Thursday, June 21, 2018

Jupiter's Darling (1955), 8 Color, WS

Fabius loves his beautiful but vulnerable city, Rome, and he also loves his beautiful but invulnerable fiancée, Amytis. Fascinated by the tales she has heard about Hannibal, who is about to...
1h 35min || 10 February 1955 | Color, WS
Director: George Sidney
Stars: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, George Sanders, Richard Haydn, William Demarest.
Hermes Pan ... choreographer

Genres: Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Musical | Romance
Bootleg, letterboxed on 4 sides, blurry.

This is EW's last H'wood swimmer; she appears to swim in her last film with husband F.Lamas, made in Italy.

This is a very enjoyable historical spoof.

I did spot Douglas Dumbrille as the Roman general, Michael Ansara in Hannibal's tent (no dialog?, but screen credit) while planning the attack.

Songs performed (7 chapters, no menu):
  • ch1. Horatio's Narration, sung by Richard Haydn
  • ch1. If This Be Slav'ry, Sung and Danced by Marge Champion and Gower Champion 
  • ch2. I Had A Dream, Sung by Esther Williams (dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) 
  • ch2. Hannibal's Victory March (?), sung by HK & chorus
  • ch3. Never Trust A Woman, Sung by Howard Keel 
  • ch3. non-musical swim scene: EW pushes the floating, non-swimming HK across the surface
  • ch4. Don't Let This Night Get Away, sung by HK 
  • ch5. The Life Of An Elephant, Danced by Marge Champion and Gower Champion 
  • ch6. non-musical underwater chase sequence, with EW outswimming Hannibal's men, on location at Blue Cavern Point, Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California
  • ch??. This Is What I Love (not on the AFI catalog page.)
In the Slav'ry number, the choreography is very cute, mimicking ancient art on urns, etc. with angular arms and legs, plus M&G do their usual athletic adagio.

The Dream number is where EW swims with underwater statuary that comes to life. Amazing that the makeup didn't come off onto EW. The swimming cherubs looked like real children, not midgets. At least everyone had those big columns to hide breathing aparati. 

HK looks great in ancient togs; his thighs are impressive. I also like him with the beard.

EW is her usual athletic self, from the opening chariot sequence to the final bare-legged costume.

Guilty pleasure: the performing elephants. I wonder if any of them also performed in M&L's 3 Ring Circus ('54).

MGM, dir. Sidney; 8
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