Classic Film Guide

Kid from Texas, The (1939)

Directed by S. Sylvan Simon (who produced Born Yesterday (1950)), this somewhat annoying and infrequently amusing "comedy" was based on a story by Milton Merlin & Byron Morgan, screenplay by Florence Ryerson, Edger Allan Woolf, and Albert Mannheimer (also Born Yesterday (1950)), and features Dennis O’Keefe, Florence Rice, Jessie Ralph, Buddy Ebsen, Virginia Dale, and Jack Carson, among others.

William Malone (O’Keefe) is a cowpuncher in Texas who's trained his horse Lone Star to play polo! Ironically, Bertie Thomas (John Hubbard) with his sister Margo (Rice) in tow is looking for just such a horse to take back East. Braggart William inadvertently upsets Margo and their "relationship" is further exacerbated by Snifty (Ebsen). However, Bertie buys Lone Star and the horse's owner Mr. Lambert (Tully Marshall) assigns Snifty to transport it to his home on Long Island, NY. William is a stowaway on the trip, and though he's still on Margo's nerves, the trainer (J. M. Kerrigan) is assigned to find work for him on their ranch. Margo is engaged to a famous polo player William has heard of, "Duke" Hastings (Robert Wilcox). A reporter Stan Brown (Carson) hears William's bravado, witnesses & photographs an embarrassing incident between he and Margo (he had mistaken her for the maid, played by Helen Lynd), and dubs the wannabe polo playing hick "Wild Bill" Malone.

Just as Margo is about to have Bill fired, he meets and befriends Bertie's & Margo's Aunt Minnie (Ralph), who controls the purse strings for two spoiled rich kids. She hires him to dry dock Margo's extravagance, an expensive yacht she can't afford, further alienating Bill from Margo. When Bill finally gets an opportunity to play polo with Bertie and Hastings, because Smith Harrington (George Meeker) broke his collarbone, he makes such a mess of things that he's predictably & finally fired. Coincidently, his "friend" Snifty is in the New York area with a wild west show run whose star is an Annie Oakley-type named ‘Okay’ Kinney (Dale). Stan, who was also fired, has a brilliant (?) idea to save the near destitute show, by promoting "Wild Bill" as its star and having Cowboys vs. the Indians polo matches! These are such a success that it leads to a showdown polo match between the wild west show performers and Hastings's highbrow team.

There is a love triangle to resolve, though no real relationships have been established between the obnoxious Bill and the two leading ladies, Margo & Okay. Since Bill has not endeared himself in any way to the audience, I doubt that anyone who's been able to keep watching this film, even as short as it is, will be very interested in its outcome.