Meet Me at the Fair

The second of Sirk's 'trilogy' of witty, light-hearted musicals nostalgically evoking small-town America around the turn of the century, blessed with an engaging and lively performance from Dan Dailey as the travelling medicine show proprietor who hides out a runaway orphan (Allen) and woos the pretty delegate from the orphanage board (Lynn) who is supposed to bring him back. The song-and-dance numbers are adequate rather than inspired (although the backstage routine involving Dailey and Carole Mathews is staged and shot with astonishing virtuosity); but Sirk's customary concern with hypocrisy and intolerance is, given the genre and overall tone of the piece, surprisingly to the fore in a subplot about corrupt politicians (admirably headed by the darkly handsome O'Brian).