The duo of Morgan and Carson has always been full of fun and laughs, perhaps because the two gentlemen were such good friends in real life. But I did notice that a good deal of the plot structure and character development were cribbed from another Warner Brothers musical, A Cowboy From Brooklyn. This isn't to say that the film isn't a delight, because it is. It's just that in the late 1940's Warner Brothers started the process of cannibalizing its own material. They'd turn ordinary comedies into musicals and very often the star of the show would be none other than Dennis Morgan himself. All I can say about Two Guys From Texas is sit back, relax and prepare to enjoy yourself for the next ninety minutes or so!
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joedorchack-7159029 July 2016
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Rather routine fanfare with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson stopping off in Texas on their way to California to continue their song and dance routine.
The guys meet an old flame at the ranch, but are soon framed for a series of robberies occurring in the town. This is when the picture heads southward. We have the traditional posse and the innocent in jail.
Dorothy Malone, in probably one of her first pictures, stars as the owner of the ranch.
Carson is very funny; especially, with his phobia towards animals and he seeks help from horse doctor Fred Clark. Morgan is given the opportunity to belt out some catchy tunes and even teams up with Carson in one of them. Was that Dorothy Malone singing?
The picture is too obvious. -
bkoganbing1 October 2016Warner Brothers answer to Crosby and Hope, Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, star in Two Guys From Texas as a comedy team traveling through the Lone Star State when their car runs out of gas. A kind pair gives them a lift to Dorothy Malone's dude ranch and the boys are grateful. Of course that abandoned car out of gas later figures in some nefarious schemes.
Carson who enlivened many a Warner Brothers film in the 40s with his comic blowhard character is a man most afraid of anything that walks on four legs. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me, but Carson pulls off the Hope like gag.
And just like Crosby would want to cure his pal, Morgan seeks the help of visiting guest Dr. Fred Clark. All this leads to complications with Malone and another entertainer at the ranch Penny Edwards and the local sheriff Forrest Tucker. Not a good idea to make even a romantic rival of the sheriff.
Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote the unmemorable but serviceable score which yielded no song hits for Morgan. For a man afraid of animals some of Carson's transformation is both miraculous and hysterical.
Like Bing and Bob, Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson both had considerable separate careers of their own. But their teaming yielded more than a few good laughs. -
elizabeth.a.tucker20 May 2000This movie is an example of Classical Hollywood Style with the romantic plot and elaborate sets. The two main characters are made for these roles. It has catchy music and a great story line. A good weekend afternoon movie.
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planktonrules2 November 2017Steve (Dennis Morgan) and Danny (Jack Carson) are northern boys who end up in Texas. Their car breaks down and then gets stolen...and they are stranded. Fortunately, a combination ranch/night club (??) is nearby and they get jobs. Soon they start trying to woo the same lady...and this is interrupted by some crooks committing a robbery and everything thinks Steve and Danny did it...so they get locked up in jail. So they did what anyone in Hollywood would do...they break out and prove their innocence!
In so many ways, this follow-up film to "Two Guys from Milwaukee" plays like a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road Picture. You have the guys vying for the same lady, you have them get into mischief and you have a lot of singing....but none of it quite as good as Hope- Crosby. Worth seeing, but pretty much in the category of 'Time Passer' for me.
By the way, get a load of the awful rear projection used in the bucking bronco sequence...yecch! -
SnoopyStyle2 September 2022Steve Carroll (Dennis Morgan) and Danny Foster (Jack Carson) are a couple of song and dance men who get stranded in Texas when they run out of gas. They reconnect with their friend Maggie Reed (Penny Edwards). Danny has a debilitating fear of animals. Steve courts Joan Winston (Dorothy Malone).
This apparently is an attempt to copy Crosby and Hope. The guys are no Crosby and Hope. I wasn't going to watch this but I really wanted to see the animated section. The comedy is broad. The animal fear is stupid and not that funny. The songs are not catchy although some are somewhat fun. As for the animated section, Bugs makes a surprise cameo. For that alone, I'm willing to sit through the rest of this movie. -
wes-connors6 November 2011Taking their "Bob Hope and Bing Crosby" act from Rhode Island to California, crooner Dennis Morgan (as Steve Carroll) and partner Jack Carson (as Danny Foster) run out of gas and are stranded in Texas. The "Two Guys from Texas" (not) stay at a dude ranch owned by beautiful dark-haired Dorothy Malone (as Joan Winston). Both men are attracted to Ms. Malone, but she seems to prefer Mr. Morgan. Adding more romance possibilities are pretty blonde Penny Edwards (as Maggie Reed) and 6'6" tall in his wedgies Forrest Tucker (as "Tex" Bennett)...
