The County Fair
About The County Fair
Solon Hammerhead holds the mortgage on Aunt Abigail's farm and will take the place unless she marries him or her adopted daughter Sally marries his son Bruce. Sally loves the hired man, Joel, but she is ready to accept Bruce to save the farm. A hungry former jockey, Tim Vail, breaks in looking for food. Abigail feeds him and gives him work. He finds that her horse Cold Molasses can run and enters it in the $3,000 race on the day the mortgage falls due. The Hammerheads set fire to the barn to keep the horse out. Tim saves it. Their own horse passes Cold Molasses at the wire and is then disqualified for a foul. The purse pays the mortgage. Joel and Sally stay together, and Abigail has a suitor of her own.
Cast & crew
More about The County Fair
Maurice Tourneur produced it and directed it with Edmund Mortimer. J. Grubb Alexander adapted Charles Barnard's play, which had opened in New York on 5 March 1889. Guy Croswell Smith distributed it on a state-rights basis and copyrighted it on 12 September 1920. The release date is 6 September 1920.
Themes
Background
Barnard's play had been a standard of the American stage since 1889. The film keeps the mortgage, the county-fair purse, and the fixed race.
Making
Tourneur, who had set up his own company in 1918, took a rural stage melodrama and spent the climax on the race and the barn fire rather than on dialogue scenes.
Reviews
Film Daily of 23 January 1921 headed its notice "Tourneur Has Made Real Entertainment of This."
Look
Charles Van Enger and René Guissart photographed it, including the barn fire and the race that decides the mortgage.
Preservation
A print survives and is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Helen Jerome Eddy plays Sally Greenway, David Butler plays Joel Bartlett, and Edythe Chapman plays Aunt Abigail Prue.
- William V. Mong plays Solon Hammerhead and Arthur Housman plays his son Bruce. Charles Barton plays Tim Vail. Wesley Barry plays Tommy Perkins.
- The horse Cold Molasses is credited as herself.
- It is in the public domain in the United States.
- It was released in five reels.
Scenes
- Tim Vail breaks in for food and Abigail gives him a job instead of the police.
- The Hammerheads fire the barn to stop Cold Molasses, and Tim gets the horse out.
- The Hammerhead horse is disqualified for a foul after it passes Cold Molasses at the wire.
Influenced by
- The County Fair (play, 1889)
Also available
- Internet Archive (CountyFair_)
