Thrill of a Romance (1945)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

MGM could always depend on an ESTHER WILLIAMS movie to be breezy fun for movie fans who wanted escapism during the '40s in the form of light entertainment. And that's what they get here. VAN JOHNSON, a war hero she meets at a mountain resort, is her romantic interest and occasional swimming partner while her husband, CARLTON G. YOUNG, is neglecting her by performing his business duties.And, of course, you have to have music in an Esther Williams movie. So, they have LAURITZ MELCHIOR, the chubby tenor from the Met, serving as a sort of S.Z. Sakall type providing gentle humor and suave charm in between some robust songs. Then they have TOMMY DORSEY and his Orchestra for fans of contemporary music with Buddy Rich beating on the drums.The other standard ingredient is lush Technicolor that makes the most of some stunning scenery as well as some gorgeous shots of Esther in various swimming suits doing her thing in a pool of Olympic proportions. She also looks good on land in a series of smart outfits.The weakness is a thin story that needs all the padding it gets. But for Esther Williams/Van Johnson fans, this had all the standard ingredients they looked for in this sort of musical.

Esther is the brand-new bride of a wealthy businessman on her honeymoon. She apparently packed 4 swimsuits complete with matching colored plastic flowers for her hair. Her clothes, particularly one green gown with white flowers, are captivating. It's also fun to compare this time's concept of the "manly physique" with ours. Van is most appealing when in his tight officer's jacket that shows broad (padded?) shoulders tapering to a flat waistline. But when he's swimming... he has the muscle definition of an office worker. Gorgeous mountain scenery, and the tenor can really belt it out. Has a young black teen tenor, too, and although they do the "shaky knees and rolling eyes" bit - isn't that what all black people do when they're nervous? - they don't condescend to him and the white older tenor pays for his voice lessons. The plot line is so weak, it's funny - you can see a song set-up a mile away, but if you suspend disbelief, you'll enjoy it!

This movie does actually have a plot, but you're better off not bothering with it. Van Johnson and Esther Williams do their best with it, but the plot is truly of no interest. They both made much better movies, and probably few others this weak.That is not to say that the movie is not worth watching, however. But its merits are strictly musical. Tommy Dorsey gets some good numbers with his band, but the true star of the picture, much more important than his billing would lead you to believe, is Metropolitan Opera tenor Lauritz Melchior. At this point, Melchior was winding down his career at the Met - he would be one of the "old timers" to go when Rudolf Bing arrived and did a lot of "house cleaning." And perhaps the performances he was giving there were no longer what they should have been. But in this movie, he really steals the show. He plays an over-weight tenor, a part that fitted him to a T, with an affability and sense of humor that make him seem completely at ease on the screen, unlike too many of his Met colleagues who had taken their turns in Hollywood. He also sings with a voice that is still rock solid. And he has a lot of numbers, from his classical standards like Grieg's "Ich liebe dich" and "Vesti la giubba" to some pop numbers, of which the best is the closing one: "Please don't say no, say maybe." Go out to make popcorn while the plot is advancing, but make sure you come back for the musical numbers!

It is difficult to discern the main theme of this film because the script is in itself confusing. Most likely it has to do with the extraordinary number of hasty marriages which took place in America during World War Two. The problems surrounding such marriages seemed insurmountable. For example, need marriages of convenience be honored as Cynthia Glenn (Esther Williams) attempts to do when her husband goes to Washington for a week-long meeting during their Honeymoon? Tens of thousands of real life soldiers did in fact leave their new wives shortly after the ceremony, many times leaving unresolved domestic problems as well. Cynthia, a swimming instructor, falls in love with a Major Milvaine (Van Johnson) the non-swimmer, and the complication begins. The value of this film is that a Homefront problem is addressed within the frame of fairly good acting by both Johnson and Williams. Can Cynthia keep swimming with the Major without sinking her marriage?