Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

MartinHafer "The Sport Parade" is strictly a quick B-movie and since Joel McCrea was pretty new to the film industry, it's not surprising he made a few cheapo films. When the story begins, Sandy Brown (McCrea) and Johnny Baker (William Gargan) are star athletes at Dartmoth. They are multi- sport heroes and their future looks grand. Johnny dreams of working for a newspaper and Sandy simply wants to get rich. What follows is a Horatio Alger-type story where Sandy eventually learns that his way is not the healthy way...and he repeatedly makes an idiot of himself until he eventually does the right thing.Overall, a mildly interesting film...at best. About the only interesting things that stand out are seeing McCrea and seeing a lot of male skin, as it's a pre-code film and titillation was big back in the day.

Michael_Elliott The Sport Parade (1932)** (out of 4) Boring sport film with a silly love story thrown in. Best friends Sandy (Joel McCrea) and Johnny (William Gargan) go through their college years as football stars at Darmouth but after their playing days they go in separate directions. Johnny gets a legit job at a newspaper while Sandy falls in with a crooked manager who tries to exploit what fame his name carries. Soon the friends are fighting over a girl (Marian Marsh) while Sandy gets into deeper trouble when he gets into wrestling. THE SPORT PARADE might have an attractive cast but this is certainly "C" movie material as the screenplay never gives us much to care about. The entire sports angle really isn't all that interesting because we're simply not given anything we haven't seen countless times before. This material was already boring by 1932 standards so it doesn't help that everything is just one cliché after another. The stock footage used for some of the sports certainly doesn't help and neither does the obvious body double during the wrestling scenes. Another major problem is that the love story is so rushed that it really does seem forced and it's hard to take it very serious. The performances are the one saving grace with McCrea doing a pretty good job in his role and I thought he was really effective during the scenes where his character realizes that he's being taken advantage of. Gargan is good as the best friend and Marsh makes good support as the love interest. We also get a nice performance by Walter Catlett as the agent and we even get Robert Benchley playing a radio announcer. THE SPORT PARADE really doesn't have much going for it so it'll only be of interest to fans of McCrea or those who never realizes that wrestling was staged.

calvinnme ... and I mean both the figurative and literal scenery here. I started watching this because I'm a big fan of Joel McCrea, but ten minutes into it and the corny collegiate "contact" business between Dartmouth buddies Sandy Brown (Joel McCrea) and Johnny Baker (William Gargan) and I was rolling my eyes and thinking about hitting the erase button on the DVR. I'm glad I resisted the urge. Although the major plot themes are paint by numbers - big college sports stars are often wash outs after graduation, two best friends in love with the same beautiful girl, and with even the grasshopper and the ant fable thrown in for good measure, there are some things worth catching here.For one, the cast of supporting characters is great. There's Walter Catlett as a seedy agent, which is rich if you think about it since even though seedy was Catlett's on-screen trademark, in real life there was never a sweeter and more generous guy to a literal fault than he. Then there's Skeets Gallagher as a drunken newspaper photographer who either misses the photo or defocuses the lens due to his constant state of intoxication, yet manages to get the photo of a lifetime. Finally there's the splendid cameo appearance of Robert Benchley as an unnamed radio announcer with his trademark droll dry humor. He covers sports events and manages to get things completely wrong - even as to whether or not there is actually a band playing at a football game.Also look for a shot of a Cotton Club-like night club with a couple of numbers featuring an all African American cast - an odd sidetrack in a movie that is - if it is about anything - is certainly not about nightclubs.Finally, the homo erotic angle that is always played up in this film - William Gargan popping Joel McCrea with a towel in a shower after a football game, is really overshadowed by an anonymous gay couple as spectators at the fights complaining of the savagery of the event and leaving in disgust. Stereotypical - absolutely - but certainly an example of what would not be possible just two years later under the production code.A point of interest - one of the few times William Gargan did get the girl in a film was a year later when he made "Headline Shooter" ... with Joel McCrea's actual wife, Frances Dee.

Zipper69 The movie is no great shakes but the images of a 1930's New York are to be treasured. Six Day Bicycle Races at Madison Square Garden, the pseudo Cotton Club with "native" dancers with huge Afros and feather headdresses (no bones through the nose, fortunately), audiences for wrestling matches all in formal evening wear...magic! McCrea gives his usual sterling performance, he could show integrity with a steely glance and does well as a former Dartmouth letterman lured into pro wrestling for the easy money. Robert Benchley steals the too few scenes he is in and there is a nice contrast between the "straight arrow" world of Dartmouth and the murky world of pro-wrestling. The final match itself where McCrea is scheduled to throw the bout but instead grapples to win is poorly handled, too many shots are undercranked to make them appear more flowing and violent but succeed only in giving a Keystone Kops-like manic quality to them. Although McCrea clearly does a number of the action sequences there are also several shots where a body double takes the falls and whose shock of dark hair compares poorly with McCrea's blond locks.Since there is no Discussion Board for this movie I'll ask here - the black trainer in McCrea's corner has "Satchmo" stitched onto his sweater and he has a certain resemblance to a young Louis Armstrong, he's not credited, but COULD it be him?