Product Code Database
Texas Carnival is a 1951 American Technicolor musical film directed by Charles Walters and starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton and Howard Keel.
A grateful Dan is put in a taxi, with Cornie promising to return his car. Dan drunkenly has the cab take him to Mexico instead.
As Cornie and Debbie drive to Dan's hotel in his car, they end up being mistaken for Dan and wealthy sister Marilla. In time, Cornie comes to enjoy the lap of luxury and is attracted to lovely Sunshine Jackson, whose dad is the sheriff. Debbie is courted by Dan's handsome foreman, Slim Shelby, who pretends not to know she is an impostor.
In a poker game, Cornie is unaware that jellybeans being used for chips are worth big money. He loses $17,000 that he is not able to repay unless he can win a Texas chuck wagon race. Debbie is in hot water, too, because the real Marilla is suspicious of her.
Dan finally returns but is not able to recall who Cornie is. In an attempt to get Dan drunk again, Cornie gets tipsy instead and needs to drive his chuck wagon that way. But all ends well when he and Debbie end up with their new loves.
The film was retitled Texas Carnival in November 1950.
In December 1950 MGM announced Charles Walters would direct. Filming started February 1951.
Prior to shooting, the Red Norvo Quintet, which backed Miller on the song "It's Dynamite," included Charles Mingus on bass. The group pre-recorded the number as normal, but when it was time to film the performance, the studio ordered Mingus replaced with a white bassist to prevent the number from being cut from prints circulating in the South, as was customary back then.
The final version ran a mere 77 minutes, making it one of the shortest of MGM's "A" musicals.
|
|
