Wayne Morris and Ronald Reagan play a pair of fast-talking Broadway producers Mac McClure and Marty Allen in "Dames" director Ray Enright's "An Angel from Texas" who are flat broke and owe everybody money. They need to find a patsy to give them enough dough to put on their latest stage play with prima donna actress Valerie Blayne (Ruth Terry) who has the clout to count on them casting her because her hoodlum boyfriend 'Pooch' Davis (Milburn Stone of "Gunsmoke" fame) is about to be released from Alcatraz Prison. Peter Coleman (Eddie Albert) and Lydia Weston (Rosemary Lane) are a couple of clods from Texas; she dreams of seeing her name on a Broadway marquee as an actress, but the only job she can land is a secretary for the two scheming producers. Meantime, Peter Coleman is her sweetheart who saw her off on the bus from Lone Star, Texas, and is heartbroken when she appears to be the toast of Broadway but hasn't written her a line. Peter's mom gives him her life savings of $20-thousand and packs him off to New York City to buy a hotel. Unfortunately, Peter learns that New York City hotels cost at least a million apiece. He discovers his girlfriend on the street and learns that all the great critical notices that she sent him were not for shows in which she had been cast. Everybody in Lone Star thoughts that Rosemary had gotten high-handed and changed her name. Lydia didn't want the gossips back home to get wind of her misfortune.
Now, she works for Morris and Reagan, and they must contend with the antagonistic Ruth Terry. Nevertheless, Mac and Marty persuade Peter to help produce the play on the condition that Lydia takes the leading lady role. During the final dress rehearsal, Lydia storms backstage with two of her boyfriend's henchmen and demands that she get the role. As it turns, out Mac and Marty had promised it to her all along and had duped the lovebirds into thinking that everything would work out. The surprise of surprises that thwarts Lydia is none other than Marty's wife Marge Allen (Jane Wyman) who had earlier won a fortune. Anyway, Mac and Mary agree to let Peter buy them out if he can drum up another $10-thousand in 24 hours. Naturally, Peter cannot persuade any of the Big Apple bankers to loan him the ten-grand. Unexpectedly, Marge gives Peter the loot if he agrees to play opposite Lydia because she thinks that it will be a successful farce. Mac and Marty happily cavort out of their office with Peter none the wiser about Valerie's boyfriend. As Mac and Marty are heading to the elevator, Lydia, and Chopper (Tom Kennedy) confront and inform them that Pooch plans to dynamite the stage. Later, we learn that Pooch doesn't plan to blow up the audience, only the actors. Pooch isn't prepared for what he sees when the play opens and he changes his mind. Mind you, even more laughs and surprises ensue.
Everybody seems to think that the Mel Brooks' farce "The Producers" was the first to use the premise that Broadway producers could pull a fast one on audiences and have them laughing because a play was so bad that it was good. Clearly, Warner Brothers beat Brooks to the punch with "An Angel from Texas." Incidentally, "An Angel from Texas" was based on the George S. Kaufman stage play "The Butter and Egg Man." According to the Internet Movie Database's Trivia section, the play ran eight months, beginning September 1925 to April 1926, for a total of 243 performances. The change of title to "An Angel from Texas" doesn't necessarily refer to Lydia, but instead to Peter because he gets Lydia the starring role that she has wanted since she left Lone Star. Initially, you might not enjoy this goofy comedy if you catch only the first half-hour. Director Ray Enright and scenarists Fred Niblo, Jr., of "King of the Jungle" and Bertram Millhauser of "The Texans" never let the audiences catch their collective breaths with all the antics that are packed into this play. "An Angel from Texas" is hilarious from fade-in to fade out.
Now, she works for Morris and Reagan, and they must contend with the antagonistic Ruth Terry. Nevertheless, Mac and Marty persuade Peter to help produce the play on the condition that Lydia takes the leading lady role. During the final dress rehearsal, Lydia storms backstage with two of her boyfriend's henchmen and demands that she get the role. As it turns, out Mac and Marty had promised it to her all along and had duped the lovebirds into thinking that everything would work out. The surprise of surprises that thwarts Lydia is none other than Marty's wife Marge Allen (Jane Wyman) who had earlier won a fortune. Anyway, Mac and Mary agree to let Peter buy them out if he can drum up another $10-thousand in 24 hours. Naturally, Peter cannot persuade any of the Big Apple bankers to loan him the ten-grand. Unexpectedly, Marge gives Peter the loot if he agrees to play opposite Lydia because she thinks that it will be a successful farce. Mac and Marty happily cavort out of their office with Peter none the wiser about Valerie's boyfriend. As Mac and Marty are heading to the elevator, Lydia, and Chopper (Tom Kennedy) confront and inform them that Pooch plans to dynamite the stage. Later, we learn that Pooch doesn't plan to blow up the audience, only the actors. Pooch isn't prepared for what he sees when the play opens and he changes his mind. Mind you, even more laughs and surprises ensue.
Everybody seems to think that the Mel Brooks' farce "The Producers" was the first to use the premise that Broadway producers could pull a fast one on audiences and have them laughing because a play was so bad that it was good. Clearly, Warner Brothers beat Brooks to the punch with "An Angel from Texas." Incidentally, "An Angel from Texas" was based on the George S. Kaufman stage play "The Butter and Egg Man." According to the Internet Movie Database's Trivia section, the play ran eight months, beginning September 1925 to April 1926, for a total of 243 performances. The change of title to "An Angel from Texas" doesn't necessarily refer to Lydia, but instead to Peter because he gets Lydia the starring role that she has wanted since she left Lone Star. Initially, you might not enjoy this goofy comedy if you catch only the first half-hour. Director Ray Enright and scenarists Fred Niblo, Jr., of "King of the Jungle" and Bertram Millhauser of "The Texans" never let the audiences catch their collective breaths with all the antics that are packed into this play. "An Angel from Texas" is hilarious from fade-in to fade out.