Pigskin Parade

1936

Comedy / Musical / Sport

4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 41% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 855 855

american football hillbilly yale

Director

David Butler Photo
David Butler

Top cast

Lynn Bari Photo
Lynn Bari as Football Game Spectator
Charles C. Wilson Photo
Charles C. Wilson as Yale Coach
Pat Flaherty Photo
Pat Flaherty as Referee
Patsy Kelly Photo
Patsy Kelly as Bessie Winters
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
855.57 MB
1280*958
English 2.0
NR
us  fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds 7
1.55 GB
1444*1080
English 2.0
NR
us  fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gftbiloxi 7 / 10

Cornpone Humor, Football, And Judy Garland's Feature Debut

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
Reviewed by lugonian 7 / 10

The Forward Pass

PIGSKIN PARADE (20th Century-Fox, 1936), directed by David Butler, the studio's answer to the wide range of college musicals made popular in the 1930s, contains its own assortment of comedy, songs and a football game finale (hense the title) all told in 93 minutes. With a credit list of staff and actors listed on a rolling football, Stuart Erwin, who appears late into the story, heads the cast, though the real leads are Patsy Kelly and Jack Haley in that order. By today's standards, its sole interest is on future musical film stars in smaller roles: Betty Grable (in 20th-Fox debut) and Judy Garland (on loan from MGM), resulting to one of the most musical college movies up of that time. The slight plot begins in a conference room where a deliberation meeting at Yale University as the board of directors select for its charity game the football team from the University of Texas to play against them in New Haven, Connecticut. A clerical error between Freddie (George Offerman Jr.) and Sparks (Eddie Nugent) has them getting the team from Texas State University in Prairie, Texas, instead. Winston "Slug" Winters (Jack Haley), a coach from Flushing, Long Island, arrives by train with his wife, Bessie (Patsy Kelly) to his new assignment in shaping up the team. "Biff" Bentley (Fred Kohler Jr.), the football captain chosen to lead the team to victory, meets with an accident of a fractured leg, forcing Winters to find an immediate replacement. Hoping to acquire Stanley Russell, Bessie, accompanied by fellow students, Chip Carson (Johnny Downs) and his girl, Laura Watson (Betty Grable), encounter Sairy Dodd (Judy Garland) whose older brother, Amos (Stuart Erwin) is seen tossing melons long distances into a basket. Impressed by his accurate throw, Amos is chosen as Bentley's substitute, acquiring a college scholarship for both he and his sister in the process. All goes well until the unexpected occurs.Taking amiable support for Arline Judge playing Sally Saxon, the college vamp; Elisha Cook Jr. as Herbert Terwillinger Van Dyke, the wimpy socialist; Dixie Dugan (Ginger Jones); Grady Sutton, and Sam Hayes playing himself as the radio announcer of the football game. Look quickly for future leading man, Alan Ladd, in a minor bit as one of the students. Along with Patsy Kelly's antics and sarcasms, and Jack Haley's bit of confusion, there's time for songs, lots of them. Composed by Sidney Mitchell and Lew Pollack, song interludes include: "T.S.U. Alma Mater" (sung by students); "You're Slightly Terrific" (Sung by Anthony "Tony" Martin, danced by Dixie Dunbar); "Woo-Woo" (written/performed by The Yacht Club Boys); "T.S.U. Alma Mater" (reprise); "We'd Rather Be in College" and "Down With Everything" (The Yacht Club Boys); "Balboa" (sung by Dixie Dunbar, cast members/Judy Garland); "You Do the Darndest Things" (sung by Jack Haley); "The Texas Tornado" and "It's Love I'm After" (both sung by Garland); "The Football Song/Texas Sunshine" (written and performed by The Yacht Club Boys) and "The Texas Tornado" (sung by cast). Although all the musical interludes are delivered in a very entertaining manner, the true musical highlight is unquestionably 14-year-old Judy Garland's rendition of three lively songs, much of them forgotten. Garland's scenes are limited but makes the most of it with her singing ability and transformation from barefoot hillbilly gal in pig-tales to talented singing teenager. The Yacht Club Boys as 14 year career students, are an interesting foursome of comic strip-type faced characters. They perform their specialty numbers well, never missing a beat. Interestingly, Betty Grable, singer and dancer in her own right, doesn't get a solo number to herself. As for Stuart Erwin has the distinction of being the only actor to head the cast and earn an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. If anyone deserves an acting honor in the supporting category is Patsy Kelly, who, in true form, is very funny as the assertive wife who calls the plays for her husband. Television revivals for PIGSKIN PARADE have been few and far between over the years. In 1996, American Movie Classics selected PIGSKIN PARADE as part its annual film preservation series. Availability on home video came about that same time. The names of Grable or Garland, mostly Garland, are the reasons why this routinely done musical has been kept from oblivion.Clam shell video boxes with Garland's face on the cover might have made this an easy sell, but disappointment for those expecting her to be the lead. Later placed on DVD with Garland, Erwin, Kelly and Haley on the cover, Fox Movie Channel along with Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: January 7, 2011, as part of its Betty Grable tribute) have also taken part of cable television revivals. As silly as it appears, PIGSKIN PARADE is the kind of college musical made watchable for Depession era audiences, a sort of reminder of how films of this nature have proved successful with an assortment of stars working with limited plot material. (*** touchdowns)
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

Those Yale Are Quail

Stepping into the role that was usually reserved for Jack Oakie in these college films is Stu Erwin in Pigskin Parade. That substitution got for Erwin a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the first year of the Supporting Players categories at the Academy Awards.Pigskin Parade is typical of the college films of the Thirties when students were hardly expected to think about anything of social or political significance. The main thing on the minds of the folks at Yale was who to play in a tune up charity game before the big annual match with Hah-vard. In fact the one guy in the film who does think about issues is Elisha Cook, Jr. and he's a figure of ridicule. Although it is kind of funny how the fraternity boys use his radicalism to help them in their cause of victory over Yale. But to the students and faculty at Texas State University in Prarie, Texas this is one big deal to show up those Yankees. They have a sad sack football team with a brand new coach from Yankeeland himself in Jack Haley. Although truth be told, it's his wife Patsy Kelly who's the real brains here. A lot of the comedy with Kelly and Haley involves her showing him up and not being too diplomatic about it.In fact she has the unique idea of utilizing the championship basketball of the school as football players in a unique passing game. Kelly also with Betty Grable and Johnny Downs who discovers Stu Erwin, a natural quarterback in a melon field, heaving melons across it. Thrown in as a bargain is Erwin's little sister Judy Garland who becomes the team mascot.This film was Judy's feature film debut, she would not make another film outside MGM until she left that studio and did A Star Is Born in 1954. Her songs are negligible, but her talent is apparent to all.The best song in the film is done by another guy just getting started in the picture business. Tony Martin sings You're Slightly Terrific at a pep rally and he was also going places.Further down the cast list is Betty Grable and even further down is Alan Ladd who you can see in some of the scenes at the fraternity house and at the football game. Pigskin Parade is a pleasant enough film with a whole lot of talented people showing their stuff. Did these kids ever go to class in these schools?
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