Ensofter
Overrated and overhyped
Kimball
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
mbdeaton
Apparently I must be the only one that loves this movie and everything about it. As a child I watched nothing but musicals and I had many favorites. They didn't all have to be perfect but each one was very special to me in their own unique way. "Skirts Ahoy" is one of my all time top favorites and I use to watch it over and over. I use to entertain everyone with my quotes and humorous reenactments of the musical scenes. "Skirts Ahoy" stood out to me as different from the rest and to me there was something very special about it. I think there is so much humor in this movie and a very real side of relationships and life lessons. This movie is very dear to my heart and I haven't seen it in so long. For everyone that dislikes this movie, please let me know if it is ever on TV and I will be happy as a clam to sit and enjoy every second of it while everyone else goes to bed ;)
f111151
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.
marcslope
Esther Williams is top-billed and dripping-wet as usual (an underwater ballet with two cloying kiddies is especially hard to take), but the truly frightening presence here is that of Vivian Blaine, fast on the heels of her Broadway triumph in "Guys and Dolls." She had been a likeable but unremarkable singer at 20th in the 40s, then "G&D" gave her a new persona in the character of Adelaide, the adenoidal, Brooklynese nightclub dancer. Here she's Adelaide in all but name, and her rambunctiousness makes Betty Hutton look timid. Her overemphatic line readings and hoydenishness quickly become wearing, but you don't forget her.Esther, who sang acceptably and had a nice comic sense in addition to her aquatic gifts, is a gracious presence and has more to act than usual. Here she's a headstrong rich girl who learns humility--not exactly a fresh idea, but it's spun out gracefully by screenwriter Isobel Lennart, and given some appealing feminist filigrees. The songs are OK, second-lead Joan Evans is dull, and the nearly two-hour running time feels padded out, especially with a couple of specialty numbers thrown in. But it's a decent Technicolor time-passer, with all that postwar Hollywood patriotism that seems to be coming back in vogue.
alberto f. cañas
A very dull musical, not comparable with what director Sidney Lanfield had made at 20th.Century Fox in the thirties. No wonder this was his last picture. An example of the difference between what the Freed unit and the Pasternak unit were doing at MGM at the time. Of course, Esther Williams was as beautiful as ever.
