An Angel from Texas

Last updated
An Angel from Texas
Directed by Ray Enright
Screenplay by Fred Niblo Jr.
Bertram Millhauser
Based on The Butter and Egg Man
1925 play
by George S. Kaufman
Produced by Robert Fellows
Starring Eddie Albert
Rosemary Lane
Wayne Morris
Ronald Reagan
Jane Wyman
Cinematography Arthur L. Todd
Edited by Clarence Kolster
Music by Howard Jackson
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • April 27, 1940 (1940-04-27)
Running time
69 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

An Angel from Texas is a 1940 comedy film directed by Ray Enright and written by Fred Niblo Jr. and Bertram Millhauser, based on the hit 1925 play The Butter and Egg Man written by George S. Kaufman. The film stars Eddie Albert, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. It was released by Warner Bros. on April 27, 1940. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

Peter "Tex" Coleman, a dairy farmer from Texas, comes to New York with his mother's life savings to buy a hotel and be near his stagestruck sweetheart Lydia Weston. Upon his arrival, Tex finds that Lydia is not the stage star that her hometown thinks that she has become. Instead, she is working as a secretary for fast-talking producers Mac McClure and Marty Allen.

Mac and Marty have a play set for rehearsal but no money to produce it, and their leading lady Valerie Blayne is threatening reprisals by her gangster boyfriend Pooch Davis if the show does not open on schedule. Tex agrees to invest his money in the show if Lydia is given the lead, and when Mac and Marty consent to his terms, the play goes into rehearsal as a drama with two leading ladies.

When Valerie threatens Mac with bodily harm if she is not permitted to play the lead, Mac informs Tex that he will fire Lydia unless Tex buys the entire show. Sensing that the play could work as a farce, Marty's wife Marge offers the money on the condition that Tex play the male lead.

On opening night, the audience laughs uproariously as dynamite planted on stage by Valerie's vindictive boyfriend explodes, and the actors' performances are so bad that they are funny. As a comedy, the show becomes a smash success, but when a plagiarism suit is brought, Tex and Marge sell the show back to its eager producers and leave them holding the bag.

Cast

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Thomas M. Pryor wrote: "The story is neither new nor exciting, and, except for the addition of some modern slang, is pretty much the same as when George S. Kaufman told it in 1925 via 'The Butter and Egg Man.' It has been smartly acted by a pleasant company, especially by Eddie Albert, Wayne Morris, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. Ray Enright has directed in a breezy, farcical manner." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wyman</span> American actress (1917–2007)

Jane Wyman was an American actress. She received an Academy Award (1948), four Golden Globe Awards and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

<i>Bedtime for Bonzo</i> 1951 film by Fred de Cordova

Bedtime for Bonzo is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Fred de Cordova and starring Ronald Reagan, Diana Lynn, and a chimpanzee named Peggy as Bonzo. Its central character, psychology professor Peter Boyd (Reagan), tries to teach human morals to a chimpanzee, hoping to solve the "nature versus nurture" question. Boyd hires Jane Linden (Lynn) to pose as the chimpanzee's mother while he plays father to it and uses 1950s-era child-rearing techniques.

<i>General Electric Theater</i> Anthology radio and television drama series

General Electric Theater was an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Albert</span> American actor (1906–2005)

Edward Albert Heimberger was an American actor and humanitarian. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and the second in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the sadistic prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, with Jane Wyman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Beery Jr.</span> American actor (1913–1994)

Noah Lindsey Beery was an American actor often specializing in warm, friendly character roles similar to many portrayed by his Oscar-winning uncle, Wallace Beery. Unlike his more famous uncle, however, Beery Jr. seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. Active as an actor in films or television for well over half a century, he was best known for playing James Garner's character's father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, in the NBC television series The Rockford Files (1974–1980). His father, Noah Nicholas Beery enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as an extremely prominent supporting actor in major films, although the elder Beery was also frequently a leading man during the silent film era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Carson</span> Canadian-American actor (1910–1963)

John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, 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 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Morris</span> American actor and World War II flying ace (1914–1959)

Wayne Morris was an American film and television actor, as well as a decorated World War II fighter ace. He appeared in many films, including Paths of Glory (1957), The Bushwackers (1952), and the title role of Kid Galahad (1937).

<i>Love Is on the Air</i> 1937 film by Nick Grinde

Love is on the Air is a 1937 American mystery film directed by Nick Grinde, and starring Ronald Reagan, June Travis, Eddie Acuff, Robert Barrat, Raymond Hatton and Willard Parker. It was the first of three remakes of the 1933 Paul Muni picture Hi, Nellie. It was ironic that, in his first movie, Reagan starred as a radio announcer, as he had just moved from Des Moines Iowa where for almost 5 years after graduating college, as a sports radio announcer he broadcast games for the Chicago Cubs, Big Ten football games and title fights from a play-by-play telegraph wire.

