calvinnme While I love Judy Garland (and I think she was the best part of the film), there was really no point to her character. She didn't really add anything to the story. It's almost like she was just added in for the sake of having this child singing prodigy in the film. The only reason I believe that this film is even remembered is because of the future stars that it featured: Garland, Betty Grable and Elisha Cook Jr. Patsy Kelly, who played the wife, was annoying at best. I didn't mind Jack Haley, but he is forever etched in my mind as The Tin Man. When there were multiple comments made to him about having a brain, I was really wanting him to mention his heart somehow, but alas no. I love watching football, so the old timey football scenes, to me, were the best part of the film. I'd love to know how many horrible injuries players sustained during these times, because they aren't wearing very much protection. However, the game seems to be more physical now than it used to be, and the players are also much bigger. I found the logic of basketball players being good at football to be strange. I guess we're presuming that these are pass heavy games and good blocking and tackling abilities aren't required in 1930s football. I really liked the scenes of the football in the snow. Bad weather football is the most fun to watch. 5/10 points are for Judy, Betty and football. Whether it is worth watching even once is a take it or leave it proposition.

MartinHafer It is rather ironic that Judy Garland's feature film debut would NOT be on a picture from her home studio, MGM, but when she was loaned out to rival studio Twentieth Century-Fox. However, apart from the novelty of seeing a young Judy in the film, there is not a lot to recommend this sub-par musical.The film begins with the Yale administrators discussing an important topic--which college will play their football team in an upcoming game. They decide on powerhouse University of Texas, but due to a stupid mistake, tiny Texas State is instead offered this prestigious game. This comes at a very opportune time, as the horrible team of Texas State has a new coach (Jack Haley) and he wants to make a name for himself. But there are two problems--the team hasn't won a game in two years and the coach's wife (Patsy Kelly) is a buffoon and she ends up breaking the star player's leg! So, to try to make amends, this annoying woman goes on a cross-country trek trying to find a star for their team. Her search ends up in a watermelon patch--with melon-slinging Amos Dodd (Stu Erwin*) being offered a scholarship to play for Texas State even though they have no idea if he even finished or even attended high school! He's hesitant but his kid-sister (Garland*) insists and comes along to college with him. Can this hayseed somehow help the team to be able to take on Yale and not embarrass themselves?This film is jam-packed full of songs--mostly bad songs. Even if you love songs, you may find some of them hard to take--particularly those of a strange and very old-looking college quartet, The Yacht Club Boys. Their songs, to put it bluntly, are third-rate and it's obvious the studio really saw this more as a B-movie** than anything else. The humor is generally very broad and corny. Subtle the film ain't---and this can also be said about much of the acting. Erwin is more a caricature than anything else and Kelly is as Kelly usually is--brash, loud and, well, LOUD! So, we have one character who is a lot like Uncle Jed from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and another who seems to be performing specifically for the hard of hearing, as she screams many of her lines! In addition to being a poor film, it brings us an incredibly cynical message that when it comes to small schools, they must cheat in order to keep up with the big colleges! And cheating is what Texas State does repeatedly as Dodd isn't even eligible to play though he does through some creative cheating! I know that the reviews for this film are all rather positive--some even giving it a 10. I find this inexplicable, as I have seen hundreds of better musicals--hundreds! Aside from Garland's amazing singing and a few cute moments, the film is lame through and through. It is something no one would remember or want to remember except because of her appearance...as well as when Texas State punts the ball on 2nd down (pay attention...they really do this in the big game with Yale).*College movies of the 1930s, 40s and 50s OFTEN featured college students who were practically old enough to be on social security! In this film, most of the students appear to be in their 30s--and Erwin is 33! And, in an odd twist, his 'sister' is only 14! **Yes, I know a true B-movie is only about 60 minutes in length--not 93 minutes like this one. However, the film is full of second and third-tier actors, bad writing, bad music and the studio seemed to have little faith in the film.

