Fools' Parade (1971)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Blistering performances.

Watched this movie twice last night, back-to-back on "antenna TV," and would have watched it a third time to get every nuance. It's finally being shown in the public airwaves--would sure like to have my own copy and reading the book would be a treat. I love the symbolism in the movie: Stewart's character, in response to a question about the evil exhibited by the overly-religious Kennedy: "God uses good men. Bad men use God." Ann's fallen-woman character was excellent. I believed the director struck a great balance, able to produce a movie that seemed simple but was heavily laden with symbolism. Ending on an uplifting, "pick yourself up by your bootstraps and carry on" theme, the dog (whose unintended betrayals nearly caused the end of our heroes) tied things up nicely. A tale of hope when all seems its darkest and I unabashedly give it a "10."

I to wish this movie was available on DVD or VHS.....can't even get it from video stores etc. There is however another excellent movie from this author available, "Night of the Hunter" excellent also. I also lived in Moundsville when they were filming this move (lets not talk about how My BFF and I tried to sneak on set to see Kurt Russell) but I would have loved it at any rate. Excellent story to begin with. The entire cast is in top form. Shooting it in WV was a brilliant move with all of the natural scenery, railroads and old buildings makes the film that much more enjoyable and realistic for this period piece. If you wish to read some of this authors books, they are available online (used) Although, Amazon now has a hard back reprint of this title, for those who wish to read it. Davis Grubb in my opinion was the William Faulkner of West Virginia and I'm so glad that I have dragged those books every time I moved, as now I can share them with the other readers in the house.

After doing about four or five straight westerns, James Stewart obviously wanted a change of pace, so he starred in this Depression era film about a man just released from prison and ready to cash a check for $25,000.00. This is the equivalent of 40 years of working in the prison mines as convict labor and apparently never buying anything in the prison commissary. Which is the part I find hard to believe.Now possibly had this story been set in 1925 in the boom times of the Roaring Twenties, Stewart might have had different ambitions. But he and friends Strother Martin and Kurt Russell just want to open up a general store in some small town and live quietly.But this is the Thirties a decade of hard times and bank failures. Local banker David Huddleston can't afford to cash Stewart's check or the bank in which he's been dipping in the till will go belly up with his name on the failure. So he goes to whom he usually goes to bail him out of these situations; prison guard George Kennedy and henchmen Mike Kellin and Morgan Paull.The story is far fetched but Andrew McLaglen put together a really good cast and the film definitely had some colorful characters. Anne Baxter plays the painted prostitute of the river who has a boat for assignations and a young girl played by Katherine Cannon for those who don't like the older model. Her life's ambition is to get into the Daughters of the American Revolution because as she puts she and her family have been serving our country by servicing our soldier's needs since 1776. George Kennedy's part is also a gem. He's a Sunday school teacher as well as a prison guard and contract killer for hire. We haven't seen a religious hypocrite like him since Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter. Then again that's no accident since Davis Grubb wrote the novels on which both films are based. Robert Donner has a key role in the film as the train conductor with a conscience. I can't say more, but the man's conscience is what brings about a righting of all wrongs.Best scene in the film is James Stewart getting the drop on Morgan Paull during the first confrontation. Paull is a would be country singer who does a little killing on the side, but only if they're atheists. And of course it's Kennedy and Kellin who point out the atheists to do in.Kennedy is also carrying around one ton of homosexual repression. Note that in his scenes with Paull and with Kurt Russell as he declaims loud and long about how he doesn't like boys. He likes them too well when his religion tells him that's a big no-no.I remember back in my working days at NYS Crime Victims Board I did a claim for a homicide victim who was a 67 year old letter carrier for U.S. Post Office. He was a man described by the police as someone who just worked all his adult life for the Post Office, never married and raised a family, never took a vacation, just worked and saved. He managed to accumulate over $350,000.00 in his life and the estate was going to go to our claimant who was his 88 year old mother. Sad when you think of it, but letter carriers are a bit better paid than convict labor even granting the differing values of the dollar in those eras. It's why I can't grasp how Stewart saved all that money.Despite my inability to suspend disbelief Fools' Parade is a colorful film with some fine acting in it and a must for fans of James Stewart like myself.

As others who have reviewed "Fool's Parade," I am deeply regretful that it has never made it to VC or DVD, because it is a total gem! It was last run on television more years ago than I can remember, but it must have been before the VCR came along or I should have taped it in a minute. As a West Virginian myself, I recognize the local color, unique names, and general ambiance of this film. The whole cast is excellent, but some stand out. I have a friend who says she absolutely hates George Kennedy because of the slimy character he portrays (Dallas Council). Morgan Paull plays religious half-wit Junior Kilfong, who kills atheists when Dallas points them out to him, and marvelous Anne Baxter, with her painted-on black eyebrows, just steals the whole movie as Cleo, a patriotic madam fallen on hard times. Her lifelong heartbreak is that she is not allowed into the "DARs," even though her great-great-great-great or however many grandmother served the Colonial Army and died in the doing ("As surely as if she'd died in battle!") *Sob* I remember when "Fool's Parade" was shown on television, and the reason that Cleo's grandmother died was censored. However, the censoring made it sound worse than it really was! How I wish I could see this jewel again! Don't miss it if you get the chance!