Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

Film details

Featuring

William Powell Ann Blyth Irene Hervey
Country

USA
Year

1948
Genre

Fantasy
Type

Film
Category

Fiction

Alternative titles

Mr Peabody and the Mermaid

Synopsis

Romantic fantasy comedy. Middle-aged Bostonian Mr Peabody and his wife visit a psychiatrist so Peabody can relate his story of an affair he seems to have had on a Caribbean holiday. While fishing in a boat one day, Peabody caught a beautiful young mermaid. He took her back to the holiday villa, keeping her first in the bath and then in the deep fish pond. As he grows ever more infatuated with the mermaid (who cannot speak; Peabody names her Lenore), his wife thinks he is seeing another woman, and, when he insists it is not a whole woman but half fish, Mrs Peabody leaves him. Mrs Peabody's car is found a week later with no sign of her, and the police begin to suspect Peabody has killed her. As they come to raid the villa he realises he must return Lenore to the sea - and he wonders if he might not find them a cosy island somewhere to live. Lenore almost drowns Peabody in her attempts to keep him, and he is rescued by the authorities who are chasing him. Having listened to all this, the pyschiatrist assures Peabody that he once fell in love with a beautiful skater who would skate in through his window at night.