The Mad Parade

1931
Passed
1h 3m

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Louise Fazenda and Lilyan Tashman in The Mad Parade (1931)

The story of eight women and how they served their country during World War I.The story of eight women and how they served their country during World War I.The story of eight women and how they served their country during World War I.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Trivia
Although made by independent Liberty Pictures, Paramount bought the film and distributed it as a Paramount production. According to director William Beaudine, Paramount recut the film so badly that it made little if any sense, contributing to the generally bad reviews it received.

Quotes
Mrs. Schuyler: Captain Lawrence just left. You got us in another jam.
Monica Dale: I have? How?
Mrs. Schuyler: Your conduct on your last leave.
Monica Dale: Oh, what's the matter with my conduct? Why can't I have a little fun?
Mrs. Schuyler: Fun? Huh! The other girls seem to manage.
Monica Dale: You wait until they've been up as long as I have.
Mrs. Schuyler: I understand all about that and I've been pretty lenient. Next time, it won't be up to me. Now, Captain Lawrence has agreed to pigeon-hole this complaint on one condition... .
Monica Dale: Yes?
Mrs. Schuyler: ...at its first reoccurrence of this sort of thing, the girl's gonna be sent back.
Monica Dale: Back to the Base? Oh, you'd never stand for that. Can't run the outfit without a top sergeant.
Mrs. Schuyler: Who's talking about "Base"? It's back to the States, Monica.
Monica Dale: The States? You mean they'd ship me out of here? Out of France?
Mrs. Schuyler: You wouldn't like that would you?
Monica Dale: Like it? I, I couldn't stand it. What would I do in the States?
Mrs. Schuyler: You'd better snap out of it then.
Monica Dale: Snap out of it, why? I do my job don't I?
Mrs. Schuyler: Yes, but you...
Monica Dale: You bet I do - like a man. Does Headquarters check up on every man in France that wants to live for a minute? No. It makes allowances for them. It knows it's war.
Mrs. Schuyler: There's nothing new about war, Monica. And women have to carry on.
Monica Dale: Women? Yes. Women! We're not women anymore. I'm not. You don't suppose I can go through it, living in mud, smelling the dead and still come out of it like I was? Betty, I kissed a man once. He was dying. He'd got in the way of a shell. I'll never forget the sight. Just a thing with two blind eyes. He was off his nut and thought I was his wife. I kissed him and heard the rattle. I went on my first bender after that. I got cock-eyed, for the first time.
Mrs. Schuyler: Aw, I know, Monica. You've had more than your share. But you've got to pull yourself together, Monica. Realise that this war isn't going to last forever.
Monica Dale: Oh, yes is it - for me. I couldn't stand peace now. That part of me is dead. That's why I can't go back to the States. I simply can't.

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

9/10

THE WOMEN at War

At a field first-aid station that is staffed solely by women, the personnel bicker about men, get drunk, and try to do their jobs.

It's another early talkie with Evelyn Brent, so far as I am concerned, and in the period from about 1926-1936, she could do no wrong, even as her career began to decline. Mostly, though, it struck me as a pre-code version of THE WOMAN, caught up in the random events of war. It looks like it was opened out slightly from a stage-play, since almost all of it takes place at and ambulance-and-aid station near the front. That, however, appears not to be the case; it's from a story with the ambiguous title of "Women Like Men."

This seems to have begun production with Dorothy Arzner as director and an entirely different cast. Then suddenly Arzner was replaced by William Beaudine. Those who are familiar with both directors may think that's like replacing William Wyler with Sam Newfield. However, in this era, Beaudine was a respected and able director and Miss Arzner, while very capable, was known to be predatory on set.

Although the different registers of the actresses may make some of the performances stagier and less compelling, it's how people act under stress. Some try to outshout the guns, while others turn into themselves. This pre-code movie does what a movie of that era could. It is frank, shocking, well produced and almost unique in depicting a small part of the Great War that denounces the standard ideas of its time.