State Fair (1945)

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain

Walter Lang's State Fair is a technicolor musical that is just dotty enough to be entertaining. The material, based on Phil Song's novel, had been crafted into a tolerable film in 1933 with Henry King directing Janet Gaynor and Will Rogers. A disastrous 1962 version stars Pat Boone and Ann-Margret. The 1945 version contains the only score Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were distrustful of Tinsel Town, wrote directly for film. Since there is a dance cafe on the midway, the songs are reasonably well integrated into this wisp of a story. The hit song from the film was "It Might as Well Be Spring" which Richard Rodgers initially wanted to be an up tempo number.

State Fair's moon June tune plot tells of two siblings who find romance at the Iowa State Fair while their parents sweat out the results of the pickling and stock contests. Jeanne Crain falls for Dana Andrews while brother Dick Haymes has a brief fling with Vivian Blaine. The casting is spot on. Crain was the queen of the 20th Century Fox lot, both State Farm and the perverse masterwork Leave Her to Heaven ranked in the top ten for the year's box office, and this film's apple cheeked, yearningly innocent heroine is in her wheelhouse. The same is true with Dana Andrews as an almost cynical reporter. All he has to do is not fall over and pitch woo to Ms. Crain. Nice work if you can get it. Both Crain's and Andrews' song vocals were dubbed. Haymes, a crooner in the mold of Crosby who is largely forgotten today, is adequate. I think he is primarily here so there can be a shot of someone exclaiming, "Jeepers, that kid can sing." Blaine, only a sporadic film star, is the best of the lot as a savvy chanteuse. Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter, always welcome, play Pa and Ma. There are welcome cameo bits, particularly Henry Morgan as a crooked carny.

I have never found Walter Lang to be a particularly spirited or energetic director. He certainly embalmed the film version of The King and I. Luckily, there are enough carnival rides in State Fair to provide at least a semblance of dynamism. Also there is enough bizarre Americana to entertain: colorful country frocks, pigs engaging in barnyard antics, Donald Meek sampling mincemeat, Crain imaging that Ronald Colman, Charles Boyer, and der Bingle are murmuring sweet nothings to her. The studio fakery applied to this backlot musical seems entirely appropriate. The color photography by Leon Shamroy, who also shot Leave Her to Heaven, sparkles. State Fair  is beautifully mindless entertainment for an anxious nation awaiting loved ones.