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.
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.