Press Release Warner Archive Collection Announcement: Bathing Beauty (1944) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Coming from the Warner Archive Collection on September 24th!

New 2024 1080p HD master from a new 4K scan of the Original Nitrate Technicolor® Camera Negatives

BATHING BEAUTY (1944)
BD-50
101 Minutes
COLOR
DTS-HD MA 2.0
Aspect ratio: 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Subtitles: English SDH
Cast: Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Basil Rathbone
SPECIAL FEATURES: TCM PRIVATE SCREENINGS with ESTHER WILLIAMS, hosted by Robert Osborne, Classic M-G-M cartoon MOUSE TROUBLE (HD), Classic M-G-M short MAIN STREET TODAY, Original Theatrical Trailer
SYNOPSIS: Hoping to win back his estranged swimming coach wife (Esther Williams), a love-struck songwriter (Red Skelton) enrolls in a women’s college, and graduates summa cum laude in comedy! Red’s in rare form and Esther’s in formfitting swimsuits in this delightfully musical farce. Bathing Beauty begins with a splash: Xavier Cugat plays, Red clowns and Esther plunges into a pool. And from there things go, well, swimmingly. The college is lauded with pretty M-G-M starlets. Cugie shakes up more hot South American rhythms. Harry James swings into help North American sounds, and a fine cast including Basil Rathbone, Donald Meek, Janis Paige, and Margaret Dumont give expert support. The finale is a wowser of a water ballet, featuring Hollywood’s favorite bathing beauty swimming gracefully along alternating jets of water and flame. But Esther isn’t the only artistic lovely. When production began, the film’s title was “Mr. Co-Ed”, with Skelton positioned to be the center of attraction, but M-G-M soon found out as filming continued, that the film was going to catapult Esther Williams into screen super-stardom, leading to the film being released with the title Bathing Beauty with Esther becoming one of the studio’s biggest stars in a series of Technicolor® aquatic entertainments for over a decade.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Reserved for Amazon Pre-order Link.

 

[lark144]

This has some super-duper delirious musical sequences in it, with Xavier Cugat and in particular the final water ballet a psychedelic fever dream, including use of crane shots timed to the nth degree with performers pouncing every which way--as well as color combinations that would make Carmen Miranda blush--which has to be Busby Berkley, though he's not credited.

 

[Robert Harris]

Buster Keaton was brought in as gag consultant.

 

[Robin9]

I like Esther Williams and she's at her most attractive in this film so I'd anyway be inclined to buy this disc. Now add New 2024 1080p HD master from a new 4K scan of the Original Nitrate Technicolor® Camera Negatives . . . . . and that's it! Game over, decision made, I'm buying!

 

[Will Krupp]

Finally, yaaaayy!

I'm not really much of a Red Skelton fan but I can't seem to resist him when he's paired with Esther. This one feels like a long time coming (probably just because I was waiting and waiting for it.)

Day one for me!

 

[Mark B]

Thank you! Now I can replace another of the Esther titles from that first collection of DVDs that rotted away. The Private Screenings is a lot of fun even if the film is only so-so with a few genuine water splashing highlights.

 

[lark144]

Finally, yaaaayy!

I'm not really much of a Red Skelton fan but I can't seem to resist him when he's paired with Esther. This one feels like a long time coming (probably just because I was waiting and waiting for it.)

Day one for me!

I've never been a Red Skelton fan either, even when I was a child, but find him less offensive here, and occasionally even likable. Could it be the pink tutu?

 

[Will Krupp]

Could it be the pink tutu?

It doesn't hurt

 

[Joel Arndt]

This has some super-duper delirious musical sequences in it, with Xavier Cugat and in particular the final water ballet a psychedelic fever dream, including use of crane shots timed to the nth degree with performers pouncing every which way--as well as color combinations that would make Carmen Miranda blush--which has to be Busby Berkley, though he's not credited.

Actually, John Murray Anderson choreographed the water ballet finale. He was better known for his work on stage.

I'm really looking forward to this one. In all previous iterations (VHS, LD and DVD) about half the film has a brown cast, so this should look magnificent in all of its 3-strip Technicolor glory.

 

[Robert Harris]

One of six M-G-M Tech productions in 1944. For perspective, WB has only a single sequence.

 

[Joel Arndt]

One of six M-G-M Tech productions in 1944. For perspective, WB has only a single sequence.

Shine On Harvest Moon. I thought I read somewhere that WB had planned to film the entire production in Technicolor, but there weren't enough Tech cameras available?

 

[Randy Korstick]

I will be getting this one for Red Skelton.

 

[Will Krupp]

Thank you! Now I can replace another of the Esther titles from that first collection of DVDs that rotted away.

You know, for some reason, Easy to Wed still plays for me after all these years. I know it's only a matter of time, but the rest have already given up the ghost.

even if the film is only so-so

Not a fan of Ethel Smith and her magic organ????

 

[Matt Hough]

In Mother Goddam, Bette Davis said that the original intention was to film Mr. Skeffington in color, but Natalie Kalmas wouldn't okay a majority of pastel colors that were intended to be used, so Warners decided on B&W.

 

[lark144]

Actually, John Murray Anderson choreographed the water ballet finale. He was better known for his work on stage.

I'm really looking forward to this one. In all previous iterations (VHS, LD and DVD) about half the film has a brown cast, so this should look magnificent in all of its 3-strip Technicolor glory.

I'm aware Mr. Anderson, one of the legends of musical theater, who also worked on King of Jazz, and did many water ballets at places like Radio City Music Hall and Billy Rose's Golden Horseshoe, was the choreographer of the water ballet. I'm not talking about the way the figures are arranged or how the performers move but the way they are photographed, with those crazy crane shots, those trippy colors, especially how the camera movements recapitulate the beating of a human heart, all reminiscent of Berkley's work in Footlight Parade and the finale of The Gang's All Here, which is very different from any of the other sequences done by Mr. Murray that are preserved on film and have come down to us. I know Berkley was at MGM at the time and worked uncredited on many production numbers in the early 1940's. It's just so distinctive, so personal, especially the way the camera is used, no one else really ever achieved that, though they tried. It's so unlike either Anderson's or George Sidney's other work, and looks so much like Berkley's, I wonder if he had anything to do with it.

 

[Mark B]

You know, for some reason, Easy to Wed still plays for me after all these years. I know it's only a matter of time, but the rest have already given up the ghost.



Not a fan of Ethel Smith and her magic organ????

On the contrary, I like Ethel quite a bit and have several of her LPs. I was referring more to the non-musical bits. The dog and door bit is definitely a Keaton routine. Genius.

 

[OLDTIMER]

Someone at Warner's is obviously an Esther Williams fan - not that I'm complaining! Ethel Smith is a delight on the Hammond organ.

 

[The-Cinema-Upstairs]

I was so excited to hear about the release of this film!! It should look AWESOME!

I hope there are more to come as my "top three" most anticipated Esther Williams titles haven't received a Blu ray release yet.

 

[Joel Arndt]

I was so excited to hear about the release of this film!! It should look AWESOME!

I hope there are more to come as my "top three" most anticipated Esther Williams titles haven't received a Blu ray release yet.

So Adam, please spill. What are your "top three" Esther Williams films you'd like to see released on Blu-ray? BTW, welcome to HTF. I hope you enjoy this forum as much as I have over the past 15 plus years.

I'd welcome any of Williams' films on Blu-ray, but my top three after this one would be Thrill of a Romance, Easy to Love and Jupiter's Darling.