On an Island with You (1948)

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Despite some reviews to the contrary, I would have to say that this is arguably Esther Williams' best movie, along with Bathing Beauty. Your enjoyment of it may depend on whether you like Peter Lawford as Esther's love interest and how you react to what he does. It may seem a bit contrived and/or unrealistic, but, I don't think you're supposed to be thinking a lot anyway. Jimmy Durante is on hand to perform some of his best work. Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse make a very believable couple and have several very memorable and sensuous dance numbers; they almost seem more suited than Esther and Ricardo in "Neptune's Daughter." If you want to be alone with these good-looking people and Jimmy, this is where you want to be: on an island with Esther.

Thin and fairly dull Esther Williams vehicle, with Peter Lawford as her love interest. Williams and Lawford are both boring, and have no chemistry together. They are upstaged by just about every single other person in the cast, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Durante (whom you'd think was the star of the movie as much as he's in it), Kathryn Beaumont and even a chihuahua. Williams does have a good swimming number near the end, and she wears some fantastic costumes. I can't say anything good about Lawford. Recently departed dancer Cyd Charisse has the two best sequences in the movie, an erotic dance with Montalban and, the best scene in the movie, her dance on the stairs, aided by a group of masked natives. The Technicolor cinematography is beautiful throughout the movie, but it's downright dazzling in that number. At first I thought this was going to be a poor choice in honoring Charisse, but it turned out to be perfect. Child star Kathryn Beaumont went on to provide the voices for Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Wendy Darling. The DVD for this was stunning.

Ha cha cha, Jimmy Durante is his usual wonderful Schnozzola character, and Esther Williams is so lovely and is fabulous.A very young and studly Peter Lawford doing his best 'Navy man' impression.Great music, dancing, comedy. Classic movie musical.You can't go wrong with this cast!Esther Williams made oh so many of these movies, but this is one of the better ones she made. I love swimming and she was truly the swim movie Queen of all time! Nobody like her!It's cool to see this film on TV and video. Keep up the great work at re issuing the old classic Technicolor movies from the 40's and 50's--they just don't make 'em like this anymore!

First off, the technicolor is beautiful. The staging is terrific. But anytime I have to watch Esther Williams,the wet one, when someone as attractive as Cyd Charisse is there is a mystery to me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Cyd broke her leg during this movie, was unable to do the dance sequence herself, and had to drop out of the line-up for Easter Parade, where her part was taken by Ann Miller, not a bad dancer herself. The sappy things that Peter Lawford had to say to Esther Williams were the responsibility of the writers, I suppose, but that didn't make it any easier to listen to. Peter Lawford and Ricardo Montalban were very juicy looking male leads. Cugat's music is timeless, and I guess some people enjoy Jimmy Durante doing the same old thing. This really isn't a bad movie, but musicals, particularly wet ones, need to be excellent to make us forget how artificial the whole thing is.