To me, this movie is perfection.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

How sad is this?

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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!

For 1945 with the Code firmly in place this film was quite daring in its subject matter. But the Esther Williams audience only wanted to see Esther in a bathing suit in or out of the water and Thrill of a Romance gave the viewer plenty of both.Esther is a swimming instructor at a public pool in Los Angeles and driving by one day is Howard Hughes like tycoon Carleton G. Young. He puts on quite the campaign and they wed. But Young is far more interested in business and while at a resort hotel on their honeymoon, Carleton gets called away to Washington on a big deal. We know what his priorities are. So Esther is an unconsummated bride alone on her honeymoon, when up pops war hero Van Johnson. So for a week she and Van keep each other company and look pretty sad all the while.Now Thrill of a Romance was not advertised to be Hamlet, but I found the premise here to be way to silly. But with lots of shots of Esther wet and dry and music by Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra and Lauritz Melchior of the Metropolitan Opera we had a whole lot of music of every taste. A highlight is a drum solo by Buddy Rich who after Frank Sinatra left as the band's vocalist, was Dorsey's main attraction.Young Jerry Scott who plays Lyonel a bellboy at the hotel gives a nice lyric tenor interpretation of Because which that year was revived in a big hit record by Perry Como. Speaking of Sinatra, he recorded a song written for this film I Should Care which was authored by his personal arranger Axel Stordahl and Sammy Cahn. Also sold a few platters back in the day. Melchior sung a wide range of both classical and popular tunes. And he sort of functioned in the role of a father confessor to both Johnson and Williams. Had this been done at Warner Brothers, Melchior's part would have been played by S.Z. Sakall. Melchior even had the cheeks for it.It's a nice film, maybe a little too light and too silly for today's audience. But Esther Williams fans got what they wanted.

A serious issue about the issues of wealth, marriage and happiness are subterfuged in this Joe Pasternak confection. Joe Pasternak for his low ambitions with his movies liked Opera and serious classical composition; or maybe he just liked using it in his movies. Anyway, Melchior provides both comic relief and the opera singing and like Dean Martin in those movies, he slows the movie down and you have to wonder that the movie would be better without him. The movie raises serious issues and refuses to really address them; leaving poor Van and Esther without the opportunity to flex their acting chops. A big hit in the year of 1945, but you have to wonder why the filmakers did not try harder. Anyway, as entertainment, an A but as an enduring movie, a D.