MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: STATE FAIR (1945)

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Friday, April 3, 2020

STATE FAIR (1945)

Pleasing, candy-colored musical remake of Henry King’s even better 1933 original, missing the emotional pull of the older film, but getting by on good will and a six-song half-score from Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein written between OKLAHOMA! and CAROUSEL. The little family dramas of two siblings and their folks having adventures over the three-day fair (romances for the kids; prizes in pig & pickles for the parents) now play out in quotation marks with Charles Winninger, Fay Bainter, Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain & TechniColor not quite making up for the loss of Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, Lew Ayres & Janet Gaynor in bas relief monochrome. Same for director Walter Lang who hasn’t the confidence King shows in letting situations sneak up and grab you by the heart. Nothing in here to match the solemn strength of the Ayres/Gaynor romance, though they do manage to hint at the sexual frankness the Pre-Code pic was able to make plain. Crain gets the best tune, ‘It Might As Well Be Spring,’ and is well dubbed, while lovestruck brother Dick Haymes gets to flash his big teeth and wrap an impossibly smooth, if rather bland, baritone around the underrated ‘Isn‘t It Kind Of Fun.’ And keep a close eye on Winninger as he checks out a hootchy-kootchy show. Is that a triple or a quadruple ‘take.’

DOUBLE-BILL: Fox needs to restore the 1933 STATE FAIR. Such a beauty. OR: See Winninger again taking over for Will Rogers when John Ford found another story for JUDGE PRIEST/’34 in THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT/’53.

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Friday, April 3, 2020

STATE FAIR (1945)

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