Fools' Parade (1971) Reviews

• It's a Film That Needs to be Seen

  sasquatch272006-11-14

  If you've found your way to these comments then know that you've found in me a true fan of this film. I got here in an attempt to find a source for buying this film. Alas, it was not to be! The 1971 movie features great dramatic performances by James Stewart, Strother Martin, George Kennedy and Kurt Russell. It's a pretty fair example of a road movie that features, I believe, West Virginia as a backdrop in the mid 1930's. It's great entertainment, fun, exciting and suspenseful, too. Hopefully it will be available someday. I believe it could be productively marketed as a rather important DVD release considering the cast and over all quality of the movie. So it's now 13 months after I've originally posted and the question is, When is this movie going to be released on video/DVD?

• A gripping entertainment…

  Nazi_Fighter_David2005-08-10

  Though not technically a Western, the picture, with an early-Thirties West Virginia setting, had all of a Western's action and plot situations… Once more, Andrew V. McLaglen directed Stewart in an ambivalent, morally reprehensible characterization… In an uneasy blend of melodramatic themes, Stewart is a convict who squirrels away $25,000… A murderer, he has done all the hard prison jobs and has been a model prisoner… He gets out of prison with bankrobber Strother Martin and rapist Kurt Russell, and having paid their collective debt to society, they set out to make their fortune as civilians once more… But corrupt prison officer George Kennedy and banker David Huddleston are out to relieve Stewart of his nest egg… Baxter, whose houseboat is doing part-time bordello duty, wants Stewart's money too… The film remains a curious admixture of comedy, adventure and violence from James Agee, author of "The Night of the Hunter."

• Timeless example of public corruption, moral hypocrisy and the victims it creates.

  richlisagood2006-09-19

  I was 10 years old when Fools Parade was filmed in my hometown of Moundsville, West Virginia, and I remember vividly all of the excitement we felt as we observed the actors at work in various locations. Kurt Russell couldn't go anywhere without a crowd of adoring young females screaming for his attention. I made it to the front of the crowd just once as he was ushered into a limo that would drive him to the days shoot. As I stood on the other side of the car window, my 10 year old face twisted with the emotional devastation of just missing the chance to touch him, he looked directly at me and flashed a brilliant, "I'm sorry" smile that made my day! Jimmy Stewart was very friendly and often took time to converse with the locals. My mother remembers a having conversation with him in which he demonstrated his use of the glass eye. To answer an earlier question - I believe the glass eye was called, "Tye". Fools Parade was the second Davis Grubb novel to be filmed in Moundsville (Davis Grubb's hometown), the first being, Night of the Hunter. Both novels (and movies) explore the hypocritical, mindless nature of the "herd mentality" that can be so easily manipulated by rotten leaders & officials - especially through the use of religion and labeling. Those who see through it end up being society's outcasts, while those who follow it (in mindless hopes of acceptance and salvation) foolishly cut off their own noses to spite their faces. It's a scenario that plays out again and again in human history and is especially relevant today. A thoughtful viewer will easily see how these themes of labeling, discrimination, and fear of rejection have played out in forming the personal values of each character and boxing them into specific life circumstances - from the pathetically self-serving, desperately patriotic Cleo, to the train attendant with the tormented conscience who must choose between doing the right thing or keeping his job (and being able to feed his family during the depression). I don't know why this movie is not easily accessible, but I have heard that it has something to do with legalities involving the Ann Baxter estate. It has, however, played on late night TV occasionally and I have a low quality video recording from quite a few years ago.. I hope it will eventually come out on DVD.

• Stewart's Thrilling Sleeper (But A Must See!)

  trnscndr2007-08-04

  It was Stewart's most compelling role when I saw it as an 11 year old boy. The idea that an old released convict explosives expert could have a glass eye and $25000 that George Kennedy (Doc Council) wanted to steal from him was a simple setup but really caught my attention. Stewart was the kind of old man any young kid would want to hang out with, and I identified with Kurt Russell, his young sidekick who had served in prison with Stewart. Russell was a naive devotee of Stewart and he aspired to join Stewart in an honest, simple career, opening an general store. George Kennedy and his evil gang was the only thing standing in the way of Stewart going straight, and we see Kennedy in his best villain role as an unshaven, foul, redneck who wore a dirty white suit and hat and canvas Keds. God, I hated him good in this film and will never forget it. Spoiler- The biggest thrill of the film was when Stewart quotes from the Bible that God would "pluck out the eye" of a man who offended him, in order to freak out a guy who was brandishing a gun on Stewart. As Stewart finishes the quote, he plucks out his eye and holds it out in the face of the enemy, who then becomes vulnerable to be disarmed. It is a shame this film is impossible to see nowadays, not yet on DVD.

• James Stewart in one of his best!

  XweAponX2008-04-01

  This film: Starts off, Typical STEWART- The very beginning of this film is almost Hitchcock-ian. Stewart is a released convict who has saved $25,000 over the 40 years of his imprisonment. A "Murderer," he is accompanied by a "Bank Robber" Strother Martin and "Rapist" - A teenage Kurt Russel. The year is 1935 and on release from work prison in "Glory," a fictional town in Virginia: they are "accompanied" (By Double Barreled Shotgun) to the train leaving town by bible-spouting (And slime encrusted) George Kennedy (With Really Nasty Ugly Shark-like Teeth). As they board the train, Kennedy spouts threatening innuendo- And as the train begins to roll, we know that the train is not going to the intended rendezvous, and the suspense embedded in the film during this point, before we know exactly what is going to happen is very Hitchcock-ified. And this is where I stop lest there be spoilers. Directed and Produced by Victor McLaglen's son Andrew: And so the homage to Hitchcock may or may not be intended as James Stewart had starred in no less than 4 Hitchcock films and was one of Hitch's best leading men. The screen is graced also by an Anne Baxter under caked on makeup, which is rather great... She almost-reprises her role as Eve (All About Eve) in her greed... Which is not apparent at first, but once she finds out that there is a large sum of money floating about... The greed of the Baxter character is poetically dealt with in a most humorous fashion, and is a refreshing comical "Handle" for the viewer in the middle of this film. Even through there are spots where the pace of the film seems to lag, this did not harm my interest in seeing what was going to happen at the end. Production wise, it is obvious that this is an early 70's almost TV-like movie: The only thing that gives away the fact that this was a theatrical release was the Wide Screen Aspect Ratio. This is well worth seeing, especially if you watch Vertigo first. Wonderful Film.