JohnHowardReid Copyright 29 August 1945 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 30 August 1945. U.S. release: October 1945. U.K. release: 24 December 1945. Australian release: 2 May 1946. 9,288 feet. 103 minutes. U.S. television title: IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER. SYNOPSIS: Fast-talking reporter romances country girl at Iowa State Fair. Her brother meantime has fallen for a red-headed singer. NOTES: Prestigious Hollywood award, Best Song, "It Might As Well Be Spring", defeating the following huge line-up of nominees: "Accentuate the Positive" from Here Come the Waves; "Anywhere" from Tonight and Every Night; "Aren't You Glad You're You" from The Bells of St Mary's; "The Cat and the Canary" from Why Girls Leave Home; "Endlessly" from Earl Carroll Vanities; "I Fall in Love Too Easily" from Anchors Aweigh; "I'll Buy That Dream" from Sing Your Way Home; "Linda" from G.I. Joe; "Love Letters" from Love Letters; "More and More" from Can't Help Singing; "Sleighride in July" from Belle of the Yukon; "So in Love" from Wonder Man; "Some Sunday Morning" from San Antonio. Nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical but lost out to Anchors Aweigh.Third to Leave Her to Heaven and The Dolly Sisters as Fox's top domestic box-office attraction of 1945. Initial domestic rentals gross: $4.1 million.This is the second of Fox's three film versions of the novel. The first starred Will Rogers and was directed by Henry King in 1933. José Ferrer directed a 1962 remake with Tom Ewell, Alice Faye, Pat Boone and Ann-Margret. COMMENT: The score's the thing all right. And it's staged in a very lively fashion. In fact Walter Lang's direction throughout is a great deal more fluid, vigorous and imaginative than is his usual humdrum norm. If you can accept Shamroy's somewhat over-garish Technicolor, production values are great as well. Certainly, Miss Crain, beautifully costumed too, has never looked lovelier. Haymes has charm and sings so agreeably, you'd think he's all set for a major movie career. Ditto Vivian Blaine who handles the femme fatale with passion. Marshall, though obviously dubbed for his songs, plays the heavy with skill. And of course there are marvelous opportunities for character players like Kilbride (who is the first person we see on the screen — singing too!), Winninger, Bainter, Meek, McHugh and Morgan (who has a memorable bit as a surly sideshow chiseler). The director manages to build excellent suspense out of the film's simple pleasures — the judging of a pickle contest and champion boar. The carnival atmosphere is beautifully captured in sets and extra players. Editing is sharp, the staging brisk. But, as said above, it's the songs that make the movie the really top-class entertainment experience it is.

weezeralfalfa Filmed only 2 years after the stage version of "Oklahoma" opened, this was the earliest R&H film by a decade! It was the only one of the 6 R&H films that wasn't preceded by a play version. It was released the same year that R&H composed the play "Carousel", which was their main focus at this time. Both included a substantial carnival atmosphere.Like "Oklahoma", it paints a largely idyllic picture of a rural Midwestern community, lacking ethnic minorities. It's mostly based on the prior very popular non-musical film of the same name, starring Will Rogers. Again, the lead young woman has to deal with two suitors, one clearly not being to her liking. But, in place of the menacing Jed, in "Oklahoma", her 'problem' suitor is a nerdy ambitious farmer, who just doesn't excite her romantically. Unlike "Oklahoma" and "Carousel", there are is no memorable ballet dance scene. It's shorter by half an hour to more than 1 hour, than the other R&H films. However, very surprisingly, it includes the only Oscar-winning R&H song!"Oklahoma" began with Gordon MacRae singing about the theme of the movie: an optimistic future for him as a farmer/rancher and, by extension, the US as a whole. Similarly, this film begins with bucolic Percy Kilbride singing "Our State Fair": introducing us to the main setting of the film. Charles Winninger, another convincing-looking old farmer, picks up the song for a spell, followed by his prize boar Blue Boy(as best he can), and finally by his wife, played by Fay Banter. Very soon after, daughter Marge(the beautiful Jeanne Crane) starts into the most remembered song in the film "It Might as Well Be Spring"(It was late summer). Marge is expressing her impatience to start a new life somewhere else more exiting to her, with a more exiting, handsome, prospective husband than ambitious, but nerdy, Harry. Marge is literally starry-eyed, expressing her ambition to snare a man who reminds her of her favorite movie stars and singers....I feel sorry for Harry, who seems sincere in his plans to build a modern farm operation and house, to create a much easier, more profitable, life than what his parents have. Marge couldn't be more blunt in expressing her disinterest in such a life and in Harry, no matter what he proposes. She doesn't want a life that's all planned out, and predictable.Marge has a brother(Dick Haymes, as Wayne,) probably a little older, also unmarried, with a girlfriend: Eleanor, he doesn't seem all that excited about. Now, it happens that both Eleanor and Harry have excuses why they can't go to the state fair. This gives Marge and Wayne an opportunity to wander around the fair and meet someone who might better meet their criteria for an ideal mate. Who should Wayne bump into but flaming redhead Vivian Blaine, who had been recently costarring in "B' musicals for Fox, and would later costar in "Guys and Dolls". He falls for her immediately, after she helps him get out of a scene with a carnival side showman. Whereas the singing of Jeanne and Dana Andrews, who she meets at the fair, was dubbed, Haymes and Vivian, of course, did their own singing. Ironically, Andrews had training as an opera singer, but neglected to tell the studio about this!These instantaneous flirtations appear