James Hitchcock In one of my earlier reviews I stated that although James Stewart may occasionally have played morally ambiguous, conflicted characters, especially in the Westerns he made with Anthony Mann in the fifties, I could not recall him ever playing an outright villain. At first sight it seems that this film is going to be an exception, as we learn early on that his character, Mattie Appleyard, is a murderer. It soon becomes clear, however, that this is going to be one of those films where the criminals are the good guys and those supposedly charged with enforcing the law the bad guys. The story takes place in 1935 in West Virginia. The elderly Appleyard is one of three prisoners released from jail on the same day; the others are middle-aged bank robber Lee Cottrill and the young Johnny Jesus. (We never learn exactly what Johnny's alleged crime was, although he continues to protest his innocence). The three are put on a train out of town, but soon realise that they are in danger from an unexpected source. A prison official, Captain "Doc" Council, and two accomplices are trying to track them down and kill them. The reason is that Council, who is in league with a corrupt local banker, wants to embezzle the large sum of money, in excess of $25,000, which Appleyard has received for all his work during his 40 years in prison. During the earlier part of his career, Stewart was as accomplished a comic actor as he was a serious one, appearing in classic comedies as good as "Mr Smith Goes to Washington", "Destry Rides Again", "The Philadelphia Story" and "Harvey". After about 1950, however, his gift for picking the right film seemed to desert him when it came to comedy. He continued to appear in some excellent serious movies, principally Westerns, but few of his comedies from this period are of the same standard, and "Fools' Parade" is an example of what I mean. He has one splendid bravura passage where, in the throes of a supposed religious conversion, he plucks out one of his eyes in order to frighten off one of Council's sidekicks who has come to shoot him. (What the said sidekick doesn't realise is that this is in fact a glass eye). For most of the time, however, Stewart is simply trying to invest Appleyard with a greater depth and significance than he really merits; as one critic said "Time and again he gives you the impression of an interesting character that really isn't there in the role."This was really Stewart's last starring role. After the film came out in 1971, he was absent from the screen for five years, and in his later films, starting with "The Shootist", he confined himself to supporting roles and cameos. In his autobiography Charlton Heston recounts a conversation he had with his co-star Maximilian Schell during the making of "Counterpoint", in which Heston played an orchestral conductor captured by the Nazis during the war and Schell played the German officer holding him. Wouldn't it be fun, they agreed, if a second version of the film could be shot, this time with the music-loving Schell playing the musician and Heston (who rarely got the chance to play a villain) as the Nazi? Someone seems to have had a similar idea with "Fools' Parade" because it stars both George Kennedy and Strother Martin, both of whom had several years earlier appeared in another prison drama, "Cool Hand Luke". Only here their roles are reversed. Kennedy, who had played a prisoner in the earlier film, here plays Council, whereas Martin, a brutal prison warder in "Cool Hand Luke" ("What we have here is failure to communicate"), here plays the prisoner Cottrill. Martin does not have the same impact here as he did in the earlier film, but Kennedy is one of the better things about "Fools' Parade". His Doc Council, complete with pebble glasses, bad teeth, an ill-fitting suit and a curious stooping gait, is a splendidly leering pantomime villain who combines his villainy with religious fanaticism. (In his spare time he is a Sunday-school teacher). I earlier described the film as a comedy, although I note that some reviewers on this board have insisted on taking it seriously, possibly because the film-makers and cast seem to have been unsure what sort of film they were actually making. As I said, Stewart was trying to invest his character with a certain seriousness, but others, especially Kennedy's Doc and Anne Baxter's Cleo, a raddled old whore with an obsessive grievance against the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who refuse to have her as a member, seem to be played firmly tongue-in-cheek. The result is a rather uncertain black comedy which occasionally tries to cross the border into seriousness but never gets very far. A frequent complaint by my fellow reviewers is that "Fools' Parade" has not been released on DVD. Well, keep asking, lads, but personally I feel that there is more chance of Cleo being accepted by the DAR. 5/10

movietode I've seen some references state that Anne Baxter didn't like her own performance and had the ability to block distribution. Her vanity pretty much assured that the city of Moundsville would lose a rare lifeline to drag itself out of poverty oblivion. It must have been a terrible let-down at the time because you can bet that the townsfolk were tickled pink. I do not think it is possible to come up with a better version in a remake, but perhaps someone should try that out. I see no chatter to indicate that the distribution will ever be approved. A new version with current actors might attract a following and create the stimulus to release the original. Want to make a movie? You can rent this town for cheap - it's not changed a lot since the movie except for Walmart and other eyesores on the highway.I consider this a must-see movie and if you look hard enough around the Internet, you will find copies.

bkoganbing 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.

lindahoggart hooray!!!!at last I have the name of the film that I have been searching for for years this being Fools Parade I was starting to think i had imagined it as no-one knew of the film with the late great Jimmy Stewart and his glass eye.Question though can anyone tell me PLEASE what the eye was called?? I know that it had a name but can not remember it or if any one can give me any advice as to where I might find this out.Of all the films made by Jimmy Stewart this is one that in my opinion does not get enough air time here in U.K.we see all of his westerns and the occasional showing of Harvey or Wonderful life but not this one many thanks