Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

I wasn't expecting much from this rather obscure comedy, so I was surprised by how funny it was. The script sparkles at times, making this an under-the-radar gem. If you're curious and have 90 minutes to spare, check it out. You might be in for a treat.

The vacationing Mr. Peabody (William Powell), struggling with middle age, takes in an enchanting young mermaid and finds himself in the middle of misunderstandings with his wife, his fellow residents, and the police. Powell is always great and he's joined by a very capable cast of lesser-known actors and actresses. Clinton Sundberg makes an impression as the dry-witted, cigarette-starved fellow American and Lumsden Hare is a hoot as a British soldier of the old school. Irene Hervey plays Powell's attractive wife, who never gives him the chance to set straight her mistaken notions. Ann Blyth (MILDRED PIERCE) is adorable with a tail fin.

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.

The man is William Powell, reaching the age of 50 [supposedly a land mark in a man's life] and feeling in low spirits with still such an attractive wife, played by the attractive Irene Hervey, snags a beautiful mermaid while out on a fishing spree. Of course, he is all in a dither to have caught this delectable sea creature, played with such lovely and simple sincerity by Ann Blyth, that he proceeds to bring her home, placing her in the bath tub, where she takes a bubble bath.

Mr. Powell is wonderful in these type of semi-comedy films where he can show his sensitive side as well as his impeccable timing of high class comedy. He steals the film, along with Miss Blyth, fresh from her scene stealing scenes as the bad girl in MILDRED PIERCE, who never speaks a word, but does some very intricate underwater swimming, including a water ballet that would make Esther Williams jealous. However, Miss Blyth had a fish tail attached to her.

Other cast members include Andrea King as a delicious woman out on the make [yes, she swims and sings] Clinton Sundberg cast in a very funny role of a man trying to give up smoking and Art Smith as the psychiatrist who examines Powell for possible lunacy in having met a mermaid only to reveal later that he, himself, had visions of a small ice skater who proceeded to skate across the window shade. Hmmmmm! Watch for another funny scene in a ladies' apparel shop when our hero requests from the saleslady, played wonderfully by Mary Field, for half a bathing suit.

This is a first rate small film, directed by Irving Pichel and written by Nunnally Johnson, made in the 40s, when films were an escape. And that's exactly what it does. Charms the tail right off of you.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

There could have been some real pathos here in the device of a man facing his mid-life crisis also happening upon a beautiful and very young mermaid. But instead the movie is just plain funny and fun. It's a good movie, and a deliberately limited one, the events taking place mostly in a little resort-seeming set where the lead man, Mr. Peabody (the wonderful William Powell), fights with the meaning of a mermaid who has fallen in love with him.

I say pathos right away because what the movie needs is some edge, and it's almost there. It's not at all as silly as it sounds. The mermaid, played by Ann Blyth (who was nineteen when it was filmed, next to Powell's 56), is certainly a coy and apparently enticing thing. Peabody is both taken with her, but (if you know Powell at all from the "Thin Man" or "My Man Godfrey") Peabody plays it cool and never quite falls for her, even if he would like to. He does however seem to abandon his wife at one point (or she abandons him, and he lets her), so the complications are echoes of the most ordinary situations in post-war America: an older man finds a younger woman and makes a mistake, or what the movie portrays as a mistake.

There are psychological and social depths here that are only hinted at, as would be the mode of the era, but in a way that's enough to make it a "delight," which is no demeaning word. Powell is great, finally done with his Thin Man series (the last was 1945), and he still has that elegant but odd charm about him that is utterly unique. The rest of the cast is played by types--the beautiful good wife with a little spunk, the beautiful temptress woman at the resort with a little too much spunk for the wife's taste, and a host of less characters. And the mermaid? None other than the daughter from "Mildred Pierce."

Scuba fans and underwater types will love all the really good footage of Blyth (the mermaid) doing a great job swimming and being a bit randy, as any good mermaid would who hadn't met a man for who knows how long. A highlight? When Powell shows her how to kiss. Check it out!

Slightly bizarre little '40's comedy about a middle-aged married man's mid-life crisis solved by the discovery of a young mermaid while fishing in the Caribbean.

William Powell (The Thin Man series) carries the picture on his charm alone and Ann Blyth (Veda in Mildred Pierce) makes a very cute and seductive sea creature. Some droll set pieces -Peabody's attempt to purchase a swim top for his catch, the various encounters with the busy-body's who come to snoop- work quite nicely and Powell actually creates some genuine moments of heartfelt desire but it runs out of steam before long, turns dark, then ends with a thud.

Regardless, the film is a harmless little buried treasure and more than worth a look.