State Fair (1945)

Touches You

Strong and Moving!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

As a number of people have pointed, this is not one of the GREAT Rodgers & Hammerstein...and it was originally produced for the film, as opposed to their other musicals that were first produced for Broadway and then later moved to the big screen. But while not great, it's darned good in an old-fashioned sort of way.The story revolves around a rural family who is getting ready to go to the State Fair. Mother will put her mincemeat and dill pickles up for judging. Father his prize hog. The son will go looking for a new love, and the daughter for her first real love. One will find what they are looking for, another will settle for the love back home.Jeanne Crain was almost always a delight on the big screen, and is no less so here. Will she find her first real love? Incidentally, Crain's singing performance here is dubbed, and in my view, by a not very good singer. Dana Andrews is decent as the sophisticated reporter she sets her sights on. Dick Haymes plays the brother, and he displays his very nice singing voice. Vivian Blaine is who he falls in love with. I like Blaine, but here her red hair just didn't look real. Charles Winninger is adorable as the father. Fay Bainter wonderful as the mother...although she certainly had better roles. Donald Meek plays the tipsy mincemeat judge. Frank McHugh has a crucial role with little screen time. Percy Kilbride plays a character not unlike most that he played in his career. Harry Morgan has a brief role as a carnival barker.In terms of songs, "Our State Fair" is catchy, as is "Isn't It Kind of Fun?". But the two standouts are "It Might as Well Be Spring" and "It's A Grand Night For Singing".It's all very pleasant, though not spectacular. Certainly worth a watch, and the DVD set I have also has the later remake with Ann-Margaret and Pat Boone (which is less successful, although I love the song "Sweet Hog Of Mine" with Tom Ewell). If you like musicals, it's worth watching.

Iowa farmer's daughter Jeanne Crain (as Margy Frake) and her singing brother Dick Haymes (as Wayne Frake) go to an annual "State Fair" and find romantic partners. She attracts older "Des Moines Register" reporter Dana Andrews (as Pat Gilbert) and he finds singer Vivian Blaine (as Emily Edwards) attractive. Only one of the couples can marry. A lengthy rural supporting cast is headed by mincemeat-making mother Fay Bainter (as Melissa Frake) and hog-minding father Charles Winninger (as Abel Frake)."It Might as Well Be Spring" / "That's for Me" was a big double-sided top ten hit recording for Mr. Haymes, but you won't hear him sing it here. Everything about this film is pretty and colorful, but the overall impression is simply that it's all fluff. "State Fair" really comes across as an average diversion. The Rodgers and Hammerstein soundtrack songs, while certainly not bad, seem like half a collection; when compared to the duo's other musicals, the songs don't advance musical art in their customary way.***** State Fair (8/29/45) Walter Lang ~ Jeanne Crain, Dick Haymes, Dana Andrews, Vivian Blaine

The 1962 version. This one is so much better.Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine, Harry Morgan, Fay Bainter, and a few quirky characters and animals.Given the subject matter, a state fair where everyone is going to accomplish something for the summer. Fay Bainter as Mom, with her mincemeat pie competition; Dad and his prize hog: Blue Boy. And of course the siblings, who want only to find love. Agreed some of the Rogers and Hammerstein lyrics are a bit hard to swallow "Dollars to Donuts"" etc., but the surroundings give that sense of rural America and Iowa.Another good song is "I owe Iowa"...has a nice feel to it. Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain make an unlikely but pleasant couple. The visuals of the fair in the evening are effective and somewhat reminiscent of a dream sequence.All's well that ends well. It is a nice story and gives us a slice of Americana that is hard to find these days, although it still can be found in parts of the mid-south, and middle America if you look. Very good film for children and families. 9/10

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.