The One Piece Bathing Suit

Original title: Million Dollar Mermaid

1952
U
1h 55m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Victor Mature, David Brian, and Esther Williams in The One Piece Bathing Suit (1952)

Biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.

Play trailer1:10

1 Video

23 Photos

Biography Drama Musical Romance Sport

Biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered ind... Read allBiopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.Biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 2 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 1:10

Official Trailer

Photos23

+ 17

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In an interview Esther Williams said that she met and spoke with Annette Kellerman before filming began, while attempting to get Kellerman's approval of Williams in the lead role. After the meeting Kellerman gave her complete approval and said she was pleased with the casting choice, though she good-naturedly complained that Williams was much prettier than her.

Goofs
Annette Kellerman (Esther Williams) tells the judge that her swimsuit "will cover the entire body except the *forearms* and the head." However, the swimsuit she exhibits in court and which she wears in the following scenes does not cover *any part of her arms*.

Quotes
James Sullivan: Baby, somewhere along the line, we got our signals crossed. You've got it into your head that you're Joan of Arc. Well, get it out fast. You're a swimmer doing a tank act in Sullivan's water carnival, and not a bad show either.
Annette Kellerman: And how long can it last? After all, all we're doing is capitalizing on a lot of cheap bathing suit publicity.
James Sullivan: Well, what do you think this Aldrich thing is anyway? All he's trying to do is cash in on the same dodge, a ballyhoo that I arranged.
Annette Kellerman: That you arranged?
James Sullivan: Sure. Who do you think got that cop to arrest you?
Annette Kellerman: Oh no, Jimmy, you didn't.
James Sullivan: Didn't I?
Annette Kellerman: Can you stand there... what about all that talk of a crusade and how...
James Sullivan: Bunk. Who cares what a lot of females wear on the beach, as long as I can keep you in a one-piece bathing suit? Baby, you're a swimmer. You belong in the water. Wet, you're terrific. Dry, you're just a nice girl who ought to settle down and get married.
Annette Kellerman: Thank you very much for the advice. One thing I know for sure, if and when I do get married, it will never be to a cheap, stubborn, flea circus proprietor.
James Sullivan: This flea circus does alright for the fleas in it, except when they jump out of their cages.

Connections
Featured in That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)

Soundtracks
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
(uncredited)
Music by Leo Friedman
Lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson
Played during the opening credits
Sung by the patrons in the ship's lounge
Played often in the score

User reviews24

Review

Featured review

Pretty, but one can get some false impressions from seeing it

This film is very interesting and expensively mounted. I recommend it with a few caveats. For instance, the water ballets could not have looked the way they looked in the film because they simply did not have the electrical devices necessary in the 1910s and 1920s to create these effects. They did in the 1950s, of course.

Secondly, Annette's former flame, Mr. Sullivan, was not the guy who raised and trained Rin-Tin-Tin and got him started in Hollywood. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this was in the film. Lee Duncan, a former Army airman, was Rinty's owner and trainer, and as far as I know he had no connection to Annette. I don't know why 1950s biographical film had the tendency to do this sort of thing, but it is very common.