User Reviews

Something that was widely reported in the Black press at the time of this films release was the fact that popular singer Billy Eckstine was told by the MGM brass not to look directly at Ms. Williams when he performed his number in the film. I was told this by a number of people who remembered it causing something of a sensation at the time in the Black community. This is one of the very few times that Mr. Eckstine was to appear on film at all, much less in a major Hollywood film. It just points up the irony the many black performers faced when appearing in film made by the Hollywood major studios. Mr Eckstine was never again to my knowledge appear in a major film, although he appeared a great deal on television. An interesting side note, his wife June was to have a major supporting role in "Band of Angels" about three years later.

Isobel Lennart wrote "Skirts Ahoy," which is apparently a minor musical in Esther Williams' catalogue. True, it's not dominated by flashy, brassy, spectacular numbers with fountains and trapezes to distract us from the inconsequential story--but rather by the character-driven story with a few modest, distracting numbers. Like Lennart's other scripts I've noticed, including "It Happened in Brooklyn," it's characterized by modesty, sympathy and intelligence. In fact, it looks like someone at the studio decided it needed spicing up because there's a gratuitous number dropped in that looks like it was shot later; it stars an unbilled Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van and Keenan Wynn.

Lennart's scripts are about co-operation and consideration among characters, instead of external conflict and egocentric desires. Three diverse women become WAVES and learn to look out for each other as "good shipmates." It's kind of a bildungsroman where the girls grow up to be new mature adults. The message is spelled out at their graduation when the commander says "You've learned what many girls never have a chance to learn, that there are other people in the world besides yourself, that women don't have to be dependent weak sisters, catty, backbiting, or the natural enemy of each other. In other words, that women can be friends." She's really speaking less to the women than to the film audience. You might think that's a typical wartime message, but it's quite different from how it might have been put: pulling together for the good of the country so our boys can do the tough fighting, etc. The point is about the nature of women and what it means for them, and nothing "larger" than that.

Most pertinent is the education of the male lead, Esther's boyfriend, who's almost a supporting character. His conflict is typical of a thousand other movies. He resents Esther's forwardness, he feels his masculinity threatened, and he even speaks in terms of being the hunter chasing rabbits. At this point, in any other movie, she would get in a huff, then learn her lesson and either switch roles demurely, resigning herself to being feminine, or at best "subvert" the lesson by pretending to let him think he's in charge. What does Lennart have her do instead? She takes no for an answer, drops it and never comes near him again. Then at the end, to "finish it" and clear the air before she ships out, she gives him this speech: "I came to apologize. I've been a nuisance and I'm sorry. You see, I thought all you had to do was ask for something and you'd get it. It's always worked before." He says "I wish the whole thing had happened differently." And she says "But I wouldn't have acted any differently. I thought for a while that I could change, that I could try being coy and run and maybe you'd chase me. But I'm really hopeless, completely unteachable, cause if I could get you that way, I wouldn't want ya. I'm not apologizing for the way I acted. That it bothered you, that's what I'm sorry about. I still believe in asking for what I want. What I've learned is not to count on getting it. But that's a lot to learn. It makes things, well it makes things more interesting, if not much fun. Well, goodbye." Of course, this brings him to his senses.

Now I ask you: how often do you hear a woman saying something that mature and self-possessed in a studio musical? She's not playing any game, getting emotional, saying she did anything wrong or asking him to forgive her. It was amazing to hear. It indicates that the movie is as much or more about his (and the audience's) education as the gals'. This is aided, as usual, by the helpful behavior of minor characters whom you might think would be antagonistic--the female commander, a gruff officer in a theatre and Esther's uncle. Lennart's world is a warm, supportive one.

A typical Lennart grace note is Pop, the old plumber who has four scenes. His entire function as a plot device is served in his first scene, when Esther asks his advice about something. Then she runs across him again in the hall when feeling lonely and out of the blue asks him to dance, so they waltz gently around the corridor.

