It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It is a performances centric movie

Don't listen to the negative reviews

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

A pretty swimmer does not a thespian make! This Esther Williams vehicle is seriously dragged down by weak acting and annoying characters. Peter Lawford was a wonderful talent. Guess he really needed a paycheck back in 1948. And maybe the country needed something like this to raise its spirits after the war...I'd never suffered through a movie with Jimmy Durante before. Aged 55 here but looking and behaving far more crochety, his tedious antics get old really fast.Even Cyd Charisse isn't used to advantage here. A skilled dancer, her amazing legs are hidden under sarongs in this misguided production!This film has a few good lines about love. Its happy ending may give unrequited lovers a little hope. But is it worth a couple hours of anyone's life? Probably not.

Thin and fairly dull Esther Williams vehicle, with Peter Lawford as her love interest. Williams and Lawford are both boring, and have no chemistry together. They are upstaged by just about every single other person in the cast, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Durante (whom you'd think was the star of the movie as much as he's in it), Kathryn Beaumont and even a chihuahua. Williams does have a good swimming number near the end, and she wears some fantastic costumes. I can't say anything good about Lawford. Recently departed dancer Cyd Charisse has the two best sequences in the movie, an erotic dance with Montalban and, the best scene in the movie, her dance on the stairs, aided by a group of masked natives. The Technicolor cinematography is beautiful throughout the movie, but it's downright dazzling in that number. At first I thought this was going to be a poor choice in honoring Charisse, but it turned out to be perfect. Child star Kathryn Beaumont went on to provide the voices for Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Wendy Darling. The DVD for this was stunning.

Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse, Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra, and-before she became the title voice in Disney's Alice in Wonderland-Kathryn Beaumont star in another frothy Joe Pasternak production from MGM called On an Island with You. Since most of the other reviewers have mentioned the plot, I'll just mention some highlights: Durante's wisecracks and musical numbers, that sexy dance scene between Charisse and Montalban, Cugat's numbers, and Beaumont's perfect English diction and later Durante impression. All this and some amusing island banter between Williams and Lawford made the entire movie enjoyable despite such a thin plot for almost two hours! Forget about characterization and just enjoy the Hawaii locations in wonderful Technicolor for fun and dancing!

The heck with the other critics on this movie. Esther gets into a Navy Airforce jacket and perches on a table for one of the most sexy pin-up poses of all time. Peter Lawford was adequate in an Esther Williams movie. Jimmy Durante was adequate in an Esther Williams movie. Ricardo Montalban was adequate in an Esther ... well, you get the idea. Cyd Charisse was more than adequate as a dancer and Ricardo fared much better when he danced with Cyd.The colored tropical Island scenery is terrific. Xaviar Cugat is one creature that I will never understand. Guess I don't like Bongos. I have the video and play it over from time to time which is more than I can say for a great many of the MGM musicals. If Peter was upset because he just came off of "Good News" and resented playing in an Esther Williams movie, I have news for him .... he will be better remembered for "On An Island With You" than in "Good News". That one I have only played once.