Gaynor and Will Rogers headlined this family comedy celebrating the rural rituals of the state fair. The picture gets big laughs out of farmer Rogers's struggles to prepare his prize hog, Blue Boy, for the big competition, but Variety preferred the charming love story over the broad humor, claiming the “chief interest is the debut of a new romance team in Janet Gaynor and Lew Ayres.” To heighten verisimilitude, director Henry King seamlessly incorporated documentary footage of an actual country fair into the staged drama. Critics hailed the actors-“Miss Gaynor here gives her best performance in talking pictures” (New York Times)-while the film garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. An enduring touchstone of nostalgic Americana, State Fair has been remade twice (in 1945 and again in 1962) as a musical.