Pigskin Parade

For those who pooh-poohed this film, remember Stu Erwin received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for this film. Patsy Kelly is always a wonderful comedienne. This is a film to lift the spirits. Made at a time when Americans needed to have their spirits boosted. The premise is admittedly bogus, but the result is a great laugh riot. Years ago I recorded it from an AMC broadcast and played it for my parents (both depression era children - neither recalled it) they couldn't stop laughing. I'm certain it received the same reaction when it first appeared in 1935. It is an example to humor with out bawdy references. I wish it were on DVD, I'd buy in an instant. This helped buoy spirits in an era before Adolph Hitler raised the US economy out of the Depression.

Except for a couple of seemingly endless musical numbers by a male trio or quartet--I don't recall how many there were--called the Yacht Boys, I found this movie to be consistently entertaining. I attribute this to what I found to be a charming cast, some well thought-out and performed musical numbers, and a story-line that doesn't take itself too seriously. In addition to these virtues, the movie offers some skilled comedy playing from Patsy Kelly and Jack Haley and, to a lesser extent, from Stu Erwin, as well as three stand-out musical numbers performed with an appealing vigor by young Judy Garland. Worth a look.

"Pigskin Parade" is a thoroughly enjoyable college football musical - the kind of fluffy, unpretentious froths 20th Century Fox usually done well. It recounts the events leading to a big charity football game between Texas State University and Yale.

Sure at times it's silly and corny; but when you come across an innocent and charming cast that includes Judy Garland (in her debut!), Betty Grable, Stuart Erwin, Arline Judd, Jack Haley, Patsy Kelly, Alan Ladd, Tony Martin, Elisha Cook Jr, plus those enchanting musical numbers, any flaw or implausibility has to forgiven.

The teaming of Jack Haley and Patsy Kelly as the married coaches guiding TSU at the Yale Bowl is itself fun to watch. You should see Haley's reaction when he finds out his wife has injured the team's star player! Stuart Erwin as the dour hillbilly tosser Amos Dodd later turned ace footballer is hilarious!

Judy Garland, on loan from MGM, looks very young in her role, three years before she starred again with Jack Haley in "The Wizard of Oz".

The young, up-and-coming Betty Grable, with her carefree enthusiasm, was a delight to watch again after she starred in another frothy campus musical "Old Man Rhythm"(1935). This is one her earliest roles and she handles it in a bouncy, exuberant manner like most of her best roles.

David Butler's direction is unpretentiously fluid, breezily mixing slapstick and highly uproarious songs/numbers. My favorites are "The Balboa", "It's Love I'm After", "You Say the Darndest Things" and "We're Glad to Be In College".

Watch it and Enjoy.

Yale invites the University of Texas to compete in a charity football game--but a secretary fumbles the communication and extends the invitation to tiny Texas State University instead. New coach Slug Winters (Jack Haley) and his harridan wife Bessie (Patsy Kelly) manage to whip the team into shape, but when an accident sidelines the star player they find an unexpected replacement in barefoot yokel Amos Dodd (Stuart Erwin)... and before you can say Sis Boom Bah every one is off to the big game! Best known for his later performance of The Tin Man in THE WIZARD OF OZ, Jack Haley was a memorable light comic of stage and screen, and his pairing with Patsy Kelly is truly inspired. In addition to the then-popular quartet The Yachtclub Boys, the film also offers early glimpses of future big names like Betty Grable, Alan Ladd, Tony Martin, and Elisha Cook Jr., not to mention B movie queens Arline Judge and Lynn Bari.

But then as now, the real noise in the film was teenage Judy Garland, who made her feature film debut on loan from home studio MGM with the small role of Amos Dodd's hillbilly sister "Sairy." Slight though the role was, Garland's handful of cornpone-humor scenes and her three songs served as a wake-up call to her MGM handlers, and for the rest of her MGM contract she would never work off-studio again.

Although PIGSKIN PARADE is hardly in the same league with the Paramount, Warner Brothers, or MGM musicals of the same era, the lightweight story, memorable cast, silly dialogue ("Well, Call My Hawgs!") and pleasant if not greatly memorable songs has a great deal of period charm. I do not think it will greatly appeal to any one who isn't already a fan of 1930s musicals, but those who are will enjoy it--and Garland fans will consider it a minor classic.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Pigskin Parade is a light-hearted football-themed musical (how many of those are there?) and is most notable for being the feature debut for a young Judy Garland. MGM loaned her out to Fox (the only time she made a film at another studio for the next 14 years) because they didn't know what to do with the little girl with the grown-up voice. Guess they solved that problem, huh?

Not too much of the film is noteworthy aside from Judy's performances and it's interesting to note that she co-starred with Jack Haley, the father of the Tin-Man who she would star with, 4 years later, in the Wizard Of Oz.