An obese Native American woman (as a Fat Indian squaw) follows Mr. Carson around throughout the story; she has a little secret to reveal before the closing credits. In a shorter running joke, Carson has to overcome a fear of animals. The poolside scene gives Malone an opportunity to model her two-piece yellow swimsuit. In a nicely done animated dream sequence, "Bugs Bunny" has a cameo. The intended hit "Every Day I Love You (Just a Little Bit More)" by Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne didn't go far, but the sweetly melodic "Hankerin'" charted for Gordon MacRae.
**** Two Guys from Texas (8/6/48) David Butler ~ Jack Carson, Dennis Morgan, Dorothy Malone, Penny Edwards -
ksf-21 July 2019Little known Warner Brothers film, but some well known actors. Dennis Morgan was a huge bigshot in hollywood, and Jack Carson was usually the wisecracking sidekick. and of course, Dorothy Malone was the beauty in so many films. one interesting note: the film is about Texas, but in the opening scene, that sure looks like a joshua tree in the backdrop, which should only be found in the mojave desert, north of palm springs! Danny and Steve are on the way to California, but run out of gas, and get sidetracked at a dude ranch right in the heart of Texas. Danny's fear of animals is the running gag here, and it's a little over the top,with the antics and sound effects. also an early role for Fred Clark,who was so great in How to Marry a Millionaire. about halfway through, there's a quick cameo by Bug Bunny (Mel Blanc). and cartoon versions of Carson and Morgan. all in technicolor. There's just something missing in this film -- the energy, the magic between the actors. not anyone's best work. the songs are a lot of work, and the jokes just aren't as funny. meh. Directed by David Butler. had made a bunch of films with Hope and Crosby. not recommended. i usually like Jack Carson films.
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It's not that this movie has no talent. Morgan and Carson were both good actors, fine comedians. But this movie is copied so closely on the Paramount Road pictures, and Carson keeps imitating Bob Hope so often, that it's impossible not to compare this to those, and regret the difference.
Dennis Morgan is very likable, and he sings well. No, he doesn't sing as well as Bing Crosby, but then, no one else did in those days.
The problem is the script. It is SO inferior to the Road movie scripts.
And the songs are also inferior.
But it's the script. It really makes this an inferior movie. And that's a shame. -
oscaralbert27 December 2015. . . which takes up about 3 minutes and 2.5 seconds of this 86 minute flick, and which is the only part of this film that I've seen (and perhaps will ever see). This animated interlude (with an additional 33 seconds of explanatory preface screens) is included as an appendix (or bonus feature) on the LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION (VOLUME 1), DISC ONE: BUGS BUNNY 2003 DVD release from Warner Bros. It is the first of two items presented under the heading of "Bugs Bunny at the Movies." (The second is a more extensive "dream" appearance by Bugs in the 1949 Doris Day vehicle, MY DREAM IS YOURS.) Bugs is only on-screen for about 30 seconds of this three-minute cartoon insert. He offers the apparent loser in this putative love-triangle story some dating advice, which turns out so badly (Jack Carson's shepherd cartoon caricature is buried in a pile of shoes thrown by the disgruntled lambs he's tried to woo away with inferior crooning from the suave singing interloper 'Toon standing in for Dennis Morgan) that one would think that the snide Bugs is in cahoots with the Morgan character. Basically, Bugs is included here as a mere afterthought at best, or trumped-up window-dressing to the more cynical.
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F Gwynplaine MacIntyre6 September 2005Warner Brothers seem to have made a concerted attempt to groom Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan as their studio's version of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, with Morgan as the Bing-like handsome affable crooner and Carson as the Bob-like egotistical braggart. Although Carson and Morgan display real chemistry together, they simply aren't in Hope and Crosby's league. (Jack Carson's facial moles might be part of the problem.) Typically, Warners musicals lacked the production values of Paramount's splashy 'Road' films -- I can't recall a single truly great Warners musical, except for 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' (plus some later Warners adaptations of musicals that originated on Broadway) -- and the scripts and songs of the Carson/Morgan films are usually far inferior to Hope's and Crosby's material.
