TheLittleSongbird A lot of talent displayed in 'Thrill of a Romance', and while there are many pleasures the film overall is a mixed bag and one of Esther Williams' weaker films.The problem does not lie with Williams, she has a lot of charm and robustness to her performance, looks luminous and proves herself as ever a superb swimming athlete. Nor with her aquatic sequences, part of you wishes there were more and there are more imaginative ones in her other films but they are still beautifully filmed, elegant, fun and performed with envious poise and energy by Williams.Can't say anything bad about the production values, 'Thrill of a Romance' is beautifully filmed and the Technicolor is exquisite. The music, with the bonuses too of being performed by the likes of the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey and Xavier Cugat (with Buddy Rich providing a killer drum solo), are a great mix of classical music (Schubert's "Standchen" and "Vesti La Giubba" from 'Pagliacci' notable) and songs written for the film, the hits being "I Should Care" and "Please Don't Say No, Say Maybe".Henry Travers and Spring Byington are marvellously dotty, and one wishes there were more of them, and Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior is in resplendent voice and lightens up the screen with his smile and cheeky but well-intentioned charm especially.Van Johnson, on the other hand, despite a relaxed rapport with Williams (though the romance feels underwritten), looks uncomfortable much of the time, and Richard Thorpe (though not an amateur job by all means) could have directed with more verve and imagination.It is the insipid script, with too often leaden humour and vacuous emotional elements, a pedestrian pace outside of the musical numbers and the scenes with Travers and Byington and a story that is full of ridiculous contrivances and over-stretched padding that fare worst in 'Thrill of a Romance'.Overall, bliss in some areas, a failure in others. 5/10 Bethany Cox

richard-1787 This is the sort of light musical romantic comedy that Hollywood churned out on a regular basis, and in no way an exceptional or memorable example of that genre.Save for the contributions from the great Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior. The fact that he was Danish, and indeed known as "The Great Dane," is not irrelevant to this picture. See below.By 1945 when this movie came out, Melchior was near the end of a long and very distinguished career as a heroic tenor, primarily at the Metropolitan Opera, which had kept him focused almost uniquely on the works of Richard Wagner. From all reports, he wasn't much of an actor there, and audiences didn't care. He just stood on stage and sang, and the audience loved it.In the late 1940s, however, he made a few movies, and turned out to be a natural screen comedian playing the avuncular older man who offers sage advice to struggling young lovers. Very much a man who could make fun of himself, and who did not take himself too seriously.That is nowhere better demonstrated than in this movie. He offers advice to the two stars and then, every now and then, he sings an operatic aria or classical song. If you like that music, you will love his performance of it.But he is also part of the best moment in the movie, at the end. For reasons I won't go into, the male lead, Van Johnson, decides to sing his love to the female lead, Esther Williams, outside her bedroom window. Since he doesn't sing, he gets Melchior to help him out in classic Cyrano de Bergerac fashion. The scene is a stitch because Melchior sings a silly pop tune, "Please don't say no, say maybe," and hams it up to the 9s. It's also very funny to watch the young Van Johnson pretending to sing with a great and powerful voice that clearly isn't his and dwarfs him.At the end of the number, Van Johnson and Williams kiss - while Melchior still sings, leading to funny comments from Spring Byington and Henry Travers.I don't know how often I'd want to sit through an hour and 45 minutes of this movie to watch that last scene, but it's very definitely worth seeing.------------------------------------When I watched this movie again tonight on TCM, other things struck me. This movie was made during World War II, mostly before the D-Day invasion that turned the tide and brought about the defeat of Nazi Germany. We are reminded of this at the end of the movie, when we see the announcement that it had been chosen to be shown to American troops fighting the war.That gives a much deeper resonance to Melchior's part in this movie.The Germans invaded Denmark in April, 1940, and remained there until the end of the war in 1945. In other words, when this picture was made Melchior was a very famous representative of a nation still until Nazi rule.In this picture, Melchior champions the aspirations of a young Black boy with a beautiful voice who knocks everyone's socks off with his performance of the then still very popular song "Because," by Paolo Tosti. Melchior is clearly impressed with his singing, and clearly completely unbothered by his race. To put that in perspective, remember that the great Black singer Lena Horne would be passed over by the same studio, MGM, six years later when it came to casting the mixed-race character Julie the 1951 version of Show Boat. Instead, MGM chose Ava Gardner, whose singing had to be dubbed.All of which to say: in this movie, a famous Dane was chosen to sing, yes, but also to favor the aspirations a Black character. Much as the Danes had consistently refused to go along with Nazi racial policies during their 5 years of Nazi occupation.And then remember: this film was shown to American troops still fighting the war, including Black GIs - who were still serving in Blacks-only units, since Truman had yet to integrate the Armed Forces.Most of this movie is fluff. Van Johnson and Esther Williams gave better performances in other movies. But Melchior is remarkable here, both for his singing, certainly, but also for the example of racial tolerance that he, a Dane, demonstrates during an era when American soldiers were still fighting nations that were monstrous, among other reasons, because of their racist policies.And that would not have looked like fluff to a Black American GI fighting in Europe or the Pacific

whpratt1 Enjoyed this 1945 film with young stars like Van Johnson and Esther Williams starting out on a brilliant career in the entertainment of swimming and musicals. Esther Williams,(Cynthia Glenn) was a swimming instructor at a pool and was noticed by a very rich business man who immediately swept her off her feet and got married to Cynthia. There honeymoon was a complete disaster because her husband had a business meeting in Washington, D.C. and he left her all alone without even making love. Van Johnson,(Major Thomas Milvaine) has a room next door to Cynthia and notices her crying on her balcony and gets acquainted with her and they begin to start seeing each other off and on. Cynthia finds out her husband will be gone for a whole week and in the meantime decides to teach Tom Milvaine some swimming lessons and they start dancing and taking long walks in the woods. Lauritz Melchior,(Nils Knudsen) sings many songs since he was a great opera star. You will even see Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra and Buddy Rich burning up his set of drums. Enjoyable musical with plenty of romance and entertainment from 1945.

rberrong-1 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!