Million Dollar Mermaid (also known as The One Piece Bathing Suit in the UK) is a 1952 American biographical drama film about the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr. from a screenplay by Everett Freeman. The music score was by Adolph Deutsch, the cinematography by George Folsey and the choreography by Busby Berkeley.
George Folsey received a 1953 Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Color.
The film stars Esther Williams, Victor Mature, and Walter Pidgeon, with David Brian and Donna Corcoran.
Plot
In the late 19th century, a polio-stricken Australian girl, Annette Kellerman (Esther Williams), swims as a means to improve her health. Her father, Frederick (Walter Pidgeon), who owns a music conservatory, accepts a teaching position in England.
Aboard ship, Annette encounters the American promoter James Sullivan (Victor Mature) and his associate Doc Cronnol (Jesse White), who are taking a boxing kangaroo called Sydney with them to London.
The teaching position falls through, and Jimmy suggests promoting Annette in a six-mile swim to Greenwich. She volunteers to make it 26 miles instead. Word spreads of the swim, and Annette's feat makes news.
Jimmy suggests they can make a fortune by going to New York and appearing in a water ballet at the Hippodrome. Manager Alfred Harper (David Brian) does not offer them a job in the show, so Annette goes to Boston for a highly publicized swim and gets in hot water for wearing a one-piece suit too revealing for its time.
She and Jimmy have a misunderstanding and part ways. Harper has a change of heart and makes Annette headliner of his New York show. After the death of her father, she travels to Montauk at the behest of Doc to try to dissuade Jimmy from flying in an air race with a $50,000 prize. It does not go well.
As time passes, Harper falls in love with Annette while she travels to Hollywood to make a film. Jimmy and Doc turn up, this time promoting a dog called Rin Tin Tin that they hope to star in the movies.
A water tank bursts during the making of Annette's film, causing her serious injury, spinal hematoma. With her future in doubt, Harper steps aside when he sees for himself how much Annette and Jimmy are in love.
Cast
Esther Williams as Annette Kellerman
Victor Mature as James Sullivan
Walter Pidgeon as Frederick Kellerman
David Brian as Alfred Harper
Donna Corcoran as Annette Kellerman at age 10
Jesse White as Doc Cronnol
Maria Tallchief as Anna Pavlova
Howard Freeman as Aldrich, Lecture Bureau
Charles Watts as Policeman on Revere Beach
Wilton Graff as Garvey the Producer
Frank Ferguson as Boston Prosecutor
James Bell as Boston Judge
James Flavin as Train conductor
Willis Bouchey as Movie director
Gordon Richards as Casey
Production
In 1947, it was reported that Esther Williams wanted MGM to buy the rights to Annette Kellerman's life story as a vehicle for her. Virginia Mayo also expressed interest in playing Kellerman on screen.
Kellerman was unhappy that MGM had greatly changed her film Neptune's Daughter when they remade it as an Esther Williams vehicle. (She felt it should have been a fantasy like The Red Shoes.) "I cried so about it that at the time I never would have agreed to let them do my life story."
However, Kellerman changed her mind when she met Williams and liked her. "I realised she really wanted to make my life story", said Kellerman. "I never would have thought of her for the part – she's much too pretty."
Williams brought Kellerman to meet MGM studio executives and pitched the project to them. She says she did not hear anything back from the studio for a number of months until she read an article in the trade papers that the film was being made. In February 1951, it was announced MGM had signed a deal with Kellerman to make a film based on her life. It was originally called The One Piece Suit. Arthur Hornblow Jr. was assigned to produce.
"Miss Kellerman is a charming woman", said Williams. "And still has very good health and figure. She was a famous stage personality and made several sensational movies for her time. I believe her life will provide a fine subject for me."