Due to my age, I didn’t experience the film career of Esther Williams in real time. The magic of home video allows me to get a look at her work, with 1953’s Dangerous When Wet the latest example to plop into my Blu-ray player.

Arkansas farmgirl Katie Higgins (Williams) demonstrates terrific aquatic skills, as do her sisters and parents. Traveling health tonic salesman Windy Weebe (Jack Carson) meets them and convinces them to let him sponsor them in a competition that requires her to swim the English Channel.

The Higgins clan travels to the UK and trains for this grueling endeavor, but only Katie shows the necessary stamina for the gig. Along the way, though, matters complicate when she meets dashing Frenchman André Lanet (Lorenzo Lamas) and romance blossoms.

If that sounds like a thin plot, then you interpret correctly. Not that this automatically becomes a problem, as Wet simply intends to offer a breezy 96 minutes of romance, comedy and musical numbers.

A better-made movie could pull off these concepts. Wet doesn’t – at least not in a manner that maintains much audience interest the whole time.

Williams becomes the weakest link. She got into Hollywood due to a combination of her lovely looks and her aquatic talent, but acting landed a distant third in her list of skills.

Not that I find Williams to offer a poor screen presence, as she musters some moderate charms. However, she simply lacks real chops and plays Katie without much dramatic impact.

Probably to compensate, Wet surrounds Williams with stronger actors, though this approach tends to backfire. Rather than camouflage her relatively weak abilities, the superior co-stars just remind us how bland Williams seems as a screen presence.

It doesn’t help that at 32, Williams seems a good decade too old to play Katie, a character who feels like she should be about 22. Perhaps to compensate, the producers cast William Demarest and Charlotte Higgins – both then in their early 60s – as Katie’s parents.

All well and good, but Wet also features 22-year-old Barbara Whiting and 11-year-old Donna Corcoran as her sisters. They make a lot more sense as daughters still home on the farm than a woman in her early 30s.

Regardless of casting concerns, Wet falters mainly because it lacks drive or real personality. It follows the predictable narrative domains without panache.

In an apparent attempt to spice up matters, Wet borrows from 1945’s Anchors Aweigh to pair Williams with cartoon characters Tom and Jerry in an underwater mix of animation and live action. This also allows Williams her requisite Big Swimming Scene.

Like the rest of the movie, the sequence fails to create much cleverness or fun. It feels tacked onto the film just as a gimmick and it fails to deliver the punch in the arm the flick needs.

At no point does Dangerous When Wet become a painful cinematic experience. However, it feels relentlessly mediocre and never springs to life.

Dangerous When Wet appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a fine presentation, especially given the film’s age.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated nice delineation. Some softness crept in at times, partly as an attempt to hide the age of a few actors, I suspect.

Nonetheless, definition felt solid the majority of the time, and no issues with jagged edges, shimmering or edge haloes became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Hues were strong, as the Technicolor presentation gave the palette solid range. 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 Wet appeared fine for its era, and speech was appropriate. 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 songs and score 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 adequate mix for its vintage.

A few extras flesh out the disc, and we find an unused musical outtake. Called “C’est La Guerre”, it runs two minutes, 52 seconds.

If you wondered why Andre and Gigi don’t hook up, the song explains – sort of. I suspect it got the boot because it took the focus away from Katie for too long, but the number does fill in some narrative gaps.

Two theatrical shorts follow. We get 1949’s The Cat and the Mermouse (7:40) and 1953’s This Is A Living? (9:19).

A Tom & Jerry effort, Mermouse involves our leads as they tangle on the beach and in the ocean. Like most T&J, it seems more cute than funny, but it comes with some inventive moments.

From the “Pete Smith” series, Living? concentrates on people with unusual jobs. It offers minor curiosity value.

Next we find a collection of Demo Recordings by songwriter Johnny Mercer. This compilation spans 11 minutes, four seconds and involves three tracks. We get a good look at the basic tunes here.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with an audio-only Interview with Esther Williams and Dick Simmons. It spans four minutes, 51 seconds.

Williams discusses basics about swimming to educate the public. She tells us nothing about Wet but she makes this an interesting oddity.

Maybe someday I will find an Esther Williams movie that charms me, but Dangerous When Wet fails to become that flick. Slow and without much personality, Wet becomes a forgettable mix of comedy, romance and athletics. The Blu-ray offers positive picture and audio as well as a modest mix of bonus materials. Nothing here turns Wet into a bad movie, but it just seems inert.