Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid Blu-ray Movie Review

This was years before Sherman.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 10, 2014

Splash helped to make stars out of Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and for many helped to define a contemporary take on mermaid mythology for an entire generation (at least until their kids starting going to see The Little Mermaid 3D a few years later). Though absent on the screen for around two decades before Splash, mermaids have been consistent if not overly regular characters in everything from Beach Blanket Bingo to a whole series of silents starring Annette Kellerman (Kellerman’s life provided the story for Esther Williams’ 1952 opus Million Dollar Mermaid). For some reason, the charming if slight 1948 fantasy Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid isn’t especially well remembered today, though it has at least a few elements that also made it into Splash nearly 40 years later. Perhaps one of the ways that Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid failed to capitalize upon its fanciful presence was by having the human male, one Arthur Peabody (William Powell), be a more or less happily married man when he reels in a lovely mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blyth) one day. The other way that Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid perhaps hobbles itself slightly is by having Lenore be a mute character, thereby making any scintillating dialogue between the two main characters a (sorry about this) moot point.

Because you’d have to be crazy to believe in mermaids, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid begins—in a psychiatrist’s office. Kindly Dr. Harvey (Art Smith) listens semi-incredulously as Mrs. Polly Peabody (Irene Hervey) evidently bagged a mermaid while on a recent vacation to the Caribbean. The good doctor initially thinks it must be Mrs. Peabody herself who needs his care, for she seems surprisingly nonchalant in discussing the half-human, half-fish hybrid, even telling Harvey that she caught sight of it—or at least its tail. Both the doctor and his nurse can’t help but catch a quick peek at Mr. Arthur Peabody (William Powell), who’s out in the waiting room being verbally assaulted by a little boy (who knows why the tyke needs a shrink).

Once Mr. Peabody himself enters the doctor’s room, he shoos his wife away (with a decidedly platonic cheek kiss) and then ushers in the main story of the film, courtesy of a long flashback sequence that takes the Peabodys to beautiful Caribbean island. (There is some gentle humor with the doctor, an avid fisherman, asking Arthur what weight line he used to hook the mermaid.) Arthur is experiencing some kind of mid-life crisis brought on by his impending 50th birthday, which he doesn’t believe is an accurate accounting of how long he’s been on earth. Polly helps him fudge a bit, by letting him stay 48 a while longer, but it’s obvious that Arthur, despite the paradisiacal setting, is a bit befuddled by the march of time. It’s also obvious that despite a tolerant and generally affable Polly, the Peabody marriage has perhaps lost a bit of its spark.

Against this not exactly comedic background, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid starts to carve out a wry look at a marriage approaching the shoals, if not exactly on the rocks yet. Within mere moments, Arthur starts cavorting with a singer named Cathy Livingston (Andrea King), while Polly doesn’t exactly resist the advances of Mike Fitzgerald (Clinton Sundberg). These pieces are at least partially in play before Arthur takes a boat out one day and manages to snag— well, something. When he manages to reel it in, he thinks he’s caught some kind of huge finned beast. He is understandably shocked when a human hand is visible over the side of the boat.

The creature seems dazed and perhaps injured, and Arthur wraps her up in blankets and brings her back home, where he deposits her in a bathtub upstairs. And at this point Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid starts to flirt with more farcical elements, as Polly is initially convinced that Arthur has another woman in the tub, something that makes her only all the more open to the dubious charms of Mike. As if the filmmakers didn’t quite trust the artifice inherent in the film, a late development has Polly supposedly disappearing and Arthur being held for murder.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid is an odd little film, one that doesn’t really even fully exploit its built in fantasy elements. Watching a marriage slowly dissolve while the man chases after an obviously much younger mermaid while the wife considers a convenient dalliance is hardly fodder for a traditional fantasy or comedy. The film works best in little moments, like a neat scene where Arthur has imbibed a bit too much while writing a letter to the Natural History Museum. It’s a scene that allows Powell to do his patented tipsy bit (one he made famous in The Thin Man series), and it’s suitably lighthearted. In other ways, though, this is a surprisingly depressive affair.

Despite having nothing other than a "hiss" or two as her dialogue, Ann Blyth is surprisingly winsome as the mermaid Arthur decides is named Lenore. Blyth has an innocent quality here that is perhaps more childlike than seductively alluring, but she makes the character a very sweet, lovable one (though it's obvious she's not a blonde, as Polly avers in the opening scene). There are some good if scattered laughs throughout the film courtesy of a typically professional Nunnally Johnson screenplay. But Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid turns out to be a bit more of a trickle than a Splash.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements utilized for this high definition presentation are generally in quite good shape, though there are the expected flecks, specks and even an occasional scratch or two. Gray scale is nicely modulated, though blacks aren't especially deep. There is some variable sharpness on display here, not always related to underwater photography. Some midrange shots are noticeably softer than the bulk of the film. Contrast is consistent throughout the presentation and the image has no stability problems whatsoever. As with most Olive releases, there's been no digital tweaking, and so a natural grain field is very much in evidence.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track is pretty shallow (no pun intended), but gets the job done, delivering both the dialogue, occasional sound effect and Robert Emmett Dolan's charming score cleanly and clearly. Aside from just a bit of background hiss that's audible in the quietest moments, the track has nothing worrisome to report.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with most Olive Films catalog releases, there are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an air of resignation and maybe even quiet desperation that undercuts Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid's comedic momentum. But perhaps those very elements are commendable, giving the story a bit more of a "human" edge than a mermaid tale generally does. Powell, Hervey and Blyth are all wonderful in their roles, and if there's a just slightly smarmy feeling at times as the Peabodys attempt to redefine their middle aged marriage (it's kind of amazing that the film depicts a married man giving "kissing lessons" to a younger woman, albeit a half fish one), things at least get to something approximating happily (or at least tolerably) ever after. (I'll leave it to the psychiatrists out there to analyze the meaning of the little gift Arthur gives Polly at the film's close.) This isn't the spry romantic comedy of Splash, or even the "fish out of water" (sorry) romantic tale of The Little Mermaid, so don't expect the same frivolous demeanor from this frankly kind of odd film. Recommended.