State Fair

Philip Strong's book about annual Iowa State Fair attracting a good-hearted farming family was previously filmed in 1933, but this version added a musical score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (Hammerstein also penned the screenplay) and, despite some lags, is a wholesome entertainment with colorful Leon Shamroy cinematography. Fay Bainter looks a little old to be the mother of two post-pubescent youngsters (and she acts more like their grandmother anyhow), but Jeanne Crain is lovely as the moony-eyed lass who falls for newspaperman Dana Andrews. Best sequence involves Henry Morgan as a dishonest carnival barker--it's really only the scene that has an edge to it--but the direction and the pacing are tight and the musical numbers well-enough staged (the songs themselves are an iffy lot, with a large reliance on old-fashioned phrases like "it's dollars to doughnuts" that make one's teeth ache). Remade again in 1962, with Pamela Tiffin in Crain's role (the best sequence in that version--the mincemeat contest--is done much more smoothly and slyly here). **1/2 from ****

source: State Fair

Let me start by saying this film is not meant to make you think long and hard about the problems of the world. It is a 'feel-good film'in the best sense of the phrase. The songs are, perhaps, not as instantly memorable as those from other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, such as Oklahoma or The Sound Of Music, but they are wonderful in their own right. "It Might As Well Be Spring" won a well-deserved Oscar and "It's A Grand Night For Singing" will have you humming right along. Jeanne Crain, lovelier than ever, gives a top performance as the restless daughter, wanting something 'more' though with no idea what 'more' is. Dick Haymes tackles the role of the son handily, with some very fine singing to go with it. Fay Bainter, all warmth and kindliness in another of her patented mother roles makes you wish she were your mother. Charles Winninger, surely one of the best character actors ever, brings the necessary comic ability to the role of the father, completely preoccupied with his prize hog. Vivian Blaine plays the band singer who catches the son's attentions at the Fair and does some nice singing on her own and in a couple of duets. Dana Andrews, something of a shock in a musical plays Jeanne Crain's love interest and shares tremendous chemistry with her, making their love story believable. This film is a pretty Technicolor musical that will leave you with a song in your heart and a happy feeling to go with it.

State Fair is not a badly done movie, as musical movies go. What raises it above utter pap is the sheer inanity is exudes. There's no actual conflict in this movie. The entire dramatic tension of the film seems focused on the issue of whether the pig will stand up or not. It would be hard to describe the characters without giving away too much of the "plot" (I use the term loosely), but suffice it to say that they may seem fantastically dull, but this is compensated for by their apparent total lack of morals or compassion. Still, worth a look if you're in a mood to gawk at the oddity.

So my aunt gave my sister this collection of Rodger and hammerstein's musicals. Well with nothing to do on a friday night i popped in the DVd to watch the trailor to see what it was about and if i would like it. Sure enough the trailor sparked my interest and i was not disappointed with such a great movie. Everyone gives a great performance and the singing is amazing. Dick Haymes sings beautifully and you can melt just listening to him. The story was a good one really shows how things were so kind of innocent back then and the colors were so bright in clothes and curtains. Those days i think are what you want to call the good old days. I recommend this movie for anyone who likes and good musical and who likes to sing along! ~!

State Fair was the first musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein to be made into a movie. For this reason, possibly, it receives far too little credit and is not one of their best loved works. Personally, I think State Fair should rank up there with The Sound of Music. It has a tremendous musical score and great acting by the wonderful Jeanne Crain. More people should view this movie as a masterpiece instead of Rodgers and Hammerstein's first attempt at making a movie.

I have seen this movie one time, and will probably never want to see it again. I found "State Fair" disappointing with a boring storyline. The actors and actresses were great, and I have to say that Fay Bainter's role as Melissa Frake was a far greater performance than in that 60's version of "The Children's Hour". I didn't care much for this movie because the music wasn't that exceptional and I found that odd. Usually Rodger's and Hammerstein's musicals are the best. The acting was about an 8, the music was a 2, and the story line was -20. I don't recommend this to anybody.

