Country Corn

State Fair (20th Century-Fox) sure is a lucky little old title. In 1932 it was a bestselling novel by Phil Stong, in 1933 a hit movie with Will Rogers, Lew Ayres and Janet Gaynor, in 1945 a second hit movie with Dana Andrews, Jeanne Grain and Dick Haymes. And now State Fair has been turned into a (side bets accepted by Producer Charles Brackett and Director Jose Ferrer) third hit movie--with Pat Boone, Bobby Darin. Tom Ewell, Alice Faye, Pamela Tiffin, Ann-Margret, Wally Cox and an 800-lb. Hampshire hog named George. It may not win any Oscars, but durn if it don't take the blue ribbon for country corn.

Story hasn't changed much. Come time, the Frakes all kerplump in the old man's crate and poot up to Dallas for the Texas State Fair, "the biggest state fair in the hull U.S.A." Mom Frake (Faye) wins the plaque for mincemeat. Pop Frake (Ewell) wins the grand prize for swine. Marge Frake (Tiffin) wins one of those TV fellers (Darin), and Wayne Frake (Boone) wins one of those fast girls (Ann-Margret) from back East, but she's too fast for Wayne and the tomfool lets her get away.

This time the color is louder and the picture is wider than ever. And to the 1945 score by Rodgers & Hammerstein (It Might as Well Be Spring, It's a Grand Night for Singing), Composer Richard Rodgers has added five new songs. Unfortunately only one of them is worth hearing, a bit of hoggerel that Pop sings to George ("Warm and soft affection lies/ In your teeny-weeny eyes").

On the other hand, the script and the playing are lively. George is a mighty photogenic pig, but even George is out-hammed by Comedian Ewell, who is one of the biggest camera hogs in the business.

Alice Faye, in the first film role she has played since 1946, looks refreshingly real -- she is middle-aged now and she doesn't try to hide it. Boone looks healthy. Darin looks unhealthy. And there is too much sugar in his Tiffin. As for Ann-Margret, she has the energy of a Texas twister. But Comedian Wally Cox, who plays a judge in the preserves division, brings off the best scene in the picture, a side-busting sequence in which the meek little fellow gets roaring drunk on mincemeat.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.