Texas Carnival (1951)

(On Cable TV, August 2022) Despite reuniting a few solid show-horses from MGM’s stable, there’s a reason why Texas Carnival isn’t shown as often as other musicals of the era—it’s duller and cheaper than the usual, and depending on Red Skelton as the lead is a double-edged sword. Skelton stars as his broad mugging self, this time as a carnival dunk-tank operator who comes to be mistaken for a millionaire rancher with predictable consequences all the way up to a romance. Esther Williams plays his disillusioned business partner, who also gets swept up in mistaken romantic shenanigans. Ann Miller shows up in a short but scene-stealing turn to sing and dance (and shoot!) a bit to “It’s Dynamite” (despite a few Native clichés along the way). Some of the other songs may be familiar — “Deep in the Heart of Texas” comes to mind, and for some bizarre electroswing-related coincidence I managed to recognize “I’m an Old Cowhand” played as an instrumental. Texas Carnival plays to its stars’ strengths but not too much—in between Texan clichés sanitized for a musical, we get Williams playing inside a pool and Skelton hamming it up as a pretend cowboy, but not to the extent of their better roles—which can be explained by the film’s short 77 minutes running time (much of it is dominated by Skelton’s antics) and its origin as a vehicle for someone else. All of this blended together delivers a solidly third-tier musical. It’s watchable but hardly memorable—aside from Miller being the clear standout in a high-energy number and a ghostly water-dance sequence featuring Williams. Considering the incredible number of musicals that MGM was churning out every year at that point (including the underdog Singin’ in the Rain, released that same year), they couldn’t all be winners.