appearance so...no, you won't get Russ Meyer level nudity. Oddly enough this is marketed as a family picture and the uplifting tone does fit in line with the rest of their family pictures of that era. While researching 1950's musicals I decided to check out Dangerous When Wet and analyze why I hadn't heard of it sooner.

In this, a young woman (Esther Williams) enters a contest to be the first to swim the English Channel. 

In her autobiography, Esther Williams says her film plots were rather generic and that she felt she was being typecast on many occasions. Indeed she has starred in more than one film where her character was a swimmer (Bathing Beauty in 1944 & Million Dollar Mermaid in 1952) and those films had more theatrical swimming scenes. Despite being filmed in a back lot water tank, Dangerous When Wet has a more authentic feel than those previous films. 

Perhaps the first film I've seen Esther Williams in, her acting did manage to win me over. Due to her being so charismatic, I found her struggle rather riveting and I was hoping she would surpass her English Channel goal. Williams’ famous swim with Tom and Jerry is an impressive blend of live action and animation for the early 50's. The technology would be surpassed, but for the time it was an animation benchmark. 

Dangerous When Wet is pure escapism, a wonderful delight for the soul. It's hard not to be entranced by the beauty of this film, especially considering its many catchy musical moments. I particularly liked “I Got Out of Bed on the Right Side". If you're looking for some 50's entertainment that will lift your mood, this is it.