If you've read my reviews of musicals, then you know that I watch most of them only so that I can heckle them like Mike, Servo and Crow do to the crummy movies that Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank send them on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". One of my cracks to the arch-hokey "State Fair" was during the taste-testing scene: I said that one of the characters had put LSD in the punch. I heckled the equally hokey 1962 version to a lesser extent, just since I'm not tempted to heckle Ann-Margret. Yes, you probably think that I'm some sort of curmudgeon. Look, these big pompous movies set themselves up to get mocked. If we can make fun of famous people, then why not the movies in which they star? And no, you can't give me any of this "Golden Age of Cinema" mumbo-jumbo; there were just as many bad movies back then as there are now. It's just that we only remember the good movies. The point is that this is just the sort of movie that begs to get given a "Weird Al" Yankovic-style treatment. And just to remind you that I'm not playing favorites, I did the same with "My Dream Is Yours", "Show Boat", "Oklahoma!", "The King and I", "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music". "MST3K" would have a field day with all these flicks. As for me, I'd like to see Quentin Tarantino remake them.

Shown tonight on the Turner Classic Film Network, the 1945 version (second of three versions) is the one that most viewers feel is the best of the versions. It happens to be the first musical version (Will Rogers version was actually just a straight film), and is better than the 1962 version with Bobby Darin and Alice Faye. It is a nice score with two (possibly three) standards: "It Might As Well Be Spring", "It's a Grand Night For Singing", and the title song of "State Fair". But there are actually about seven numbers, and they include a ballad sung by Viviane Blaine, and a duet Blaine sings with Dick Haymes (a later song, somewhat reminiscent of "Oklahoma" but about "Iowa" had Charles Winninger, Faye Bainter, and even Donald Meek sing with Blaine and William Marshall). Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were at the beginning of their fantastic Broadway musical career, OKLAHOMA having first been produced in 1943. Most people do not realize this but Oscar Hammerstein was more than just a lyricist (like his predecessor with Rodgers, Lorenz Hart), but also wrote the scripts for the shows. This was to help insure that the songs pushed the story along. Rodgers had long wanted to integrate music and dialog. In the early 1930s, when he and Hart came to Hollywood and worked at Paramount, they had whole sequences in their best work (HALLALUJAH, I'M A BUM, LOVE ME TONIGHT, THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT) that did just that. But this was the total script, not just sections of singing dialog. It is late August 1945, and the Frake family are preparing to attend the Iowa State Fair. The father (Winninger) has been grooming his great boar "Blue Bell" for the best boar prize, and the mother (Bainter) has been grooming her sweet and sour pickles and her mince meat for the best prizes. Their son (Dick Haymes) is determined to get back at a crooked barker at the fair (Harry - then Henry - Morgan), besides enjoying it with his girlfriend. But she can't attend, due to her mother's illness. The Frake daughter (Jeanne Crain) has a boring boy-friend, a future farmer who wants to build a modernistic farm (Crain tries to be interested but isn't). Winninger is quite happy to be going, but his friend and feed merchant (Percy Kilbride - who also does a little singing at the start of the film) is a "Gloomy Gus" type, and insists that there may be serious problems ahead. He and Winninger set up a bet (of $5.00 - but this film is set in 1945 after all!) to see if it really turns out to be a totally happy experience for the four members of the family. The family goes off, and we watch the results of the weekend. This includes the two romances that occur between Haymes and a singer at the fair (Blaine) and Crain with a reporter (Dana Andrews). We watch these adventures, and how the romances bloom, as well as how the parents do with their contests. Among other things we see Donald Meek as a contest judge who gets the D.T.s and enjoys it. We see Frank McHugh as a song plugger, who turns out to be a decent fellow. We see how Blaine teaches Morgan a lesson. We learn that even big fat boars like "Blue Bell" have sex drives. And we see if Winninger or Kilbride will win that $5.00. The cast given on this thread is not complete. John Dehner has a small role as a contest announcer, and Emory Parnell is a Congressman addressing the state fair, and Will Wright is one of the judges at the boar contest. The film is a feel good film - a worthy cinematic follow-up to OKLAHOMA, and worthy of preceding the next stage musical triumph CAROUSEL. As such it is fully deserving of the 10 out of 10 I have given it.

The simpleness, and wholesomeness of this film makes it a treat to watch. The music and songs make it even more enjoyable, and the beauty of Jeanne Crain in this film would make your eyes water. A rare film with Dick Haymes who was always underrated as a singer. I feel lucky to have a VHS copy of this film.