The Sport Parade (1932) User Reviews

A Must For Fans of Joel McCrea

[Handlinghandel · 7/10 · 13 June 2005]

We see a lot of Joel McCrea wearing very little in this entertaining movie. First as a football player in the showers, getting snapped with a towel by buddy William Gargan. McCrea has a very good build, though not that of a football player. He is a little unconvincing as a boxer, too, later on.

Marian Marsh is appealing as the female love interest.

Gargan and McCrea are Ivy league players. Gargan takes the high road but McCrea is lured by promises of fame and wealth. They stop being friends. Can you guess whether they make up again? Joel McCrea is one of my favorite actors in movie history and he does a fine job here. It's a different sort of role from any he played elsewhere and he does well by it.

Forget the forgettable plot and notice the scenery...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 24 May 2012]

... 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.

Wrong Stadium

[sxct · 6/10 · 22 November 2020]

Having worked for Yale Athletics for 25 years I can say without fear of contradiction that the football game shown was not being played at Harvard Stadium but rather Yale Bowl. Having seen countless games at both venues, this is a definite fact.

If Howard Hawks Had No Talent

[marcslope · 13 June 2005]

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?

Who'd a thunk it, wrestling is actually crooked

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 6 June 2005]

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.

A glimpse of "Prehistoric" America

[Zipper69 · 4/10 · 3 September 2008]

The movie is no great shakes but the images of a 1930's New York are to be treasured. Six Day Bicycle Races at Madison Square Garden, the pseudo Cotton Club with "native" dancers with huge Afros and feather headdresses (no bones through the nose, fortunately), audiences for wrestling matches all in formal evening wear...magic! McCrea gives his usual sterling performance, he could show integrity with a steely glance and does well as a former Dartmouth letterman lured into pro wrestling for the easy money. Robert Benchley steals the too few scenes he is in and there is a nice contrast between the "straight arrow" world of Dartmouth and the murky world of pro-wrestling. The final match itself where McCrea is scheduled to throw the bout but instead grapples to win is poorly handled, too many shots are undercranked to make them appear more flowing and violent but succeed only in giving a Keystone Kops-like manic quality to them. Although McCrea clearly does a number of the action sequences there are also several shots where a body double takes the falls and whose shock of dark hair compares poorly with McCrea's blond locks.

Since there is no Discussion Board for this movie I'll ask here - the black trainer in McCrea's corner has "Satchmo" stitched onto his sweater and he has a certain resemblance to a young Louis Armstrong, he's not credited, but COULD it be him?

Strictly a forgettable B-movie....

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 23 July 2017]

"The Sport Parade" is strictly a quick B-movie and since Joel McCrea was pretty new to the film industry, it's not surprising he made a few cheapo films.

When the story begins, Sandy Brown (McCrea) and Johnny Baker (William Gargan) are star athletes at Dartmoth. They are multi- sport heroes and their future looks grand. Johnny dreams of working for a newspaper and Sandy simply wants to get rich. What follows is a Horatio Alger-type story where Sandy eventually learns that his way is not the healthy way...and he repeatedly makes an idiot of himself until he eventually does the right thing.

Overall, a mildly interesting film...at best. About the only interesting things that stand out are seeing McCrea and seeing a lot of male skin, as it's a pre-code film and titillation was big back in the day.

Love Triangle and Professional Wrestling

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 14 February 2024]

"The Sport Parade" was brutally bad. It was so obvious with its intentions they may as well had told us how it ended and THEN showed how it happened. The foreshadowing was plain, bare, and naked as a newborn baby.

Sandy Brown (Joel McCrea) and Johnny Baker (William Gargan) were college sports stars at Dartmouth. Sandy was the more accomplished of the two hence he got more publicity and had more ad men beating down his door. They both had plans of joining the local newspaper after college until a shady promoter named Morrison (Walter Catlett) got a hold of Sandy's ear. He promised him millions if he'd only sign with him and do the gigs he set up for him. Johnny opted to pursue plan A leaving Sandy to go it alone with Morrison.