to be on the rocks near the end. Marge is sure that Pat(Andrews) is the man for her. But, he basically says that, as a lady's man, he doesn't think he could be tied to one woman, even one as sweet and beautiful as Marge. But, in the end, he gives in. Meanwhile, after a bit of romancing and singing together, Pat is told that Vivian is returning to Chicago and is married, if unhappily. Thus, in the hurried finale, we see Haynes driving his car with his, presumably, uncomplicated country girl sweetheart Eleanor beside him, instead of the sophisticated, fun, but conflicted and married Vivian.There are 6 songs. Of these, "It's a Grand Night for Singing" ranks up there with "It Might as Well Be Spring", as a memorable classic. But, there's nothing wrong with the others, except the lyrics to "Our State Fair" are trite. True, the film doesn't open with a knock-you -out -of -your -seat musical number, like most R&H films do. The long song and dance production near the end , to "All I Owe to Ioway" is functionally equivalent to the singing of "Oklahoma" near the end, in that former creation, if not nearly as memorable as a song.Comedy is more emphasized here than in the euphoric 'Oklahoma" or the darker-themed "Carousel". Wayne's determination to get even with that carnival barker is one example. Henry Morgan is great as his barker nemesis. Kildridge, who later costarred in the Ma and Pa Kettle series, provides some early humor as a perennial doomsday worrier. Of course, Winninger's obsession with his hog Blue Boy winning the grand prize, and his sneaking some brandy into wife's mincemeat, to hopefully make it win the prize, are other examples. Donald Meek, as a food and drink tasting judge, is also funny.Director Walter Lang had directed many of the early '40s Fox musicals, and would continue through the '50s, including the R&H "The King and I".Well folks, I'm going to have to give this a 10: equal to that of Oklahoma, as a total experience, despite a few quibbles. I liked all the principal players, although Jeanne came across as an icy beauty at times, and Haymes and Vivian came across as refugees from an urban life. With all the activity relating to the fair and the hurried romances, there was little time for character development, if that is important to you. I won't bother comparing it with the longer '62 remake, with additional songs. You decide for yourself.

Steffi_P It is some testament to the growing stature of the movie musical in the 1940s that Rodgers and Hammerstein, then revitalising the stage musical in a way not seen since the death of Ziegfeld, decided to turn their hands to a piece for the screen. State Fair had been a popular non-musical movie back in 1933, a simple yet touching love story that Rodgers and Hammerstein could adapt with very few changes in what looked like a simple case of "add songs, create hit".Individually both members of the duo had worked in film before, so the format was not unfamiliar, and they are prepared to make concessions to it. Of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein pictures produced by Fox State Fair is the shortest by a considerable margin. The epic musical that would appear in the mid-50s (boosted primarily by the adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein's big stage works) was still an unknown concept. Nevertheless, they seem keen to make the most of the cinema's possibilities. At one point, a snatch of singing becomes an internal monologue, something that doesn't really work on stage (although having said that it never really caught on in the movies either). Apart from this, all the usual Rodgers and Hammerstein touches are there, with songs that move the story along emotionally and tonally rather than semantically. "It Might as Well Be Spring" is integrated into the background scoring and becomes an illustration of Jeanne Crain's confused dissatisfaction.This is also one of the earliest musicals in which non-singing actors would be dubbed by professional vocalists. In later years this would be done a lot because the studio wanted the right performer for each role more than they wanted someone who could sing. Strangely though there is nothing special about Jeanne Crain or Dana Andrews, both of whom were dubbed here. The best player is surely Fay Bainter, the archetypal mother figure in numerous 40s movies. She is full of endearing, twitchy mannerisms, as in her hesitation over adding more liquor to the mincemeat. There's also a nice little supporting part from sweet old man Donald Meek as one of the judges.State Fair is undoubtedly a nice-looking picture. At this point Technicolor was still quite a special thing, but it was beginning to become standard for musicals. The colours here are rich and vibrant without being garish, the screen filled with subtle pinks, blues and natural greens. Director Walter Lang handles the scenes with poise and delicacy. His staging of "It Might as Well Be Spring" is simple yet beautiful, slowly closing the camera in on Jeanne Crain as the shadow of the trees teases across the image. His arranging of the crowds is excellent too, often keeping people moving rhythmically but realistically, and forming careful patterns to draw our attention to the stars in the foreground.Good as it looks and sounds, State Fair is ultimately a rather flat experience. Apart from the fact that this version has songs, its 1933 counterpart was better in almost every aspect. The earlier movie was certainly far more intensely romantic. Even the songs in State Fair are far from Rodgers and Hammerstein's best, the delicate charm of "It Might as Well Be Spring" being the only example up to their usual standard. The movie's one real asset can be summed up in Craine's sudden anger that the ultra-modern farmhouse proposed by her bespectacled suitor would have "nothing useless". In other words, she yearns for the purely decorative things in life. State Fair, with its fragile beauty and quaint frippery wrapped around a rather mundane slice of Americana, is a purely decorative movie.