The Harold Warren\Ralph Blane tune lyric quoted in my summary more or less sums up the attitude of MGM's 1952 Esther Williams vehicle SKIRTS AHOY! regarding the relationship between men and women. All three of the featured characters begin their nine weeks' stints at Chicago's Great Lakes Naval Training Center after matrimonial snafus. With a "50:1" male:female ratio, most of the recruits seem hell-bent upon attaining the rank of "Mrs." Other memorable lyrics include "It takes a whole lotta water to make a WAVE; it only takes a little bit of water to make a squirt" (sung during a chicks-get-wet-on-stage sequence that precedes FLASHDANCE's similar spectacle by decades) and "what use is a moonlit night, without a guy to hold you tight?" In between the singing, SKIRTS AHOY! viewers pick up such bon mots as "plumbers know everything there is to know about EVERYTHING--plumbers and garbage men."

Perhaps the nautical highlight, as least for Esther Williams' swim fans, is when this diva of wetness cavorts underwater with a pair of urchins (played by Russell and Kathy Tongay) with a number of yellow props, including a wooden ladder and hula hoop prototypes. Unlike TOP GUN, these trainees are never thrust into a "hot zone," however.

Ankles Aweigh! If Kelly and Sinatra could get two turns to play sailors, why not swimming star Esther Williams? It makes sense for Williams to be in the navy, but when she is sadly lacking is a story. What she does get is a fine co-star in Vivian Blaine who plays a naval version of "Guys and Dolls'" Miss Adelaide, utilizing that voice she hadn't supplied in earlier films. Third female co-star Joan Evans plays an extremely whiny character (surprising because Blaine's voice carries more of a whining pitch, yet she never seems like she is...), a jilted bride who joins the navy to escape her troubles yet at first can't cope. The basic story (what there is) has the three girls on the town getting into all sorts of trouble. They get one really good musical number ("What Good is a Gal Without a Guy?") which deserves classic status even though the film is otherwise mediocre and poorly constructed.

When Ms. Williams does get into the water (with a couple of kids and a clown-faced plastic buoy taking over for Tom and Jerry from "Dangerous When Wet"), the result is mixed. Out of the blue comes a boring marching number that the producers should have nixed, remembering the similar dreadful one that Betty Grable lead in "Pin Up Girl". Top that with a cameo by Debbie Reynolds and Bobby Van in a pointless musical number, and you really begin to see this as "Naval Melody of 1952" rather than a patriotic salute to the Waves. (Williams should have seen the writing on the script, and given the producer a Wac for even suggesting this to her!)

The male romantic interests provide no interest, with poor Barry Sullivan suffering from several indignities, especially one where he's annoyed by Williams in a crowded movie theatre (showing an MGM movie, none the less). I never thought that something would surpass the same year's horrible "About Face" (Warner Brothers), but this pretty much ties it.

Three gals join the WACS, one is a bored rich girl who jilted her fiancé at the aisle, another had her guy jilt her and a third went in on a dare.

Didn't Vivian Blaine sound more like Adelaide from "Guys and Dolls" fame? She was certainly taking a chance on love.

The film is mainly about their love lives, as one would naturally expect.

As the doctor who falls for Esther Williams, Barry Sullivan was given little to do here.

The singing and dancing sequences are nicely done and of course, Williams is at her best in her water swimming scenes.

If nothing else, I loved the graduation marching scenes at Great Lakes, b/c we have a movie reel of my husband, wearing the same dress whites and leggings in 1967 as are featured in the movie. It was nice seeing where he did his training before serving three tours in Vietnam. However, the overacting was a little too much, the songs a tad inane, though I did like The Navy Waltz. IMO, the most laughable line in the whole movie was when the recruits got off the bus to begin their boot camp training and one girl remarks, "Say! They didn't tell me there'd be MEN here!". WHAT??? Who wrote this drivel? If all else failed, it made me want to go swimming!