Million Dollar Mermaid

Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)

Inspired by the true story of bathing beauties!

After overcoming polio, Annette Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.

Date of release
1952-12-04
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (29)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama
Director
Mervyn LeRoy

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Million Dollar Mermaid is a 1952 American biographical musical drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr. and starring Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon and David Brian. The plot concerns the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman.

Production

In 1947, it was reported that Esther Williams wanted MGM to acquire 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 1914 film Neptune's Daughter when the studio remade it as a 1949 film starring Williams, and she was unwilling to allow her life story to be told in a film.

The film's screenplay was written by Everett Freeman. Adolph Deutsch conducted the music, George Folsey was the cinematographer and Busby Berkeley was the choreographer, with Audrene Briere responsible for the underwater choreography.

Louis Calhern was set to play Kellerman's father before the role was assigned to Walter Pidgeon. Kellerman had hoped that Glenn Ford would play her husband, but the role went to Victor Mature.

Williams broke her neck upon impact while performing the film's signature high dive. She wrote in her memoir that she was disoriented atop the platform after having endured seven broken eardrums from her years working underwater. When she dove, she felt that the headdress of her costume was too heavy and that she was in danger. She heard her neck pop when she hit the water.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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