James Sullivan works the carny circuit, promoting the likes of a boxing kangaroo or grappling bear. Then the wheeler-dealer meets a million-dollar idea: beautiful swimming champ Annette Kellerman. She'll churn through a Thames River PR stunt. Cause a bathing-suit scandal among Boston blue bloods. Headline New York's Hippodrome. And become a Hollywood swimsation as cameras roll and Rin Tin Tin looks on.

Glamorous, amphibious Esther Williams portrays the real-life aquatic star in a splashy biopic costarring Victor Mature and loaded with stunning spectacle (including a must-see Busby Berkeley masterwork). Is this lovely Esther's signature film? Well, she called her 1999 autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid.