''Two Guys from Texas'' is a 1948 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by David Butler and starring

Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obi ...

Jack Carson John Elmer Carson (October 27, 1910 – January 2, 1963) was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including ''The Strawberry Blonde'' (1941) with James Cagney and ...

, and

Dorothy Malone Dorothy Malone (born Mary Dorothy Maloney; January 29, 1924 – January 19, 2018) was an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years, she played small roles, mainly in B-movies, with the exception of a supporting role ...

. The film was written by

Allen Boretz Allen Boretz (1900–1985), was an American songwriter, playwright and screenwriter. The great success of his and John Murray's Broadway hit ''Room Service'' (1937) led to offers from Hollywood, and he wrote and co-wrote screenplays from the ...

and

I.A.L. Diamond I. A. L. Diamond (born Ițec (Itzek) Domnici; June 27, 1920 – April 21, 1988) was a Moldovan–American screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Billy Wilder. Life and career Diamond was born in Ungheni, Iași County, Bessarabia, R ...

, produced by Alex Gottlieb, and released by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...

on September 4, 1948. This was a follow-up to the 1946 film ''

Two Guys from Milwaukee ''Two Guys from Milwaukee'' (UK title: ''Royal Flush'') is a 1946 American comedy film directed by David Butler (director), David Butler and starring Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, and Joan Leslie. It was distributed by Warner Bros. The film is abou ...

'', also starring Morgan and Carson, which in turn was an attempt to capture some of the appeal of Paramount's

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

and

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

Road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

'' pictures.

Plot

Song-and-dance men Steve Carroll and Danny Foster walk to a Texas

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

after their car runs out of gas. The team's friend, singer Maggie Reed, gets the boys a job. With their auto stolen, the two settle into ranch life. While Danny consults with Dr. Straeger to conquer his fear of animals, Steve courts ranch owner Joan Winston. When their stolen car is used in a robbery, the duo must then find the real culprits. This proves difficult, because the town sheriff, Tex Bennett is Carroll's rival in love; and he is delighted to find an excuse to jail them both. Luckily, the true bandits press their luck by attempting to hold up the box office at the town rodeo. Carroll captures them single-handed clearing the team. Foster is trapped atop a bucking bronco and manages to stay on, thus conquering his fear of animals. An overweight American Indian woman has been tugging at Foster's arm throughout the film. Foster assumes she is in love with him, but she only wants to introduce him to her beautiful daughter. Foster happily accepts.

Cast

as Steve Carroll *

as Danny Foster *

as Joan Winston * Penny Edwards as Maggie Reed *

Forrest Tucker Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided fund ...

as 'Tex' Bennett * Joan Rudolph as Mrs. Karen Walkers *

Fred Clark Frederick Leonard Clark (March 19, 1914 – December 5, 1968) was an American film and television character actor. Early years Born in Lincoln, California, Clark was the son of Fred Clark Sr. He attended Stanford University with plans to becom ...

as Dr. Jack Straeger *

Gerald Mohr Gerald Mohr (June 11, 1914 – November 9, 1968) was an American radio, film, and television character actor and frequent leading man, who appeared in more than 500 radio plays, 73 films, and over 100 television shows. Early years Mohr wa ...

as Link Jessup *

John Alvin John Henry Alvin (November 24, 1948 – February 6, 2008) was an American cinematic artist and painter who illustrated many movie posters. Alvin created posters and key art for more than 135 films, beginning with the poster for Mel Brooks' ''Bl ...

as Jim Crocker *

Andrew Tombes Andrew Tombes (29 June 1885 – 17 March 1976) was an American comedian and character actor. Biography The son of a grocer, originally from Ashtabula, Ohio, Tombes was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy. Early in his career, he worked as a v ...

as The Texan *

Monte Blue Gerard Montgomery Blue (January 11, 1887 – February 18, 1963) was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player ...

as Pete Nash * The Philharmonica Trio as Specialty Act *Petra Silva as large American Indian woman.

Bugs Bunny cameo appearance

The film is perhaps best remembered today for featuring an

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

cartoon character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in ...

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

, voiced by

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

, Warner's leading animation director, was assigned to direct the special animated dream sequence, in which Bugs gives some advice to a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

d Jack Carson. Bugs would later have a similar cameo in 1949's ''

My Dream Is Yours ''My Dream Is Yours'' is a 1949 Technicolor musical romantic comedy film starring Jack Carson, Doris Day, and Lee Bowman. Plot The film opens in Los Angeles, where Doug Blake is dumped as a manager by Gary Mitchell. He goes to New York City to f ...

'', which also starred Jack Carson. Bugs Bunny would later appear at the ending of the 1972

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...

film '' What's Up, Doc?''.

Production

The film cost an estimated $2 million.

Film connections

Animation historians have noted the similarities between the animated dream sequence in this film and the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'' cartoon ''

Swooner Crooner ''Swooner Crooner'' is a 1944 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. The short was released on May 6, 1944, and stars Porky Pig. The cartoon was nominated for the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), but ...

'' (1944). The latter, directed by Friz Freleng's colleague

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best kn ...

, concerned

Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...

trying to reacquire the female chickens of his

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

from a

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

-esque

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

, who is driving the chicks away from the farm. The same year ''Two Guys from Texas'' was released, animation director

Art Davis Arthur David Davis (December 6, 1934 – July 29, 2007) was a double-bassist, known for his work with Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner and Max Roach. Biography Davis was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United State ...

parodied the film's title with a ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon called ''

Two Gophers from Texas ''Two Gophers from Texas'' is a 1948 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Arthur Davis (animator), Arthur Davis. It was released on January 17, 1948, and features the Goofy Gophers. Title The title is a pun on ''Two Guys from Texas ...

'', starring Mac & Tosh, better known as

The Goofy Gophers ''The Goofy Gophers'' is a 1947 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Bob Clampett and Arthur Davis. The short was released on January 25, 1947, and is the first appearance of the Goofy Gophers. Plot An anthropomorphic dog who is base ...

. The title was spoofed yet again for Freleng's 1956 cartoon ''Two Crows from Tacos''.

Reception

The film earned $2,350,000 in rentals in the US according to ''Variety''."Top Grossers of 1948", ''Variety'' 5 January 1949 p 46
/ref> According to Warner Bros records, the film earned $2,566,000 domestically and $397,000 foreign.

References

External links

* * * * {{David Butler 1948 films 1948 musical comedy films 1940s Western (genre) comedy films American musical comedy films Bugs Bunny films Films directed by David Butler Films shot in California Films scored by Ray Heindorf Films set in Texas Films with screenplays by I. A. L. Diamond Warner Bros. films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films