The Morrison plan was a total failure. Sandy ended up at the paper working alongside Johnny after all, and that's where he met Irene (Marian Marsh). The moment Sandy hooked back up with Johnny I knew the dreaded writer's crutch known as the love triangle was in the making. Johnny had already professed his love for Irene which was met with a tepid response.

Once Sandy entered the picture, predictably, we had our triangle. He wasn't aware of a relationship between Johnny and Irene, but he also wasn't aware that Morrison was full of shhhh either.

Sandy's presence at the newspaper caused a problem because Irene was into him, so Sandy did the gentlemanly thing and left (bros before... you get it). He went back to the crooked Morrison to work for him. He'd initially stopped working for Morrison because he didn't want to sink to throwing games, but now he was out on his ass and needed something.

Morrison set him up to wrestle. Johnny knew Morrison was crooked and now he believed Sandy was crooked as well because he wrestled for him, while Irene believed that Sandy was still on the level. She was willing to wager on it. If Sandy was crooked and threw the match she'd marry Johnny. It was a SMH (shaking my head) bet. Even if Irene was so confident that Sandy was on the up and up to the point she was willing to gamble with her marital status, why would Sandy accept her on such conditions? He looked all too happy to accept such a bet, which meant he didn't care if she loved him or not, he just wanted her.

Marriage was so cheap back then. Clark Gable got married on a coin flip in "No Man of Her Own." Clive Brook got married after a bender in "Anybody's Woman." Barbara Stanwyck married to hide from a guy in "The Purchase Price." Walter Byron got married to keep a stranger from being arrested in "Slightly Married." Constance Bennett got married in "Sin Takes a Holiday" to help her boss avoid a lover. And countless women got married simply because they felt they had to.

So now we have Irene about to marry Johnny if she loses a bet. Mind you, the concern was whether or not Sandy was on the level with regards to... wait for it...

Professional wrestling!!!

I'm not talking about Olympic wrestling, or Greco Roman wrestling, or anything like that. This was WWF/WWE/WCW type wrestling. If these fools thought that was real then all of them were nuts. That crap looked about as real as a three-dollar bill.

Needless to say, Sandy won because he had integrity and all that, which meant Irene didn't have to marry Johnny, and Sandy could get the girl. It was a sappy pathetic movie.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

******Good-Natured Antique

[GManfred · 26 March 2018]

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.

Fails To Score

[tmpj · 17 June 2002]

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".

Boring Mix of Romance and Sports

[Michael_Elliott · 29 May 2012]

The Sport Parade (1932)

** (out of 4)

Boring sport film with a silly love story thrown in. Best friends Sandy (Joel McCrea) and Johnny (William Gargan) go through their college years as football stars at Darmouth but after their playing days they go in separate directions. Johnny gets a legit job at a newspaper while Sandy falls in with a crooked manager who tries to exploit what fame his name carries. Soon the friends are fighting over a girl (Marian Marsh) while Sandy gets into deeper trouble when he gets into wrestling. THE SPORT PARADE might have an attractive cast but this is certainly "C" movie material as the screenplay never gives us much to care about. The entire sports angle really isn't all that interesting because we're simply not given anything we haven't seen countless times before. This material was already boring by 1932 standards so it doesn't help that everything is just one cliché after another. The stock footage used for some of the sports certainly doesn't help and neither does the obvious body double during the wrestling scenes. Another major problem is that the love story is so rushed that it really does seem forced and it's hard to take it very serious. The performances are the one saving grace with McCrea doing a pretty good job in his role and I thought he was really effective during the scenes where his character realizes that he's being taken advantage of. Gargan is good as the best friend and Marsh makes good support as the love interest. We also get a nice performance by Walter Catlett as the agent and we even get Robert Benchley playing a radio announcer. THE SPORT PARADE really doesn't have much going for it so it'll only be of interest to fans of McCrea or those who never realizes that wrestling was staged.