Texas Carnival (1951)

Strong and Moving!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Director: CHARLES WALTERS. Screenplay: Dorothy Kingsley. Story: Dorothy Kingsley, George Wells. Photographed in Color by Technicolor by Robert Planck. Film editor: Adrienne Fazan. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and William Ferrari. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Make-up: William Tuttle. Stunts: Gil Perkins. Technicolor color consultants: Henry Jaffa, James Gooch. Assistant director: Jack Greenwood. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Jack Cummings. Music director: David Rose. Choreography: Hermes Pan. Songs: "It's Dynamite!" (sung and danced by Ann Miller), "Carnie's Pitch" (Skelton), "Whoa, Emma!" (Keel), "Young Folks Should Get Married" (Keel), all by Harry Warren (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics); "Clap Your Hands" by David Rose (music) and Earl Brent (lyrics); "Deep in the Heart of Texas" by June Hershey and Don Swander. Copyright 10 September 1951 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at Loew's State: 12 October 1951. U.S. release: 5 October 1951. U.K. release: 8 December 1951. Australian release: 25 January 1952. 76 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Staff at a luxurious Texas dude ranch/hotel mistake a carnival pitch man for a multi-millionaire.COMMENT: I've said before that Red Skelton is most definitely not one of my favorite comedians. He tends to squeeze out and excessively belabor material that is both unfunny and threadbare to begin with. Until the climatic chuck-wagon race, that comment is true of Texas Carnival. True, there are two or three good moments along the way, but it's not until Red is actually astride the tearaway chuck-wagon that the fun really begins—and it's well worth waiting for! Fortunately, there are also a few compensations along the way, including peppy Ann Miller, an underused Esther Williams (who does swim a little in a double-exposed fantasy sequence in which she vamps Howard Keel), a belligerent Keenan Wynn (who is forced to stooge for Red in a boring episode with a shade and a shower) and a pistol-happy Tom Tully. It's also good to see Glenn Strange in a sizable role as the friendly villain of the piece (he milks at least two really good gags with Skelton) and I also enjoyed catching one or two glimpses of Paula Raymond. OTHER VIEWS: Here's the principal gag-line of Chaplin's "City Lights" riding the range in this brightly colored but rather empty musical. Despite its short running time, Texas Carnival was sold as an "A" picture, but it has enough traditional "B"-western features (including songs and the all-stops-out chase climax) to warrant watching. True, it's Skelton's picture — the other stars are sidelined - but the laugh quality of his material is mostly poor. Despite his inability to handle Skelton, director Charles Walters has tried to invest the movie with an occasional bit of razz and even style, but the end results are mostly rather mild. The new songs are not much help either, even though they were composed by Harry Warren (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics), both of whom have done far, far superior work with other collaborators elsewhere. As it turns out, the most exciting number in the movie is that old standard, "Deep in the Heart of Texas". All the same, the script's constant adulatory references to Texas become rather too, too obvious. Even Texans will probably find most of this picture disappointingly tiresome. - JHR writing as Charles Freeman,

Flimsy MGM musical that skates by on the charm of its stars. Red Skelton and Esther Williams play a couple of carnival performers who are mistaken for a Texas millionaire and his sister. Skelton rolls with it and winds up getting into trouble over a lost bet while Esther finds herself falling for cowboy Howard Keel. Red's fun but the script isn't that hot. Esther is gorgeous as ever and has good chemistry with Skelton and Keel. This is the last of five pictures she did with Red. Ann Miller's also in this and seems to be having the most fun of anybody. The songs are forgettable. Howard Keel sings to his horse. Yeah, it's like that. Not one of Esther or Red's best but watchable and pleasant enough to pass the time.

Penniless carnival barker Red Skelton and chorine-turned-dunking girl Esther Williams are mistaken for millionaires and are forced to enter a Chuck Wagon race to eradicate a gambling debt. Modest M-G-M comedy-musical filmed in Technicolor looks just as good as the studio's more-popular output--what was needed, however, was a screenplay with bigger laughs and stronger characterizations. Skelton juggles, sings, and performs some pleasing comedy shtick, but he's too polite here; director Charles Walters keeps Red reigned-in so much that a nutty drunk routine late in the movie seems out of place. Williams has a nifty fantasy number where she appears to pole-dance underwater (!), while Ann Miller has one great tap-dance sequence accompanied by a mad xylophone. Isolated moments of fun linked by the barest minimum of plot, though the wild slapstick finale nearly makes up for the picture's deficiencies. **1/2 from ****

How to get ESTHER WILLIAMS wet and still have an entertaining musical must have finally gotten to whomever dreamed up this lackluster, shoddy script for the MGM swimming star. She seldom dips a toe into the water and when she does her swimming scenes are brief.In fact, the whole story is told in little more than one hour and seventeen minutes--and even then, it's exasperating to watch so little happen. The story is the tired old mistaken identity theme taken to ridiculous heights by RED SKELTON, who's mistaken for an obnoxious and wealthy oil baron (KEENAN WYNN) at a luxury hotel with a deluxe size swimming pool. HOWARD KEEL ambles into the story via horseback singing just one of several unmemorable songs and is soon ogling Esther poolside in a manner designed to get her to take a dip (for the sake of her fans).ANN MILLER pops up to add some breezy Texas charm to the proceedings, but even her lively dance numbers lack the usual splash MGM gave to its production numbers. Esther is supposed to be a carnival girl who gets dumped into water by any man who can throw a curve ball--and she's hungry, or so we're told, to the point where she faints in the arms of Howard Keel who then chases her until she's caught. Esther has to be one of the healthiest gals ever supposed to be suffering from malnutrition that I've ever seen.The hazy plot plods along until the predictable ending with the stolen identity cleared up and Esther is ready to melt into Keel's arms--none too soon.Summing up: At least Esther had MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID in her future--but this is one where she's just killing time. Very unworthy vehicle for the swimming star par excellence.