A few admissions first off -- I haven't seen the later or earlier versions, and I'm a bigger fan of Rodgers' work with Lorenz Hart than I am of the Hammerstein stuff, though I do appreciate it for what it is I guess. This is not a movie that you should try to read too hard into, after all. It's not quite as complex as some of his earlier work like "Oklahoma!" and "Show Boat." But it has some very nice songs, appealing actors playing wholesome characters, very saturated 30s technicolor photography, so basically some people are going to know they hate it within 5 minutes and everyone else will have a good time. I'm one of the people who likes it.
The story is very simple -- it's about a family going to the Iowa State Fair (in a time that feels like a strange mix of past and 30s present), where the mom (Fay Bainter) and dad (Charles Winninger) are trying to win prizes and son (Dick Haymes) and daughter (Jeanne Crain) find dubious love. Crain is paired with a newsman played by Dana Andrews and Haymes with a band-singer played by Vivian Blaine.
A first look at the scenario tells you that it's a sort of culture-clash -- big city folks falling for country guy and gal. There's a confrontation between the son and a male band-singer (Percy Kilbride, I believe) where all this tension comes to a head, and his relationship with the lady singer cannot continue because of the melodramatic intervention of a previous marriage. However the probable marriage of the Andrews and Crain characters at the end implies the possibility of reconciling the country/town old/new dichotomy.
The score isn't really their best as some have noted, but taken on its own it is better than most movie soundtracks. R/H didn't have a whole lot of time to write this one, they basically did it I think in between "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel" because "OK" was a Theater Guild show and they didn't make much money off it at the time, they only made money when the production closed up and the film was made. Crain's character is very much like Laurey in "Oklahoma!" and the elimination of the negative social element of the already married woman aligns in a softer way with the death of Judd Fry in that play or the self-sacrifice of Julie in "Show Boat." This is one of the only parts of the play that probably rings false for modern audiences, because it was obviously designed to fit a certain type of melodrama and these days we would hardly consider a previous marriage a total roadblock to a new marriage. By our standards the son could be criticized for abandoning her, but I guess in the morals of his time it would have been dishonorable for him to pursue a married woman.
This film fits very comfortably into the Americana of Oscar Hammerstein, less serious than "Show Boat" and "Carousel" but more convincing than his European adventure with "Sound of Music" or his Siamese "The King and I." I know Hammerstein wanted to stretch out, and definitely Rodgers did some of his best music for "King", but this is the type of story that I think he's best at.
As far as the performances, they're pretty much all great. Winninger in particular made me laugh in a lot of his scenes, and Fay Bainter is just wonderful too. Great chemistry between them makes their casting perfect. Winninger's scene where he weeps tears of joy over his pig being victorious reminded me of his famous scene in "Show Boat." Crain was lovely and suitably innocent on screen. Andrews and she have pretty good chemistry, a lot more than Haymes and Blaine. Perhaps that's intentional -- you could even argue that Hammerstein wanted us to feel that the characters were too similar to each other for their romance to work in the long term. They're both phenomenal singers, they're both very willful and confident. Crain's character on the other hand is a bit of a shrinking violet by today's standards I guess, she's "vulnerable." And Andrews is very good at playing a protective type of male, you get the feeling that he could give her more direction while she could organize his life. That sounds sexist but I think it's possibly what Hammerstein was trying to say.
The story is very simple -- it's about a family going to the Iowa State Fair (in a time that feels like a strange mix of past and 30s present), where the mom (Fay Bainter) and dad (Charles Winninger) are trying to win prizes and son (Dick Haymes) and daughter (Jeanne Crain) find dubious love. Crain is paired with a newsman played by Dana Andrews and Haymes with a band-singer played by Vivian Blaine.
A first look at the scenario tells you that it's a sort of culture-clash -- big city folks falling for country guy and gal. There's a confrontation between the son and a male band-singer (Percy Kilbride, I believe) where all this tension comes to a head, and his relationship with the lady singer cannot continue because of the melodramatic intervention of a previous marriage. However the probable marriage of the Andrews and Crain characters at the end implies the possibility of reconciling the country/town old/new dichotomy.
The score isn't really their best as some have noted, but taken on its own it is better than most movie soundtracks. R/H didn't have a whole lot of time to write this one, they basically did it I think in between "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel" because "OK" was a Theater Guild show and they didn't make much money off it at the time, they only made money when the production closed up and the film was made. Crain's character is very much like Laurey in "Oklahoma!" and the elimination of the negative social element of the already married woman aligns in a softer way with the death of Judd Fry in that play or the self-sacrifice of Julie in "Show Boat." This is one of the only parts of the play that probably rings false for modern audiences, because it was obviously designed to fit a certain type of melodrama and these days we would hardly consider a previous marriage a total roadblock to a new marriage. By our standards the son could be criticized for abandoning her, but I guess in the morals of his time it would have been dishonorable for him to pursue a married woman.
This film fits very comfortably into the Americana of Oscar Hammerstein, less serious than "Show Boat" and "Carousel" but more convincing than his European adventure with "Sound of Music" or his Siamese "The King and I." I know Hammerstein wanted to stretch out, and definitely Rodgers did some of his best music for "King", but this is the type of story that I think he's best at.
As far as the performances, they're pretty much all great. Winninger in particular made me laugh in a lot of his scenes, and Fay Bainter is just wonderful too. Great chemistry between them makes their casting perfect. Winninger's scene where he weeps tears of joy over his pig being victorious reminded me of his famous scene in "Show Boat." Crain was lovely and suitably innocent on screen. Andrews and she have pretty good chemistry, a lot more than Haymes and Blaine. Perhaps that's intentional -- you could even argue that Hammerstein wanted us to feel that the characters were too similar to each other for their romance to work in the long term. They're both phenomenal singers, they're both very willful and confident. Crain's character on the other hand is a bit of a shrinking violet by today's standards I guess, she's "vulnerable." And Andrews is very good at playing a protective type of male, you get the feeling that he could give her more direction while she could organize his life. That sounds sexist but I think it's possibly what Hammerstein was trying to say.