Horst in Translation ([email protected]) This is not a great short film. Not at all. But it's not as bad as you would guess looking at its rating. I recognized that for quite a few of those old short films that were reviewed by Mystery Science Theatre 2000. People need to stop adapting other opinion with having watched a version where other reviewers constantly talk during the movie or having even seen it at all. MST3000 says it's bad, so it must suck. I've seen very early Kubrick films that were, in parts, worse than some of the short films mocked by MST3000. Don't you have an own mind?Anyway, in this 10-minute short famous Bonanza actor Lorne Greene tells us the story of a boy at the Canadian National exhibition two years after the end of World War 2. He's fed up with his parents getting him only from place to place that they actually want to see not really caring for their son's preferences. So he gets away and does what he wants for the rest of the day. On his voyage, he meets several grand sports champions, including boxing legend Joe Lewis and Barbara Ann Scott, until he returns to his parents in the evening, who already gave up finding him in the event visited by roughly 250,000 people.It's a short film with little significance today, but interesting to get a view into people's mindsets back in the 1950s. There's a good possibility that Charlie Pachter is still alive today (he would be roughly 70 years old) and I'm genuinely curious what he thinks about this film today.

Aaron1375 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.

Lee Eisenberg 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.

Jos Wolffers 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!"