For years, the 1945 version of STATE FAIR has been considered the critics' favorite, while the out-of-print VHS of the 1962 remake sold for large sums in dark corners online. Clearly, the 1962 version has always been the audience favorite, despite any barbs from historians and the R&H organization, which openly dismisses it. There are flaws, to be sure -- notably the lack of chemistry between Bobby Darin and Pamela Tiffin -- but the strengths of the film far outweigh its shortcomings.
If something was lost in translation between rural Iowa and urban Texas, the location photography virtually serves as a documentary of 1960s America, a time when technology was just beginning to rear its ugly head in American industry. While the 1945 version had a Technicolored charm to it, the remake's location shooting captures the excitement of the midway in a manner no studio backlot could possibly convey. The CinemaScope lens was invented for a film like this, and the 'you-are-there' sensation is strong as footage from the 1961 Texas and Oklahoma fairs sprawls across the wide screen.
The casting is terrific for the most part, though, as aforementioned, Tiffin and Darin are at dramatic odds with each other. Neither was costumed or photographed flatteringly. Director Jose Ferrer manages to conceal Tiffin's ethereal beauty at every turn, while Darin's role suffers from uneven characterization and, surprisingly, the fact that he is given only two opportunities to vocalize. However, the rest of the cast compensates for this. Pat Boone and Ann-Margret convey the culture clash of country boy/city girl more powerfully than actors in either the 1933 or 1945 versions. Tom Ewell is obviously having the time of his life as Abel, and Alice Faye complements his efforts in unexpected ways (from Faye's accent, it's clear that Melissa isn't from Texas originally, that she ended up there as a result of marrying Abel). There is also a maturity in Richard Breen's script that is lacking in the whitewashed 1945 version. Witness the scene toward the end, where Abel (Ewell) comforts his devastated son Wayne (Boone); it is obvious that Wayne has lost his innocence to Emily in the physical sense, something that hadn't been hinted at since the 1933 pre-Code version.
Finally, musical director Alfred Newman gives the remake the lush, no-expense-spared orchestration the music demands, on par with the instrumentation Fox lavished on earlier Rodgers and Hammerstein films like CAROUSEL, THE KING AND I and SOUTH PACIFIC. The 1945 version was scored before the Fox studio orchestra was augmented in 1953; stereophonic sound and doubling the amount of musicians gives 1962's STATE FAIR a full, rich sound that finally allows the score to take its rightful place alongside other R&H masterworks. Much has been written about the fact that Richard Rodgers' additional songs weren't up to the six originals, but they are necessary -- the original score contained only one character-driven song, and no love songs at all, so even if they are sub-par, "Willing and Eager" and "This Isn't Heaven" are welcome opportunities to allow the two couples to express themselves in song, and the charm of Faye and Ewell's "It's the Little Things in Texas" compensates somewhat for the loss of "All I Owe Ioway." Moreover, the additional songs transform a mini-musical into a true musical.
STATE FAIR is a treat in any of its incarnations, each of which captures the era in which it was made. The 1933 version has a Depression-era sensibility that emphasizes how much that week in Des Moines meant to poor people who spent all year working the land; the 1945 version glows with a colorful, idyllic post-WWII optimism; and the 1962 remake spotlights the clash between rural life and urban gentrification. When it's all said and done, STATE FAIR will be remembered for its glorious words and music, and nowhere are these heard to better advantage than in Alfred Newman's lovingly scored charts for the 1962 remake. It's time that critics and historians embrace the remake. State fairs by nature are garish and gaudy, and so is the film. It is by far the best rendition of this property.
