Bathing Beauty is a 1944 American musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney, and starring Red Skelton and Esther Williams.

However, once MGM executives watched the first cut of the film, they realized that Williams' role should be showcased more, and changed the title to Bathing Beauty, giving her prominent billing and featuring her bathing-suit clad figure on the posters.

In Los Angeles, songwriter Steve Elliot prepares to marry Caroline Brooks, who has pledged to give up her job as a college swimming instructor.

Likewise, Steve plans to quit his songwriting career, even though New York producer George Adams has already hired him to write new songs for a water ballet show.

When George overhears Steve discussing his "retirement" with Caroline, he vows to prevent it and enlists Maria Dorango, an aspiring actress posing as a Latin-American singer, to help him.

Unaware of Caroline's relationship to Steve, Dean Clinton suggests to the faculty that he be admitted for a two-week probationary period, during which they would give him 100 demerits, thus qualifying him for expulsion before Parents Day.

To that end, Madame Zarka, Steve's ruthlessly strict eurythmics instructor, forces him to wear a tutu and dance with the female students.

Caroline agrees, but during the evening, Steve convinces her of his innocence, and as they drive back to school, they make plans to return to California together.

In a nod to the Marx Brothers, as Steve desperately hides all the women in two closets and keeps Caroline from discovering Maria, George unexpectedly arrives.

Although Steve succeeds in hiding George and himself and fooling Dean Clinton and the Allenwoods, Maria soon makes her presence known to Caroline, who once again leaves in a fury, with everyone else exiting in a comical parade.

They couldn't shoot it, even though they had commitments with Esther Williams and Red Skelton, with Harry James the trumpet player, and with Xavier Cugat the cha-cha-cha man.

Director George Sidney brought in a paint crew and had the dead grass spray-painted green, which lasted the entire week of shooting.

[10] On July 17, 2007, Turner Entertainment released Bathing Beauty on DVD as part of TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Volume 1.

The finale water ballet sequence has been parodied several times, most famously in The Great Muppet Caper (1981) with Miss Piggy; the Mel Brooks comedies Blazing Saddles (1974) and History of the World, Part I (1981); on The Carol Burnett Show episode with "Slippery When Wet" (1976),[12] briefly in the "Be Our Guest" sequence in the Disney film Beauty and the Beast (1991), in The Simpsons episode "Bart of Darkness" (1994) with Lisa Simpson, and in Hail, Caesar!