Rob-120 "Pigskin Parade" only has one thing wrong with it. It's kind of lousy. But as far as musicals go, it's a *good* kind of lousy.I've seen Hollywood musicals that bored the hell out of me. I've seen musicals where the songs were lifeless and dull, and the musical numbers put you to sleep. I've seen musicals where the acting in between the musical numbers was sheer cinematic torture. I've seen musicals where the performers seemed to be sleepwalking through the movie, and where the characters they were playing were so brain-dead and annoying that you just wanted to whack 'em upside the head with a tube sock full of wood screws! "Pigskin Parade" is silly and corny, but it is never boring. The musical numbers are not great, but they are always fun to watch. The characters are stereotypes, but the cast plays them with such enthusiasm that you can't help liking them.The plot: Bessie and Winston "Slug" Winters (Patsy Kelly and Jack "Tin Man" Haley) arrive at Texas State University to coach the football team. Although they spend most of the movie arguing with each other in Ralph-and-Alice-Kramden mode, they make an effective coaching team. Their big success comes when they discover Amos Dodd (Stuart Erwin), a country bumpkin farmer who can hurl a melon with missile-like accuracy. They immediately sign him up as the new quarterback for the football team.Texas State is mistakenly invited to play in a charity football game against Yale. (They wanted the University of Texas, but sent the invitation for the game to the wrong university.) Will the Texas State team win the game? Will Amos Dodd score a game-winning touchdown in the final seconds of play? What do you think? This is one of those "college musicals" where all the college students look as if they are about thirty years old. Most of the songs are sung by a nutty quartet of "sophomores," played by the Yacht Club Boys. They look old enough to be visiting their kids at the college on Parents Day. (One of them even admits that he has been in college for seven years -- beating John Belushi to the movie line by 42 years.) The musical numbers are not great, but they are a lot of fun to watch. There is one called "You're Slightly Terrific," which pretty much describes the entire soundtrack. The songs are "slightly terrific," but not overly so.The songs written and sung by the Yacht Club Boys have a great satirical edge to them. They sing "We'd Rather Be In College," in which they admit that, with the Depression raging, they are better off in college than they would be in the current job market; "Down With Everything," a *wonderful*, vigorous musical number that satirizes college revolutionaries, sung to a would-be college Trotsky. And "We Brought The Texas Sunshine With Us," which the Yacht Club Boys sing in the middle of a snowstorm at the Yale football game.And then there is Judy Garland in her feature film debut, playing Amos Dodd's country-bumpkin sister. The first time we see her in the movie, she is barely recognizable, wearing overalls and sporting pigtails, and using a phony Texas accent. ("Hey, yuh wanna buy a melon?") Within a few scenes, however, she has been transformed (offscreen) into a college girl/young starlet. In her first few scenes, she tells everybody, "I can sing. Wannuh hear me?" It takes a few scenes before someone lets her sing -- and *dammit,* can she ever sing! Her first big-screen musical number is the tail-end of the song, "The Balboa!"--a rather rocky (har!) college dance number, sung at the TSU Homecoming Dance. ("The Balboa" was no "Carioca" or "Continental," although it tried to be.) From there, she sings "The Texas Tornado" and "It's Love I'm After." And if you saw this movie in 1936, you just *had* to know that Judy was going to be a major star! To quote the great Roger Ebert, "I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? Godawful and boring, *that* would be a reason." Well, I *could* recommend "Pigskin Parade." It's not exactly "godawful," but it *is* lousy. But despite the lousiness, you will have a good time watching it. You won't love it the way you love "Wizard of Oz" or "Singing in the Rain." But you will like it -- as long as you accept the lousiness of the movie and go with it.

rok2 For those who pooh-poohed this film, remember Stu Erwin received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for this film. Patsy Kelly is always a wonderful comedienne. This is a film to lift the spirits. Made at a time when Americans needed to have their spirits boosted. The premise is admittedly bogus, but the result is a great laugh riot. Years ago I recorded it from an AMC broadcast and played it for my parents (both depression era children - neither recalled it) they couldn't stop laughing. I'm certain it received the same reaction when it first appeared in 1935. It is an example to humor with out bawdy references. I wish it were on DVD, I'd buy in an instant. This helped buoy spirits in an era before Adolph Hitler raised the US economy out of the Depression.