'Two Guys from Texas' is likely the best of the Carson/Morgan teamings, and it's a delightful musical comedy ... profiting from an elaborate animation sequence that seems inspired by the animation in MGM's 'Anchors Aweigh'. Dennis and Jack play a couple of vaudevillains who are motoring through Texas. Dennis sings a tune about tumbleweeds in front of some bad rear-projection. They run afoul of some hold-up men and land up at a dude ranch where they attract the attention of two young ladies: pretty Dorothy Malone (very sexy in a Dorothy Lamour wig), who fancies handsome Dennis, and the rather less pretty Penny Edwards, who fancies Jack. Apparently unaware of his facial moles, Jack wonders why he isn't as successful with the fair sex as Dennis, and this leads him to consult a local doctor (splendidly played by veteran character actor Fred Clark). The wind-up gag involving Clark's character is hilarious.
Jack Carson's character is lumbered with a ridiculous handicap -- he's afraid of animals: ALL animals -- and some unfortunate dialogue, even telling the doctor that sometimes he wishes he was a girl. Hmm...
The script is largely by I.A.L. Diamond (best known for his Billy Wilder collaborations) and Allen Boretz of 'Room Service' fame. I laughed at one very clever dialogue scene on a cutaway set. Carson and Morgan have checked into the dude ranch and are sharing one room, while the two women are in the room next door over with a partition between. The men are conversing in one room while the women are talking in the other, but the two conversations interleave so that the dialogue takes on an entirely new meaning. Ingenious and hilarious! Less impressive is the torch song "Hankerin'".
The best song here (by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne) is a comic duet for the two men, 'I Wanna Be a Cowboy in the Movies', but the song that gets the most attention is Morgan's romantic ballad 'Ev'ry Day I Love You Just a Little Bit More'. This is reprised in the animation sequence, done in standard Warners toon style by Fritz Freleng of the Termite Terrace gang. We see a cartoon version of Dennis Morgan crooning to some swooning she-sheep in bobby socks and saddle shoes, while a cartoon version of Jack Carson gets some advice on sexual politics from Bugs Bunny before he's chased by a large ugly Red Indian woman. This is a reprise of an unfunny running gag from the live-action scenes, in which Carson is pursued by Lilly Christine as the unattractive Red Indian who speaks Spanish. ('Oye, muy bonita!') For some reason, the cartoon versions of Morgan and Carson in this sequence don't look nearly as good as the cartoon versions of other showbiz figures in 'What's Up, Doc?' and other Warners toons.
'Two Guys from Texas' is deftly directed by David Butler, formerly a handsome silent-screen actor who found his true metier behind the camera, but whose directorial career is woefully underrated. I'll rate this very enjoyable froth 8 out of 10. I wish that the other Carson/Morgan teamings were nearly as good as this one. -
steveareno27 May 2000I have been a huge fan of Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson for some time now.Any other fan should really see this movie.It had so many songs and "Music In the land" is great.The supporting cast was great and it was and always will be a highly entertaining musical!
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dougdoepke25 July 2014Two stumbling tenderfoots get stranded in big state Texas, where they meet up with a sheriff even bigger than they are, and luckily, meet two extra-pretty gals who furnish-- surprise, surprise-- romantic subplots.
Great Technicolor. The producers go out of their way to lavish on the carnival colors. But why can't big studio Warner Bros. do better rear projection, especially with Carson on a bucking bronco. Too bad since the production is otherwise fairly polished. So, how long will it take our two eastern tenderfoots (Morgan & Carson) to learn sprawling Texas ways. Bragging about the state's bigness flies about as fast and furious as Carson's patented mugging. It's all in good humor, of course, even the swipe at a gangster-type plot. But what about those two Texas gals. Wow, I'm heading for Dallas right away. Maybe there're Dorothy Malone and Penny Edwards look-alikes still there. I'm especially impressed with the sparkling Edwards. Looks like she could qualify for A-picture, Betty Hutton-type roles. Then too, the script works in some humorous running gags, one of which really pays off for Carson in the end. It all adds up to a highly entertaining comedy-musical of the sort they unhappily don't make anymore. -
rdfarnham17 November 2011Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and their "Road" pictures were some of the hottest properties around during the 1940s and it seems that the Warner studio was trying to recreate the magic with Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan in their shared pictures. Unfortunately it did not work. One of the things that made the "Road" pictures so much fun was the obvious friendship and chemistry between Bing and Bob. A large part of the dialog in their films was ad-libbed, something that Jack and Dennis either could not do or were not allowed to do. No, the songs are not all that memorable and, no, Dennis Morgan doesn't have as good a voice as Bing, but while the songs are forgettable they are still pleasant. Jack Carson was a good actor and a fair comedian, but he was never as funny as Bob Hope. The story here is pretty predictable and Jack's total phobia about animals (and the easy way he gets over it) is slightly silly but even with its shortcomings this film is fun and worth at least one watching. I just recently saw it again on TCM and enjoyed it a lot.