I found it shocking that not only were there no people of colour in this movie, but even those with the slightest of tans seem to have been banished from the set. It actually made me feel uncomfortable as the movie progressed...it got creepy to me. Did anyone else find this to be strange/discomforting?
shareIntegration of American films had not occurred yet. What films about small town life in the '40's and even '50's featured minorities cavorting with Caucasions?
shareI'm not talking about "cavorting". I'm talking about a simple PRESENCE. State Fair came out in 1945. Six years before that, Gone With The Wind featured Hattie McDaniel who was nominated for best supporting actress in that movie. And five years before Gone With The Wind, Claudette Colbert was co-lead alongside African-American actress Louise Beavers in "Imitation Of Life".
With State Fair I didn't expect to see an African-American dating one of the Frake children, but even a glimpse of a worker or dancer or ANYTHING in the movie would have made this look less like an Aryan nation advertisement.
Do you watch many old movies? Very few have an african-american presence. Especially movies set in iowa or something where there isn't much of an african american population even today. This isn't New York City or something.
Of course Gone with the Wind set in the south complete with slaves has an african american...
Hrmmm ok...I just discovered the version I saw was the 1933 version... maybe 1945 would have at least a few dancers or something more... but... still Iowa haha.
shareJanet Leigh appeared on an episode of Columbo and it seems clips and snippets of an actual old movie of hers was shown in the episode, with her singing about Walking My Baby Back Home, might have been the title.
I caught a Betty Grable movie one morning as well, with an opening number of Today I Love Everybody.
Someone else will have to provide the titles of these movies, but clearly there are definitely much better candidates for whitest movie ever made.
But I know what you mean. I watched this movie many years ago and it just strangely got on my nerves and was totally lost on me.
And it was that they were white, plus what 'issues' they had to contend with that the viewer was supposed to relate to?
It was mind-boggling.
It's Rodgers and Hammerstein. You should see 'Flower Drum Song' (all-oriental cast).
shareI didn't see any Asians or Mexicans either. Are blacks more important then they are?
shareAmerica at that time was 90% white. Iowa was more like 99% white so it was not so amazing at all.
shareOh good grief...you get creeped out over an old 1940's movie that doesn't show black people in it? Get a life.
shareOh good grief...you get creeped out over an old 1940's movie that doesn't show black people in it?
Get a life.
The movie was excellent for it's time period - late 1940's. Lavish production numbers, luxurious color....yes, it was a grand movie.
share