More than 80 years after her cinematic debut, it still seems curious to me that Esther Williams translated her skills in the pool into an enduring period as a Hollywood star. Nonetheless, Williams kept busy for about 15 years, and 1949’s Neptune’s Daughter finds her mid-career.

Competitive swimmer Eve Barrett (Williams) joins forces with entrepreneur Joe Backett (Keenan Wynn) to form a swimwear company called “Neptune”. Betty’s man-hungry sister Betty (Betty Garrett) gets hot and bothered when Neptune agrees to hold a show for a South American polo team, as Betty hopes to seduce a player.

As she pursues this goal, Betty meets masseur Jack Spratt (Red Skelton) and confuses him for polo player Jose O’Rourke (Ricardo Montalban). He goes along with the charade and romance blooms.

Eve attempts to cut off this affair and confronts the actual Jose. This second case of mistaken identity leads to its own romantic sparks.

Naturally. Though I don’t know the Williams oeuvre well, I figure romantic dimensions pop up frequently in her films, so I assumed the same for Daughter.

While we find ample stabs at amore, we don’t locate much of a plot. In essence, Daughter consists of a mix of loosely connected scenes without much real narrative.

This means we see the occasional musical number along with sporadic comedic set pieces. Toss in romantic melodrama and bang! Ya got 91 minutes of movie!

How much entertainment does this produce? That varies and generally corresponds to the actors involved.

Skelton makes for an unlikely romantic actor, but happily Daughter doesn’t force him to work too hard in that domain. He and Garrett create a gawky pair but the two show some comedic sparks, especially when the film allows Skelton to goof and mug.

Williams and Montalban form a substantially more attractive couple but they don’t seem particularly interesting. While not a bad actor, Williams never seems especially natural as our main character.

Montalban fares better and creates a suitably engaging romantic lead. Still, the Jose/Eve scenes tend to fall flat simply because they feel perfunctory and uncreative.

Montalban does his best to carry Williams, as he creates a charming variation on the usual Latin lothario. Nonetheless, as lovely as Williams was, her acting skills seem subpar.

Daughter also comes with erratic pacing and focus. As noted, it lacks much real plot, and it skips among characters and circumstances without much real direction.

Does this make Daughter a flop? No – it comes with some entertainment value, if just because it throws so much at the screen that some of it inevitably sticks.

Still, don’t expect more than occasional pleasures from Daughter. While it brings sporadic charms, it seems too erratic to go much of anywhere.

Neptune’s Daughter appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a nice presentation, especially given the film’s age.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated appealing delineation. A few shots seemed somewhat soft, but those issues occurred infrequently, so the majority of the flick looked concise and accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and no edge enhancement became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Colors were strong. A Technicolor production that embraced a variety of tones, the hues tended to be vivid and full.

Blacks seemed deep and dense without too much heaviness. Shadow detail worked similarly well, as dimly-lit shots were appropriately clear and thick. I found little about which to complain here and thought the Blu-ray brought the movie to life in a positive manner.

The DTS-HD MA monaural audio of Daughter appeared fine for its era, and speech was more than adequate. The lines showed age-related thinness, but they were always perfectly intelligible and without edginess.

Effects became a minor aspect of the track, and they resembled the dialogue. Those elements lacked much depth but they were without notable problems.

Music was acceptable for its age, as the score and songs tended to be a bit tinny. There wasn’t much range to the music, but again, that stemmed from the limitations of the very old source. This became a perfectly acceptable mix for its vintage.

One glitch: if you watch the film with subtitles, you’ll always be ahead of the action. Oddly, the dialogue text onscreen pops up about three seconds before the actors speak the lines.

A few extras appear, and Callaway Went Thataway provides a two-minute, three-second snippet from a 1951 Fred MacMurray/Dorothy McGuire flick.

Why do we get this excerpt? Because Esther Williams makes a brief cameo. That makes it a decent curiosity.

Water Trix runs eight minutes, 37 seconds and delivers one of the “Pete Smith” shorts. The 1949 film shows cameraman Charles Trego as he films water-skiers from a helicopter.

Nothing here excels, and Smith’s “comedic” commentary gets old. Still, I like the view of photography from behind the scenes.

Next comes I Want My Money Back, a four-minute, 26-second musical outtake from Daughter. It offers a fun addition.

Hatch Up Your Troubles goes for seven minutes, 42 seconds and provides a Tom & Jerry cartoon circa 1949. It appears solely because it came out the same year as Daughter.

A newly-born woodpecker think Jerry is its parent. Expect cute shenanigans.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get a radio interview conducted by Dick Simmons. He chats with Esther Williams in this reel that promotes Daughter. Nothing more than fluff appears.

A light mix of comedy, romance and music, Neptune’s Daughter provides a wholly insubstantial affair. While it occasionally entertains, it seems too devoid of impact to really work. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture, appropriate audio and a mix of bonus materials. Chalk up this film as a spotty pleasure.