This Time For Keeps - Production

Production

Esther Williams was pregnant during the filming of This Time for Keeps, but later suffered a miscarriage.

This was the third of four films Williams made with director Dick Thorpe. Williams disliked Thorpe from the start, and the feeling was mutual. "Dick didn't like people who were too cheerful, which meant that he took an instant dislike to me," wrote Williams in her autobiography.

To convey the sense of outdoorsy, country small town life in the film, Irene decided to use a lot of plaid in the costumes. She designed a swimsuit for Williams made out of lumberjack plaid flannel. "It absorbed water like crazy. I dove into the pool and tried to swim, but the suit just dragged me to the bottom. It was like trying to swim while wrapped in an old army blanket. I actually had trouble keeping my head above water" wrote Williams in The Million Dollar Mermaid. "Finally, I reached around me, tugged at the zipper, and watched as the suit quickly sank to the bottom of the deep end of the pool." Williams's assistant had to cut holes in a towel to place around her as she exited the pool, as the set was surrounded by tourists.

Johnston, was having a long-term affair with Kathryn Grayson (whom he would later marry) and in her autobiography, Williams wrote that he would read Grayson's intimate letters aloud to the girls in his fan club, including the "all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making."