State Fair (1945) – full review!

State Fair (1945) – full review!

If at the end of watching this Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II Musical you aren’t singing (or at least humming) their tune "It’s a grand night for singing" then you’re not a musical person. Ironically a different song – "It Might as Well Be Spring"- from the film’s Charles Henderson – Alfred Newman Oscar nominated Score won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Walter Lang directed this Technicolor version of the Paul Green-Sonya Levien adaptation of Philip Stong’s novel; Hammerstein wrote the screenplay. An entertaining family film!

Jeanne Crain plays Margy Frake and Dick Haymes plays her brother Wayne; both are in their late teens: young impressionable and looking for something more out of life than their dull fated existence having grown up on a farm with loving parents but no excitement. The annual state fair provides them some hope and a respite from their humdrum routine. On the other hand her father Abel (Charles Winninger) and mother Melissa (Fay Bainter) are looking forward to the annual hog and pickle contests hoping to take home top prizes in these respective events. Naturally Margy meets a man a big city newspaper reporter named Pat Gilbert (Dana Andrews) while Wayne meets a beautiful headlining singer named Emily Edwards (Vivian Blaine) and then there are complications for both romances to be resolved (or not) in the end.

Donald Meek plays a tasting judge that likes Mrs. Frake’s alcohol enhanced mincemeat. Frank McHugh plays a song promoter that befriends Wayne. Percy Kilbride appears briefly at the beginning and end of the story as one of Abel’s hayseed friends. Harry (aka Henry) Morgan appears as a carnival barker who tries to cheat too wise Wayne out of his prizes. Additionally appearing uncredited is Paul Harvey as Pat’s managing editor Harlan Briggs as a food judge John Dehner and Will Wright as hog judges and Emory Parnell as a state senator.

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