Overrated

Nice effects though.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

While taking a vacation in the Caribbean, Mr Peabody (Powell) hears a strange and hauntingly beautiful singing. To his best judgement, he believes it to be coming from the quay opposite the villa. On his investigation, he hears splashing water and finds a bejewelled hair slide so he returns home. The next day, the slide has gone and the singing has stopped. Upset at not finding the owner of the beautiful voice he contents himself with fishing... and what a catch he reels in. A beautiful mute mermaid who he decides to take home. This is when the comedy excels.Powell is brilliant as Mr Peabody and is adept at delivering the comedic lines deadpan, which adds more to their power. It also helps that the whole thing is brilliantly written especially the narrative. Add to this, the excellent chemistry between Powell and Irene Hervey, who plays his wife Polly. Clinton Sundberg has the best character in the film; Mike Fitzgerald is a man going through changes after seeing his quack of a doctor. On the Doc's advice, he's given up smoking. His reaction to anybody who lights up is great. I really loved the beach scene. It had me laughing out loud. He even has his own style of speech which adds a more comedic aspect to the mix.Even though Ann Blyth has no lines in the film, she still has a presence. Besides, who needs a voice when your face can speak volumes(?) And the swimming sections are well choreographed and filmed. She works well in the water.When I watch this film it makes the majority of today's comedy flicks appear even more infantile than they are. This is a comedy film with class, wit, and good writing. I wish there were more like this being made today. Therefore, I recommend this to anybody who wants a good laugh.

I first saw this movie when I was sick and home from school in the early 60s. It's always stayed with me, though I haven't seen it since then. My mother must have been at work or something because she probably would have made me turn it off. There isn't anything objectionable in it. Any sexuality would have been implied the way most films did in the 1940s. I'm sure that if I watched it again, it would seem rather quaint. Kind of an interesting fantasy, though. I'm surprised that it has been remade. It could be redone pretty much like the original. It seems like it would do well at the box office if it had the treatment.

Some postmodernists have suggested this is a dramatic film. It is a satire--the sort of film where the hero cannot fail because of his/her values, ideas and ethical self-command. The central character in this well-loved feature is an man (William Powell) who has reached the age of fifty. He has a lovely wife (Irene Hervey) but he is restless; he has lost the sense of adventure in his life, and his wife is treating him as if he were "old". Then on a fishing trip, he catches a mermaid (Ann Blyth). She cannot talk, she has a tale and lives beneath the sea; but she does not think he is old, she finds him kind, fascinating and absorbing. Of course this fabulous find upsets his staid routine and disrupts all his relationships. He has to keep the lovely young mermaid a secret; He takes her home, where she takes a bubble bath. Andrea King all-but-steals the film; she is gorgeous, on the make for him, and suspicious that he is hiding something. A highlight of the film comes when she dons a bathing suit (she is a champion swimmer and gorgeous) and investigates the mermaid tale underwater, where Blyth bites her on the leg. Clinton Sundberg, one of the best line-readers on planet, plays a man who is giving up smoking with whom Powell has droll conversations. Art Smith plays the psychiatrist to whom he confesses his find; he is also older, and has had a fantasy of his own. Ever the practical sort, Powell tries to buy half a bathing suit, with hilarious results; he also eventually has to explain the goings on to his wife; this is a character-based adult script by Nunnally Johnson adapted from Guy and Constance Jones' novel "Peabody's Mermaid"; and it makes, by my lights, an unforgettable, charming and beautiful made film. Irving Pichel directed with verve and intelligence. others in the cast include Lumsden Hare, Fred Clark, James Logan, Mary Field, Beatrice Roberts, Mary Sommerville and many more in smaller roles. The film boasts fine underwater cinematography by David Horsley and Russell Mettey's usual very fine work. Original music was composed by Robert Emmet Dolan with art direction supplied by Bernard Herzbrun and Boris Leven; the difficult set decorations were supplied by talented Russell A. Gausman and Ruby R. Leavitt with costumes designed by Grace Houston. Carmen Dirigo is credited with the film's challenging hair stylings and Bud Westmore with the makeup for Lenore the mermaid and the rest of this talented and beautifully-chosen cast (a hallmark, I suggest of Nunnally Johnsons' films, since he co-produced as well as writing the script). This is not a film about someone being old; it is a wistful and intelligent look at being human, using the fantasy of a mermaid who is decidedly real as a symbol of youth itself--Mr. Peabody's youth--in which others believe or do not depending on their attitude to selfhood and individual desert. I find this film a touching and memorable screen achievement, thanks to all concerned.

Funny. Thoughtful. Great script. Incredible dialog. Wonderfully cast.You might guess that I like this film. William Powell has never been as warm and funny. Ann Blyth is every man's unattainable beauty. And Nunnally Johnson has never written a better script. This is high comedy with a heart.I cannot imagine a more perfect cast. Even the minor roles hold their own.There are many movies we see when young that don't hold up as well as we get older. This one gets even better. If you can't find a copy of it, then petition AMC or TCM to broadcast it. You won't be sorry you did.