Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

utgard14 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.

mark.waltz That old silly plot device, mistaken identity, is utilized for this less than exciting MGM musical that tries to make us believe that two carnival performers can be confused for two rodeo star. Brother and sister Red Skelton and Esther Williams don't do anything to change the confusion since they get free room and board. With one of the rodeo performers (Howard Keel) actually there keeping their secret, all sorts of silly events occur. Throw in Ann Miller tapping, Keenan Wynn tossing out wisecracks and only one sequence with Williams swimming, and you see why I call this second-rate MGM. Miller's big number, "It's Dynamite", is more memorable for the fact that she dances on a xylophone than for the song itself. Skelton, sometimes too silly for today's taste, has one hysterically funny sequence trying to roll tobacco, but his rodeo stunt ride at the end is a repeat of things we've already seen, and not nearly as funny.Keel and Williams get the romance, but Keel's songs are forgettable. A rousing variation of "Deep in the Heart of Texas", also heard in the same year's "Rich, Young, and Pretty", is the musical highlight. A somewhat imaginative sequence where Keel fantasizes about Williams swimming in his hotel room makes you wonder if MGM had declared Chapter 11 this year because of the lack of spectacle usually associated with their musicals.

ron-fernandez-pittsburgh This tired MGM musical would have been better if more productions values were lavished on this. Most musicals don't make much sense, and this one even more so. Mistaken identities could be funny, but this one isn't. This is really a vehicle for Red Skelton and he does his usual shtick...but sometimes too much of it. Easther has less to do as does Howard Keel. Ann Miller does well with her brief role. In fact the movie itself is brief. Barely and hour and 20 mins. Much seems to have been either left out or not filmed. The ending seems very rushed and a bit confusing. One thing doesn't make sense is when Esther asks Red for the keys to the car. He said it was damaged as he smashed it into a tree. Yet just two minutes earlier Esther sees drive up in same car!!!! Where was the damage? Just a few things that just don't make sense in this lackluster musical.

bkoganbing 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.