The Middleton family - dad (Harry Shannon), mum (Ruth Lee) and Bud
(Jimmy Lydon) - has come to New York from Indiana to visit daughter Babs
(Marjorie Lord), granny (Adora Andrews) ... and of course the World's
fair, which just happens to be in town, apparently brought to you by the
friendly people of the Westinghouse Electric Company (wouldn't you know
it, the coproducer of the film). At the fair, Jimmy (Douglas Stark), Babs'
ex from back home who's now with Westinghouse, shows them around, and
everybody is in awe, especially dad, to whom everybody is a sinner who
doubts industrialisation and the capitalist way of life. But of course
there's Nick (George J.Lewis), Babs' new preposterous art teacher
boyfriend who dares to speak out for the rights of the working class, and
even though his feeble arguments are countered by even feebler arguments
by Jimmy, he dares to stick to his communist believes ... now imagine
that! Then though Nick proposes to Babs and gives her a ring that's
supposed to be a family heirloom ... only in town, granny finds half a
dozen of the same rings on the cheap at a jeweller, and she buys them all
and lets Babs find them to see what a phony Nick is - and once she knows
that the ring is not a valuable family heirloom but a cheap mass product,
she hunts him away, because what is true love conpared to a valuable ring.
In the end, she gets Jimmy, who has a steady job, values capitalism and
industrialisation just as much as her dad does, and he isn't too smart
either. Now I'm not sure if that is a happy ending. Interesting:
This film plays just like a piece of unreflected anti-communist propaganda
from the 1950's - yet it's from 1939. The (simplified) messages are the
same though: Capitalism and industrialisation are good, communism is bad,
too much independent thinking will only lead you astray, the family is a
holy institution, the proper place for a woman is the kitchen, and never
forget your smalltown roots as the big city will only mess your mind and
might turn you into a communist. Besides trying its best to sell us these
short-sighted points-of-view - which are sadly enough prevalent in parts
of American society even today -, the movie is also an unashamed 50+
minutes commercial for the Westinghouse Electric Company, to such an
extent that it's at times almost funny (the dishwasher versus dishwashing
housewife is a hoot), but most of the time a bit embarrassing. That all
said, The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair is anything
but a good movie, and to say it is ahead of its time (in its 1950's style
weird views of capitalism vs communism) isn't exactly a compliment here,
but it's a great film to laugh at with a couple of friends and a couple of
beers, and at least some of the pictures of the 1939 World's Fair are
really amazing (for their time).
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