Frank McCarthy was the secretary of the General Staff of the United States Department of War during World War II; briefly United States Assistant Secretary of State for Administration in 1945; and later a distinguished film producer, whose production Patton won the 1970 Academy Award for Best Picture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Foy Jr.</span> American actor (1905–1983)

Edwin Fitzgerald Jr., known professionally as Eddie Foy Jr., was an American stage, film and television actor. His career spanned six decades, beginning as part of the vaudeville act Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foys.

<i>Brother Rat</i> 1938 film by William Keighley

Brother Rat is a 1938 American comedy drama film about cadets at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, directed by William Keighley, and starring Ronald Reagan, Priscilla Lane, Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, and Wayne Morris.

<i>John Loves Mary</i> 1949 film by David Butler

John Loves Mary is a 1949 comedy film directed by David Butler and written by Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron. The film stars Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal and Jack Carson. The film was released by Warner Bros. on February 19, 1949. It's based on a Broadway play of the same name written by Norman Krasna, which ran from February 4, 1947, to February 7, 1948, at the Booth Theatre and Music Box Theatre in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlan Thompson</span> American film director

Harlan Thompson was an American theatre director, screenwriter, lyricist, film director, and film and television producer. He wrote the Broadway hit Little Jessie James (1923–24), and several other Broadway musicals. He moved to Hollywood, where he was in turn a writer, director and producer.

<i>Flight Angels</i> 1940 American film

Flight Angels is a 1940 commercial aviation film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Edmund Grainger and directed by Lewis Seiler, from an original story by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay. The film stars Virginia Bruce, Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris, and Ralph Bellamy as airline employees, flying Douglas DST airliners.

<i>Brother Rat and a Baby</i> 1940 film by Ray Enright

Brother Rat and a Baby is a 1940 American comedy film directed by Ray Enright and written by John Cherry Monks, Jr. and Fred F. Finklehoffe. It is the sequel to the 1938 film Brother Rat. The film stars Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan in her final role, Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, and Ronald Reagan. The film was released by Warner Bros. on January 13, 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Lane</span> American actress

Priscilla Lane was an American actress, and the youngest sibling in the Lane Sisters' family of singers and actresses. She is best remembered for her roles in the films The Roaring Twenties (1939) co-starring with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart; Saboteur (1942), an Alfred Hitchcock film in which she plays the heroine; and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), in which she portrays Cary Grant's fiancée and bride.

<i>Lucy Gallant</i> 1955 film

Lucy Gallant is a 1955 American drama film directed by Robert Parrish and written by John Lee Mahin and Winston Miller. The film stars Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford. The film was released on October 20, 1955, by Paramount Pictures.

<i>My Love Came Back</i> 1940 American film

My Love Came Back is a 1940 American comedy-drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Olivia de Havilland, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert, and Jane Wyman. Based on the 1935 Austrian film Episode written and directed by Walter Reisch, the film is about a gifted young violinist who considers leaving a prestigious music academy to play in a jazz band to earn money. The academy's new president—a distinguished wealthy patron of the arts—convinces her to stay after secretly arranging a scholarship for her out of his own pocket, and the two begin attending concerts together. Complications arise when he asks his young business manager to take his place at one of the concerts. The film is notable for Heinz Eric Roemheld's musical direction and Ray Heindorf's unique swing orchestral arrangements of classical pieces. My Love Came Back was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on July 13, 1940.

<i>Gambling on the High Seas</i> 1940 American film

Gambling on the High Seas is a 1940 American drama film remake of Special Agent (1935), directed by George Amy and written by Robert E. Kent. The film stars Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Gilbert Roland, John Litel, Roger Pryor and Frank Wilcox. The film was released by Warner Bros. on June 22, 1940, as a second feature.

<i>Reagan</i> (2024 film) Film directed by Sean McNamara

Reagan is an upcoming American biographical historical drama film directed by Sean McNamara and written by Howard Klausner and Jonas McCord, based on the 2006 book by Paul Kengor The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan. Penelope Ann Miller, Robert Davi, Lesley-Anne Down and Jon Voight feature in supporting roles.

References

  1. "An Angel from Texas (1940) - Overview". TCM.com. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  2. Crowther, Bosley (1940-05-10). "Movie Review - An Angel From Texas - THE SCREEN; 'My Son, My Son!' a Compassionate Drama, at the Music Hall-New Films at the Capitol and Palace". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  3. Pryor, Thomas M. (1940-05-10). "'My Son, My Son!' a Compassionate Drama, at the Music Hall—New Films at the Capitol and Palace". The New York Times . p. 26.