The Sport Parade (1932)

Spoiled sports hero learns hard lessons.

Director:

Dudley Murphy

Writers:

Corey Ford (screen play), Francis M. Cockrell (screen play),

Stars:

Joel McCrea, Marian Marsh, William Gargan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Joel McCrea	...	Sandy Brown
Marian Marsh	...	Irene
William Gargan	...	Johnny Baker
Robert Benchley	...	Radio Announcer
Walter Catlett	...	'Shifty' Morrison
Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher	...	Dizzy
Clarence Wilson	...	Toastmaster (as Clarence H. Wilson)
Ivan Linow	...	Muller

Storyline

Dartmouth football stars Sandy Brown and Johnny Baker follow different paths after college: Baker becomes a sports reporter while pal Brown chases the money of the pro game, but ends up as a wrestler with big debts. Irene Stewart is the woman that comes between them, and a bored radio announcer adds the few light moments as he follows their careers.

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Plot Keywords:

newspaper | football | gay interest | reporter | baseball | 

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Taglines:

The love story of a wrestler who bucked the crooked sport racket! (original ad)

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Sport

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Free, White and 21

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

64 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

At the six-day bike race, Irene stops at the refreshment stand before going to find Sandy. She gets a box of sandwiches and a large cardboard cup of coffee. (We actually see the coffee going into the cup.) When she finds Sandy, however, the coffee has been transubstantiated into soup - according to Irene, anyhow.

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Quotes

'Shifty' Morrison: Miss, Sandy's got more color than an Italian sunset!

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Soundtracks

"Sidewalks of New York"
(1894) (uncredited)
Music by Charles Lawlor
Lyrics by James W. Blake
In the score when a New York City scene is shown

User Reviews

If Howard Hawks Had No Talent

It is, after all, a very Hawksian landscape -- men's men, sports, best friends vying for the same woman, a vague homoeroticism beneath. (The film historian Richard Barrios has suggested it's a heavily disguised gay fantasy, with Marian Marsh there just for convention's sake.) But Dudley Murphy, with David Selznick's blessing, goes in for terrible artsy cinematic transitions, needlessly elaborate camera-work, and an odd obsession with Harlemites (a pseudo-Cotton Club sequence that makes for highly uncomfortable viewing today). You do get the appeal of the young Joel McCrea, one of the most unassuming and likable of leading men, and there are nice, seemingly improvised bits by Robert Benchley, doing sportscaster variations on his famed "Treasurer's Report" routine. Walter Catlett pitches in, too, playing a sort of sub-Don King with his well-practiced brand of cynicism and breathless delivery. But the pacing's sluggish for an under-70-minute programmer, and the happy ending's awfully forced: Aside from the inexplicably quashed romantic rivalry, wouldn't a sequel show the mob gunning down McCrea for not throwing the fight?