Johnny at the Fair

Ah, people in 1947 got their kicks in so many different ways than the people of today. This short film is a prime example. It shows a young boy traipsing through the Canadian national exhibit of that year. A cameo by Joe Louis is supposed to be very exciting, but isn't. In the end, you just want the thing to end and don't care what happens to Johnny. Is that really Lorne Greene narrating? It sure doesn't sound like him at all.

Avoid this unless you're watching the MST3K version.

While this short is very dated, it does a good job of basically advertising the world fair in Canada. Of course, said fair is long gone now and there basically is not a world fair anymore, anywhere, so it is rather pointless now to even watch. The only people who have seen it now are most likely those who saw it as a short proceeding the film "The Rebel Set", a MST3K episode. As such, they automatically rate it a one or three for whatever reasons, not able to comprehend that just because the gang riffs something, does not necessarily mean it is bad. I mean, on Rifftrax, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett riff "The Dark Knight" and most would say that is a fairly good film. The point is you can riff anything good or bad, and just because it is on MST3K you do not have to give it a super low score. That being said it is dated and it seems they do not really give a full view of the fair for us to witness. Only snippets, such as Joe Louis or the prime minister of Canada. Things that most of us are not going to see at the fair, though that ice skating queen was a cutie then. The two guys who are some sort of comedy team looked a bit annoying and the boy looked genuinely upset when they were trying to cheer him up. Also, it is kind of funny and a bit scary the amount of children in the lost children pavilion. Wow, the amount of kids that get away from their parents is staggering, but I cannot really blame Johnny from ditching his parents as they try and decide what to see next among some of the more mundane and boring things for a kid to do.

What can I say about a 50's promo-film for the Canadian National Exhibition, besides that it's completely unwatchable hadn't it been for the guys of MST3K who guided me through it. It's so bad, you just have to see it for yourself. Just make sure you don't watch it alone. Johnny's trip through the exhibition is so terrifying, you'll certainly need the comfort of a loved who keeps telling you: "It's just a movie, it's just a movie!"

The most interesting aspect of this expectedly dated educational film is the character of "Johnny" himself: he's played by Charles Pachter, who grew up to be a renowned Canadian painter, sculptor, designer and historian/lecturer whose works have garnered him an Order of Canada. His web site is cpachter . com . One of his most famous works is Noblesse Oblige, 1972, which depicts Queen Elizabeth riding a Canadian moose. ;) Pachter recently mentioned his role in this film during an interview on CBC radio, which adds a nice bit of closure after several years of seeing this picture via MST3K. As others have mentioned, the film itself is a rather bland--and thus typically Canadian--walk/run-through of Toronto's famed Canadian National Exhibition, where celebrities of the day proceed to excite and bore little Johnny in equal measure while he's separated from his parents (Pachter's real parents played his on screen parents).

Good, wholesome little boy goes with parents to fair, gets lost, and has all sorts of adventures. Yeah, we've seen this far too many times. "Johnny at the Fair" should be titled "Johnny at the Un-fair". And to think that Joe Louis got himself mixed up in this swill. No doubt the people of Canada are embarrassed that their country got portrayed like this (we can probably all agree that Michael Moore and the "South Park" guys have done a much better job looking at our northern neighbor). Fortunately, all is not lost: "MST3K" tore this movie apart. In their version, Johnny's negligent parents decide to abandon him.

In conclusion, the movie by itself is 0/10, but the "MST3K" version is 10/10.