The Sport Parade (1932)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Not a lot of depth to "The Sport Parade". Truth be told, nowadays the theme would be called 'threadbare and hackneyed', nowadays being 85 years later. Two college athletes are bosom buddies bur take different paths after graduation. Johnny (William Gargan) has a reliable, steady job lined up and Joel McCrea plays Sandy, the grasshopper, who is pre-occupied with women and money. He signs up with a shady sports agent who indulges him and gets him into debt. Johnny comes to the rescue with a job, which Sandy takes, along with Johnny's girl friend.But they are buddies, and the movie points up the camaraderie and good feeling between the two. If it begins to sound familiar, it is - you've seen something similar before. You can see a youthful Joel McCrea, long and lean, and lovely Marian Marsh who may be unfamiliar to modern audiences. You can also get a glimpse of life in grandpa's time, with spectators in raccoon coats and straw hats, as well as long-gone manners and mores of polite company.My star rating is in the heading as the website no longer prints mine.

... 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.

Bill Gargan and Joel McCrea are a pair of former college athletes now sportswriters. They have a friendship which is put severely to the test over a woman, Marian Marsh. When it founders, McCrea takes up pro-wrestling and goes to work for crooked promoter Walter Catlett.As the old saying goes when you lie down with dogs you come up with fleas. It's guilt by association for our intrepid hero and McCrea has to save his reputation.Joel McCrea is probably the most moral decent hero the cinema ever produced. But his persona in the wrong director's hands and a bad script, he can venture over into Dudley Doo-Right territory. Unfortunately he does that here. But if you want to see Joel McCrea stripped to the waist in his twenties than you have some incentive to see this movie.

This had to be schlocky, even for 1932. Two four letter athletes at Dartmouth graduate, and head down separate paths, one successful, one not. They meet again, wind up working at the same job, and fighting over the same chick. Are you snoring yet ? I am. The only reason to watch this one is to see early Joel McCrea, but he made better ones than this in his early career. Nuts to the "Sport Parade". This one probably didn't make the '32 "Hit Parade".