dimplet I've seen this musical several times before and enjoyed it well enough, but it never really impressed me. Until this time. I put on the 1962 version, watched about 10 minutes, and decided to switch to the 1945 original. Within five minutes it had introduced the theme and had me hooked, and by 10 minutes it had me laughing at some of the same scenes that left me cold with the remake.While I am a great fan of Rodgers & Hammerstein, I hadn't paid much attention to State Fair before. I had always considered Oklahoma! the beginning, and it is, as far as Broadway goes with a debut of 1943, but the film didn't come out until 1955. Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote mostly musicals with an edgy social commentary and included some tears, which are missing from State Fair, which looks weak by comparison. When viewed as their first film, and second musical, the perspective changes. And I'm not so often in the mood for an emotionally stressful musical. State Fair is Rodgers & Hammerstein's most cheerful musical, and their only light comedy, though there is some comedy in all their works. I think in the old broadcast TV rerun movie days, we took this genre for granted, and when I saw State Fair, I basically said, nice movie, and promptly forgot about it. Now I appreciate how delicately and effectively the director Walter Lang worked in the comedy, as well as developed the heart-warming romantic subplots, which modern movies so often flub. I really laughed and chuckled at many scenes, especially the pickle contest tasting, and I genuinely cared about the characters. All the acting was on the mark, even the minor parts, and every scene generated the appropriate emotion, without feeling manipulated. You have to remember when this was made, near the end of WWII, and when it was released, Aug. 30, 1945, shortly after the surrender of Japan. With such timing, Americans must have rejoiced at the return to normalcy State Fair embodied. An edgy, violent musical like Oklahoma! would been wrong for the time. I was just re-watching the Harvey Girls, which came out in January 1946, and it, too, was a light Americana musical. What you see in these two is the birth of the modern film musical, with singing and dancing and a strong plot, but without the crutch of having the leading actors play professional musicians or dancers, as in the 1930s Astaire musicals. The Wizard of Oz in 1939 was actually ahead of these two movie musicals, though it was aimed at children. There is a tip of the hat in State Fair to an even earlier musical, also for children, Disney's enormously successful, but enormously risky, Snow White, the first full-length color animated movie in 1937. Listen to the orchestration and style of the music as Mrs. Frake prepares the mincemeat in the kitchen, particularly as she is grating something -- it matches the style as Snow White is cleaning the kitchen of the seven dwarfs. Their song My State Fair even seems similar to the chords and pace of Disney's Whistle While You Work. I bet audiences in 1945 caught the reference. I guess Rodgers and Hammerstein are giving credit to Snow White as a great musical, and the first to so fully integrate music and plot, as well as including some edgy conflict from the evil queen, perhaps influencing their own approach. The orchestration style reappears briefly near the end of the movie. When I finished watching State Fair, I felt good. This is one of a handful of films that I think you can count on to cheer you up if you are feeling bad, including Princess Bride and Dave. I came away with a new appreciation for the craftsmanship of director Walter Lang, whose credits include The King and I, and No Business Like Show Business.I was also surprised to find that the same Vivian Blaine who plays Emily Edwards also played Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls in 1955. Now that's acting. As a footnote, the philosophizing by Dave Miller was a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's great essay, Compensation. This is the underlying theme of the story, and the bet establishes a certain tension that carries through the film. But we see that bad does not have to balance good, if we choose happiness. With its focus on bringing a pig to the state fair, this is an obvious companion to Charlotte's Web; another is Friendly Persuasion. All are fine family movies. I think it is safe to say the original is the best. But this is not to put down the 1962 remake. Actually, I think it would be a fine thing to remake State Fair every couple of decades, setting the story in a new generation. State fairs are in at least their third century now. The fundamentals haven't changed much. I think this is a tradition Rodgers & Hammerstein would have approved.