Review of Dangerous When Wet

. . . decades before typecast film mermaid Esther Williams ("Katy Higgins" here) essays something dozens of real life females ALREADY had accomplished by DANGEROUS WHEN WET's 1953 release date. Women of the early 1950s were much more polite than today's female set. Many of them had built tanks and bombers as "Rosie the Riveters" to help America win WWII, and were then content to vacuum in their pearls and high heels while waiting for their husbands to take them out for dinner and a movie. None of them were likely to shout out, "Chicks have been doing THAT for years!" at the Big Screen, as the radio commentators heard in DANGEROUS WHEN WET breathlessly extol "Katy's" tortured final yards of a 20-mile-plus swim. If some film studio nowadays tried to promote a flick along similar lines, say a woman becoming America's first female president, they'd be booed out of the multiplex by scads of ladies shouting, "Been there, done that!" In large part, Hilary's loss in 2008 can be attributed to the plethora of distaff presidents previously seen on film and TV. So this movie is even more dangerous if you see it when you're dry.