Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

State Fair Blu-ray Movie Review

Rodgers and Hammerstein's only original film musical probably won't win First Prize.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 11, 2014

Note: This film is currently available only as part of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection.

Most theater geeks and fans of Glee could probably correctly pair Strouse with Adams, Bock with Harnick, Adler with Ross, Kander with Ebb, and Maltby with Shire, but even the relatively unwashed masses would have no problem recognizing the vaunted partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein. These two titans of the Broadway musical achieved their renown though a combination of both incredibly artistry, providing the Great American Songbook with untold treasures from their musicals, and fairly rare business acumen, which preserved their creative control over their properties but, due at least in part to their role as producers as well as composer-lyricist-librettist, above the title billing which is usually reserved for the acting talent. Rodgers and Hammerstein had each had their own individual successes prior to teaming with each other, Rodgers most notably with Lorenz Hart and Hammerstein with Jerome Kern, but together they seemed almost ideally suited to remaking the American musical in their own sophisticated yet homespun combined images. From the 1943 premiere of Oklahoma! on Broadway through 1960’s stage version of The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein enjoyed an almost unparalleled string of successes (despite occasional lackluster outings like Allegro or Pipe Dream), with several of their shows still acclaimed as unmatched masterpieces to this day. Because Rodgers and Hammerstein were so hands on in the curating of their properties, it actually took over a decade for the first of their immense hits to even make it to the screen, but 1955 proved to be a stellar year for the team on the silver screen, with not just that show, Oklahoma!, appearing in not one but two formats (and versions), but their follow up Broadway smash Carousel also lighting up the screen with some of the same cast as Oklahoma!. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are all models of expert plotting and precise characterizations, and they all benefit from the somewhat sardonic but mellifluous genius of Richard Rodgers, one which acted as a sort of slightly bittersweet gin to Oscar Hammerstein’s effervescent tonic.

Rodgers and Hammerstein not so surprisingly found Hollywood on the line within seconds after Oklahoma! took Broadway by storm in 1943, and the result was their only collaborative musical written directly for the screen, 1945’s State Fair. This homespun piece of Americana plays a little like a mid-20th century Oklahoma! itself, with wise elders and melancholy young lovers and relatively little roiling subplot activity that may be a reaction to the realization that there was enough turmoil in the real world already, and no mere musical film needed to add any. State Fair is a slight entertainment, but it contains a couple of all time Rodgers and Hammerstein classics, including their Oscar winner “It Might As Well Be Spring”.

Based on a 1933 film of the same which had starred Will Rogers, State Fair tells the simple but affecting story of the Frake family’s “adventures” at the Iowa State Fair. Both Father (Charles Winninger) and Mother (Fay Bainter) have their sights set on various competitions, while daughter Margy (Jeanne Crain) simply wants a break from what she sees as a repetitive, humdrum existence on her parents’ farm. Son Wayne (Dick Haymes) is excited to be taking his girlfriend to the fête, until she calls and says she can’t come, a situation which is soon echoed when Margy’s natty, uptight fiancé Harry (Phil Brown) informs her that he can’t come. In this particular instance, it’s less of an upset, since it seems that Margy and Harry are decidedly odd bedfellows (or at least potential bedfellows) to begin with.

At the fair Margy meets cute with a reporter named Pat (Dana Andrews) while on a roller coaster, and Wayne does similar duty with a pretty singer named Emily (Vivian Blaine) at a ring toss booth, and it’s not hard to predict that after a few minor skirmishes with logistics and misunderstandings, true love will blossom. Meanwhile, comedy relief is offered courtesy of Ma Frake’s heavily spiked mincemeat and Pa Frake’s prize pig in their respective competitions. State Fair coasts along like a certain kind of cinematic comfort food—there’s nothing overly nutritious here and certainly nothing hard to digest, but instead a steaming platter of slightly sweetened victuals is placed before the viewer and provides a baseline of enjoyment, if no actual outright excitement.

This safe, restrained homespun quality was exactly what audiences pined for in the summer of 1945, just as hostilities were winding down across the globe, but all of the boys hadn’t quite returned home yet. There was a palpable longing for normalcy again, and State Fair, while obviously idealized, provided Hollywood’s version of a more or less happy nuclear family in America’s heartland doing prototypically American things. It may indeed have little relation to actual reality (then or now), but it provided a tonic to the weary souls of countless people, giving them a vivid Technicolor dream to hold dear. State Fair may not be one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s crowning artistic achievements, but it’s one of their most plain spoken appealing efforts, one that still has a direct line to and an honorable mention prize for the heart.

State Fair Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

State Fair is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. While the elements here have succumbed to the same "brown fade" that afflicts other releases in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection, it's not quite at the same level, and I would probably be prone to up the score on this title to around a 3.75 if I were able to. While there's a definite shift in the color space, blues are still quite strong most of the time and even reds don't have the dirty rust coloring they tend to get when this kind of fade reaches greater proportions. That said, flesh tones can be fairly problematic here, though at times they approach a more natural look, if only for a moment or two. The image is nicely stable and the elements have no untoward damage to report. There appears to have been no aggressive digital manipulation of the image, and an organic looking grain field is intact.

State Fair Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

State Fair's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track is obviously fairly narrow sounding, and has hints of a boxy quality that reveal the recording technologies of the day, but overall it's a surprisingly full bodied track, one which delivers the music with a nicely satisfying midrange which helps to overcome some anemia in the highest registers. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and there's not even any overly egregious hiss to get in the way here. This won't win any awards for "reference quality" audio, but it's a solid, problem free rendering of the original theatrical mix.

State Fair Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While other releases in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection port over all the supplements from their respective 50th Anniversary DVD sets, State Fair omits the 1962 version of the film (with optional Pat Boone commentary) that came with its 60th Anniversary DVD set. Otherwise, the supplements include:

• Commentary by Richard Barrios and Tom Briggs


• Play Film with Sing Along


• Music Machine allows you to excise all the musical moments from the film and play a sort of video jukebox, or to play any song individually.


• Sing Along works just like Music Machine, only with subtitles offering up the lyrics.


• From Page, To Screen, To Stage: State Fair (480i; 29:52) is an enjoyable tracing of the property's history.


• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2:18). It's notable that Rodgers and Hammerstein themselves are listed as the big drawing cards to this particular table.


• Still Galleries include Set Design and Wardrobe, Behind the Scenes, and Lobby Cards and One Sheets.

State Fair Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

State Fair is admittedly a bit on the bland side, at least when compared to Rodgers and Hammerstein's more penetrating, serious works like South Pacific or Carousel. While some might accuse the film of being figuratively "beige", ironically its big, bright Technicolor ambience is one of its chief assets, along with a good (and at times excellent) Rodgers and Hammerstein score. This is "pleasant" entertainment, in both the positive and pejorative uses of that terms. This Blu-ray exhibits the same faded elements that are a problem on some of the other films in this new Rodgers and Hammerstein boxed set, but the audio is surprisingly spry sounding. Oddest of all, this is the only film in the collection not to port over all of the supplements from its previous DVD release, and the 1962 version of the film is missing.