Film

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

Name: Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Released: 1948
Cast: William Powell, Ann Blyth, Irene Hervey, Andrea King, Clinton Sundberg

Fantasy
Comedy
Light-hearted

A 1948 fantasy-romance about a middle-aged Boston businessman who catches a mermaid and keeps her in his bathtub, convinced he's in love despite her inability to speak. It's a peculiar, dreamy film—charming and absurd in equal measure, played with absolute sincerity by William Powell. For anyone drawn to strange, innocent oddities from cinema's golden age.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy gentle 1940s fantasy where a respectable husband's fixation gets played for mild absurdist laughs, and you don't mind a romance that's more whimsical than passionate.

Skip it if you need a brisk plot or real stakes; this runs on one marital standoff repeated with gentle variations, which can feel thin across 89 minutes.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a light, unhurried 89 minutes, with the jokes landing in small, patient doses and the sentiment kept mostly at a sly distance.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Creature from the Black Lagoon1954

Another aquatic fantasy from the same era, but darker and genuinely eerie. The creature design is iconic, and the underwater sequences are mesmerizing. It shares Mr. Peabody's sense of wonder about the unknown depths.

But It's fundamentally a monster movie, not a romance. The tone is gothic and serious in ways that might feel distant from Peabody's whimsy.

It Happened One Night1934

A romantic comedy from Hollywood's golden age with the same warmth and chemistry between leads. The banter and screwball energy feel kindred, even if the premise is grounded in reality.

But Screwball comedies rely on rapid-fire dialogue and physical comedy that don't land the same way for modern audiences. It's more briskly paced than Peabody's dreamy logic.

Phantom Lady1944

A supernatural thriller with Ella Raines that plays with the same postwar American unease, blending fantasy and noir. Beautifully shot and genuinely unsettling in a way that complements Peabody's uncanny tone.

But It's a dark mystery, not a comedy. The mood is far more serious and the ending genuinely grim rather than whimsical.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Miranda1948

The exact same premise—a mermaid in the bath, a man obsessed, reality vs. fantasy—but weaponized as comedy of manners rather than fantasy romance. Miranda shows what Peabody could have been if played for social commentary instead of sincerity.

A British film released the same year as Mr. Peabody, also about a mermaid brought to London and hidden in modern life. It has genuine wit, sharper writing, and a darker edge—the mermaid is selfish and predatory, not innocent. Both films ask the same impossible question from opposite angles.

But The British sensibility is drier and more cynical. If you want Peabody's romantic earnestness, Miranda's satirical bite might feel cold.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir1947

Released the year before Peabody, this pairs a widow with the ghost of a sea captain. It has the same gentle fantasy logic and romance without sense, wrapped in gorgeous cinematography and authentic period charm.

But The pacing is slow and meditative in a way that tests patience. If you want plot momentum, you'll feel let down.

Nora Prentiss1947

A noir that also hinges on an older man's obsession with a woman who derails his life. It has darkness and real consequences that give weight to Peabody's fantasy premise.

But It's bleak and unhappy—a cautionary tale rather than a romantic fantasy. The cynicism is a universe away from Peabody's innocence.

Enchantment1948

Released the same year, another fantasy about memory, romance, and the past intruding on the present. David Niven brings the same urbane melancholy Powell does, and it shares Peabody's logic of yearning over sense.

But It's even more abstract and less dramatically satisfying than Peabody. The ending is deliberately incomplete, which frustrates viewers looking for closure.

The Blue Bird1940

A Shirley Temple fantasy that shares Peabody's commitment to dream logic and magical thinking. The production design is extraordinary, and it has the same mid-century charm and earnestness.

But It's sentimental in a way that can feel treacly. Some will find the moralizing heavy-handed and the magical sequences overwrought.

The Uninvited1944

A ghost story with Ray Milland that balances romantic tension with supernatural mystery. It has the same postwar sensibility and the same willingness to trust the audience's suspension of disbelief without winking.

But It's primarily a mystery thriller, not a comedy. The scares genuinely work, which means the tone is never as light or dreamy as Peabody's.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman1951

Another doomed fantasy romance with sumptuous cinematography and a woman who exists slightly outside normal reality. Ava Gardner brings mystery and seductiveness that echoes the mermaid's otherworldliness.

But It's overheated and melodramatic in a postwar European way. The pacing drags, and the romanticism can feel overwrought to unsympathetic viewers.

The Shape of Water2017

Both center on romantic love between human and non-human in a way most audiences would call impossible. Del Toro's version is what happens when you strip away the comedy and treat the yearning as real grief.

Guillermo del Toro's film is Peabody remade with genuine passion and formal artistry. A lonely woman falls in love with an amphibious creature during the Cold War. It takes the premise seriously enough to make it beautiful and tragic, not dismissible.

But It's sexually explicit and deals with adult loneliness in ways that are unflinching and sometimes difficult. The fantasy is gorgeously rendered but never soft.

Splash1984

The spiritual successor: same premise, modern vernacular, but Peabody's commitment to the impossible as real. Where Peabody whispers, Splash sings.

A mermaid-meets-modern-world comedy that's a direct descendant of Peabody's DNA but made in the 1980s with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. It understands the fantasy premise with warmth but also genuine humor and a sharper romantic arc. It's proof the idea still works when executed with care.

But It's aggressively of its time in tone and music. The 80s artificiality might date it too much to find the sentiment underneath.