GManfred The thing about summer love is that it is uncertain and often temporary. Normally, only the young are afflicted, and, as such a powerful emotion is a novelty to the recipient, it can be very hurtful. "State Fair" chronicles two of these.The Frake family is preparing for the Iowa state fair, all with different expectations. Pa (Will Rogers) hopes his prize boar, Blue Boy, can win first prize and Ma (Louise Dresser) pins her hopes on her pickles and mincemeat. Teenagers Wayne and Margy are just hoping for... they're not exactly sure, but something exciting.The nominal star here is Will Rogers and he gives a folksy, homespun performance as Pa - makes you wonder if he's acting or not. Louise Dresser is Ma just as you would imagine Ma would be. She was one of our best actresses and retired too soon. The story, though, focuses on the two young players, Norman Foster (Wayne) and Janet Gaynor (Margy) and their adventurous encounters with complete strangers.This is a 'Pre-Code' picture and tame by todays (lack of) standards, and so both are seen conversing in bedrooms with above-mentioned strangers (smelling salts, please), but the picture is so well-written that the breach of decorum is hardly noticeable. The story is true to life and shot through with vignettes of family life from an earlier time in America. If you were not alive in the 1930's and did not live in the Midwest, you should see this movie. It is a quintessential family picture with lots of heart, as well as exceptional performances by all parties.

Jozef Kafka This is an ensemble piece, so Will Rogers must share screen time not only with top-billed Janet Gaynor as the daughter but also future director Norman Foster as the son (for those who care, Foster is OK but his slow speaking style and overage juvenile manner probably would've ended up limiting his roles even if he hadn't switched to directing). There was a notable technical moment, where we see and hear the midway barkers telling us it's the last performance of the fair, the last night, last chance, etc... Then we go to the next scene of Janet Gaynor and Des Moines reporter Lew Ayres bittersweetly visiting the isolated spot of their tryst the night before -- and we still hear the barkers' warnings of "last night" and "last chance". A few moments remind us this was made pre-code. Just before the family leaves for the fair, an antsy Gaynor tells Foster, "Haven't you ever felt like going someplace and raising hell?" But the real jaw-droppers come in the relationships between the farm kids and their big city romances. It's clearly implied that Gaynor and Ayres have sex. As far as Foster and carny acrobat Sally Eilers are concerned, it's a lot more than implied: it's even the subject of a joking exchange between Foster, oblivious mother Louise Dresser and a possibly suspicious Rogers. This seems like an odd thing to include in what is presented as a family film, but perhaps the term "family film" meant something different in 1933, and rural audiences weren't quite so naive as we like to think. Another moment near the end gives us an earthiness missing in the squeaky clean musical version. Leaving with the family in their truck the morning after the fair, Rogers tell his hog, "Well Blueboy, you're a prize winner today, and ham tomorrow." This reminder of the reality of farm life also recalls the famous story where somebody asked Rogers if he actually ate the hog after the film wrapped production. Rogers replied, "No, I just couldn't bring myself to eat a fellow actor". 60 years later Billy Crystal would steal this line re: the calf in City Slickers.

Sean State Fair is actually a pretty good movie that's mostly just a vehicle for Janet Gaynor. But it ends up being more than that with the help of Will Rogers and Lew Ayres.The story revolves around a farming family who enters a prize pig in the State Fair. The two children of the family go off on their own separate adventures while the two parents stay with the pig.Gaynor is one of the children and she meets and falls in love with Ayres. Their chemistry together is a very intriguing one. Will Rogers is the father who is mostly the comic relief. You'll most likely like the film and it deserves to be liked. Its a great gem from the early '30s that isn't seen much anymore.I was able to finally watch the film when it was on The Fox Movie Channel last year. It might be on again soon. I suggest you find out.

nealvelgos This 1933 film of STATE FAIR is nearly impossible to see except on one Fox cable channel, but is the best of all versions, with genuine and unsentimental writing and acting. Director Henry King propels the leisurely plot with a thrilling moving camera that efficiently depicts the varied sensations of a state fair, from wholesome contest fun to the menace of barkers and carnies. King has a consistent handle on the theme, that the state fair is a quick microcosm of life, an event that thrusts persons together in a venue that makes possible the "rollercoaster" of infatuation (and sex--this is pre-code pleasure), the tension of competition, and the diversion from hard work in this depression era America. Even "Blue boy" the hog and "self object" of Will Rogers' likeable character discovers the same conflicted feelings of sexual attraction. The cast is excellent, with standouts of Rogers, a most natural performer, in a film that is unpolluted by awkward stereotyped supporting players common to his films. A truly stunning-looking Lew Ayres is a dream of a roller coaster partner, and Victor Jory in his silk shirt perfectly embodies the carnie whom small children fear to encounter outside the midway. But it's the quiet moments that register the most--the pensive characters driving at dusk to the fair, full of private anticipation, still totally one as a family. Modern films rarely dare such introspective glimpses, but this film doesn't bore because it is so true. These rural citizens are proud and flawed, but like the wonderful characters in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, they embrace the chance to take in the fun and mystery of life.