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Jupiter's Darling

JUPITER'S DARLING

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CREDITS

1955, 96 minutes, Eastman Color, CinemaScope.
Producer, George Wells; Director, George Sidney; Screenplay, Dorothy Kingsley; Cinematography, Paul C. Vogel & Charles Rosher; Choreography, Hermes Pan.

CAST

Amytis, Esther Williams; Hannibal, Howard Keel; Meta, Marge Champion; Varius, Gower Champion; Fabius Maximus, George Sanders; Horatio, Richard Haydn; Mago, William Demarest; Fabia, Norma Varden; Scipio, Douglas Dumbrille; Carthalo, Henry Corden.

SONGS

I Have A Dream; If This Be Slav'ry (I Don't Want To Be Free); The Song Of Hannibal; I Never Trust A Woman; Don't Let This Night Get Away; The Life Of An Elephant by Burton Lane and Harold Adamson.

PLOT

"The year is 216 B.C. and almost all of the known world has fallen to the mighty Hannibal of Carthage. In a bold and daring move, Hannibal has crossed the Alps with his army of men and elephants and prepared for his final assault on Rome. As the new Roman dictator Fabius Maximus (George Sanders) frets about what to do, his fiancee, the spirited and willful Amytis (Esther Williams), decides to visit the legendary barbarian general herself. Captured and accused of being a spy, she is brought before the formidable Hannibal (Howard Keel), who orders her executed. Amytis' plea to "spare Rome" intrigues Hannibal and, inevitably, he falls under her spell. Now the mighty General must decide which he covets more: the conquest of Rome or the heart of the woman he loves."
- Liner Notes from MGM/Turner Laserdisc

NOTES

"Jupiter's Darling was the one with all those painted elephants. It was also the one in which Esther Williams played Amytis to Howard Keel's Hannibal, and the one which laid an egg bigger than all the elephants in it put together."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"As a takeoff, with satirical treatment, on costume actioners, Jupiter's Darling is a fairly entertaining, although a hit-and-miss affair. It has Esther Williams in some outstanding swim numbers, and Howard Keel's robust singing."
- Variety

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