A Sereia e o Sabido

Delightful romp that blends the stars together in highly entertaining fashion. Red gets to mug it up in typical Skelton fashion, while studly Keel smooths in his baritone, and Miller taps her way into our hearts. Even mermaid Williams manages to get her fins on as well as show some acting chops. In fact, the highpoint in my little book is her almost eerie swim through the air in a fancy hotel room. In a flowing white gown she's like a ghostly aquanaut thanks to trick photography. That scene is going to stay with me, strange as it is.

The plot, of course, is negligible--- carnival barker Red's mistaken for a Texas millionaire and has to act the part when he gets into trouble. I love it when Red and others talk about the great smell and feel of the Longhorn State while standing in front of a painted backdrop. In fact the production never leaves the San Fernando Valley, but who cares. Anyway, it's just the kind of material and headliners that big budget MGM knew how to package in great escapist fashion. And to think Maltin's Classic Movie Guide only gives it two stars out of four-was someone home asleep. Anyway, the Technicolor's lavish, the stars in top form, and the pacing doesn't dawdle. So catch up with it when you can, and remind Maltin to set his alarm.

The movie has several fun moments, some good songs and a couple of nice dances by Ann Miller. The problem is that it really doesn't work as an Esther Williams vehicle so it's best to approach it as a Red Skelton movie featuring Esther Williams. With a slightly different perspective this can be an enjoyable experience.

Esther Williams set on the MGM lot must have been in repair, maybe the pool needed a chlorine refill because none of the spectacular aquatic scenes associated with her films will be found in Texas Carnival. In fact this is really a Red Skelton film and the powers that be at MGM who always liked to keep their contract players working said do this film while we clean the pool.

It's not the greatest Esther Williams or even Red Skelton film, but it does have an amusing moment or two. Red and Esther are working at a dunk tank in a cheap carnival when an inebriated Keenan Wynn shows up and through a combination of circumstances Williams and Skelton wind up going to a Texas resort being mistaken for Wynn and his sister Paula Raymond.

They both find love and trouble at the resort with Williams taking a real liking to Howard Keel who is the foreman of Wynn's ranch and Red falling for the tap dancing sheriff's daughter in the person of Ann Miller. Red also by playing up to the big Texas cattle baron manages to lose $17,000.00 dollars in what the Texans just call a friendly game among millionaires.

As I said Texas Carnival is clearly more Red's film than Esther's and he dominates with a hilarious chuck wagon race finale and one of his patented drunk scenes. What's interesting is that in this film Skelton had Keenan Wynn to contend with in the inebriation competition. Both of these guys have played incredible imbibing scenes in their respective films.

In his memoirs Howard Keel says that Red Skelton was a comic genius, but so much so that his contemporaries had trouble keeping up with him. In that barroom scene with Keenan Wynn it took half a day to shoot because Wynn couldn't help breaking up at his performance.

Don't look for too much aquatics in this Esther Williams film, but it's a not bad Red Skelton comedy.

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 ****

This little-known musical might be considered the Texas answer to (the stage musical) "Oklahoma!" And though things in Texas are supposed to be bigger, this film is smaller in many ways. But the four leads get their moments in the sun: Esther swims, Red mimes, Ann dances, and Howard sings.

Cornie the carny (Red Skelton) and his collaborator, Debbie (Esther Williams) run a dunking booth in a carnival, but they are not making ends meet. When Cornie runs into a rich, drunk cattleman Dan Sabinas (Keenan Wynn), who takes a shine to him, Cornie and Debbie leave the midway and head for a posh hotel where Sabinas is supposed to be staying. A case of mistaken identity allows them to reside there indefinitely.

The Sabinas foreman (Howard Keel as the real Slim Shelby) becomes interested in Debbie, and a hoofer named Sunshine Jackson (Ann Miller) sets her sites on Cornie. The rest of the plot is a jumble of unimportant events, including a rough and tumble chuck wagon race that is reminiscent of Ben Hur.

Keel's singing is up to his usual standards, but the songs are not Rodgers and Hammerstein. Ann Miller taps up a storm with choreography by Hermes Pan. Esther Williams swims less than she usually does in her aquafests, but she has a dream sequence that is clever. Red Skelton transforms the entire film, making it more comedy than any other genre.

Credit Helen Rose for the beautiful designs worn by the female leads.

The ending is weak, but the overall production entertains adequately.