Esther Williams, Swimmingly

Esther Williams, who swam her way into motion picture history, had hopes of being an Olympic swimming champion. But just as she was about to go to Finland as a member of the U.S. Olympic team, Hitler was marching across Europe and the Games were canceled. Williams eventually ended up in Billy Rose’s Aquacade in San Francisco with Johnny Weismuller, the Olympic champion who became famous as the movies’ Tarzan. An agent saw Williams and brought her to Hollywood where she gave new meaning to the term bathing beauty.

Arguably, the role that suited her better than any other was that of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman in “Million Dollar Mermaid.” Watching the current crop of Olympic divers in their comparatively skimpy attire, it’s hard to believe that the Australian swimmer stirred up a scandal 90 years ago when she introduced the one-piece suit onto U.S. beaches. But as this 1952 Mervyn LeRoy Technicolor extravaganza, with Victor Mature and Walter Pidgeon, would have us believe it, the country was outraged--and all eyes.

MGM/UA’s laser version (extended play, 22 chapter stops, 111 minutes, $35) is a clear transfer that neatly captures this rose-colored biography, especially Busby Berkeley’s spectacular aquatic underwater ballet choreographed to Tchaikovsky on Chapter 16. The story may be romanticized, but Williams never looked, or swam, better, a feat today’s Olympians might find tough to equal.

Williams, who championed synchronized swimming as an Olympic event, was always trying to prove she was just as good out of the pool as in the water. One of her better efforts on dry land is “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (MGM/UA Home Video, extended play, 29 chapter stops, 93 minutes, $35). If you’re in the doldrums over the Dodgers’ standings and would like to imagine a team owned by the lovely Williams, this 1949 wisp of cotton candy is for you. The title song is offered not only by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in incomparable hoofing staged by Kelly and Stanley Donen, but also rendered aquatically by Williams (MGM had to throw its star into the water for at least one number).

The laser edition is not only crisper than the tape version, but it also includes the original theatrical trailer and a bonus: a deleted, sappy musical sequence, “Boys and Girls Like You and Me,” that you won’t see in any other format. Chapter stops misidentify the two, however.

There’s more of Esther Williams in her prime available on other recent lasers, with “Jupiter’s Darling” (MGM/UA, 14 chapter stops, letterboxed, extended play, 96 minutes, $35) high on the list. The release (with rather wide banding) includes a seductive dance sequence featuring Marge and Gower Champion (“I Had a Dream”) originally deleted from the film.