Texas Carnival (DVD)

Esther Williams dazzles the eye and Red Skelton tickles the funny bone in Texas Carnival, a rootin' tootin' musical "done in such a grand, breezy manner that even Texans are apt to give it a hearty backslap of approval" (Los Angeles Examiner). The two play a down-and-out carnival sideshow team mistaken for a pair of multimillionaires at a swank Texas resort hotel -- a perfect plot for Miss Williams to display both her fine sense of comedy and gorgeous, bathing-suit-clad figure. Skelton is hilarious as a pseudo oil tycoon who can't roll a cigarette, walk in spurs or hold his liquor. His performance, a masterpiece of accurate exaggeration, is a wonderful reminder of why he ranks among the screen's greatest clowns.