The Moving picture world (November 1925-December 1925)

Glhrough the 5ox-OfFice ^ndow J c^vLewers' Views On feature ^Lims SditedL bij C.S.S&wtli "The Big Parade" — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer One of the Greatest Pictures of All Time, Vital, Vivid, Human, Humorous, Tremendous TREMENDOUS yet human, powerfii] but tender, forceful at the same time sympathetic, dramatic as well as humorous, spectacular and romantic; such is "The Big Parade," which leaves you stumped to find adjectives inclusive enough to even adequately suggest the breadth and depth of the appeal of this magnificent and remarkable Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture which plays upon the whole gamut of human emotions. From every standpoint, "The Big Parade" easily takes its place among the greatest productions that the screen has brought forth, for it has everything. Yes, it is a war picture but unlike any war picture you have ever seen. The appeal is entirely different for the World War has been approached from a new angle. War made remarkably vital, dramatic, realistic, and presented against a background that is intensely human, fairly bristling with wonderful natural comedy, woven around a romance that is beautiful, powerful and simple, and interspersed with touches that are really life itself. So far as the bare outlines of the story go, there is scant difference between this and many others, but here the similarity ends for very angle of the development and handling, acting and direction strikes out along new lines and sets new records for others to shoot at. The wave of patriotism which sweeps the country with America s entry into the war finds a wealthy idler, an iron-worker and a bartender among the first to enlist. "Over there" they become buddies, ihe regenerated idler falls in love with a French girl. Then comes the call to the front lines resulting in the death of the other two while the wealthy chap loses a leg. Returning home he finds his fiancee has transferred her affections to his stay-athome brother, lo he goes back to his little French sweetheart on the other side. It is not in. the plot itself that the tremendous appeal of "The Big Parade" lies but in the individuality, the power and above all the reality of its treatment. Here is a picture that makes you feel that you arc seeing war as it is, not as the propagandists paint it. Not that it has been stripped of its glory and heroism, it is all there, so is the Mr. Exhibitor: Ask at the Film Exchanges for the It'i little to ask for, but it's the only reliable aid you can ffive your musicianr to help put I be picture over. Revlewei] by C. S. Sewell tragedy and some of the horror and the inexorable driving tremendousness of the thing that makes men puppets and cogs in the big machine. It fairly sweeps you ofiE your feet. Take for example the deep significance of the title itself. What is "The Big Parade"? It is the never ending line of men and guns and more men and. more guns going ceaselessly to the front, and there is another "parade," the ruined wounded men being brought back to the base hospitals. The first half of this picture is one of the most tremendously human and realistic things we have ever seen. With broad swift touches King Vidor introduces the three buddies, contrasting types thrown together by the war, shows their transition to soldiers and places them in a French town behind the lines, where the remaining footage deals with their experiences before the call to action comes. This is a remarkable human docriient, vivid, real, amusing, sympathetic. We see these boys as they are, stripped of their glamour, just real fellows, nothing idealistic. Just imagine the sequence when they reach their headquarters, utterly fatigued, are billeted in a hay loft above a stable surrounded by a muddy yard and before they can rest are called out to shovel aw.'iy a manure pile. This gives you an idea of the unvarnished realism. These three chaps get you, so does the little French girl. You just live with them, their experiences, symp;:thize with their troubles and laugh hcartilv at the many funny things that happen. You will enjoy the hero's courting of the French girl when neither can understand the other's l.mguage, his teaching her to chew gum, the hard time the boys have to rig up a shower bath, the amusing army songs, the troubles with the M. P.'s, etc. All this builds up wonderful and warmhearted sympathy so that when the call to the front comes there is tremendous drama and one of the biggest punches we have ever seen where the hero is being rushed away with the others and the girl is trying frantically to find him. There is a whale of a tug at the heart when he tears himself from her embrace and hanging on to the wagon she is dragged along the road. Here King 'Vidor has by a new and daring treatment achieved one of the most powerful emotional effects we have ever seen, for against this appeal to the heart he is simultaneously putting over the tremendousness and power of the war machine. He shows the hero dragged away with the bunch in a lorry and the poor forlorn little girl standing in the road while soldiers, wagons, guns, etc., by the hundreds go past alternately blotting her from view. Boy, what a "kick" this scenp gets over. The second half of the picture is WAR, grim, relentless, real. With the big parade to the front, the introduction to the realities of war comes when an enemy plane swoops down and deals death to the marching column. The going into battle of the tired soldiers, the advance, steady, continual, of the soldiers though swept continually by cannon and machine gun fire, the dropping of man after man, the ever advancing soldiers stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades and keeping on and on. The refuge of the three buddies in a shell-hole, their jests in the face of death, their heroism which results in two being killed while the third loses a leg. The human touch where the hero instead of bayoneting a wounded German, gives him his last cigarette and then takes it from his dead lips and smokes it himself. All this presents a never-to-be forgotten picture. John Gilbert gives a truly fine portrayal of the hero. Tom O'Brien is excellent as the bartender, but it is Karl Kane as th-? rough, gawky, tobacco-chewing ironworker who gives the best performance. He is absolutely the real article and contributes most of the comedy. There is a whale of a laugh where he blows out the candle by spitting tobacco juice at it and a laugh and a tear when he uses his "spitting" ability in the shell-hole to determine who shall crawl out to almost certain death in silencing a machine gun nest. Renee Adoree as the Frencn girl could not be improved upon, and all of the rest of the players are ideally cast. Laurence Stallings in the first instance provided a story that approached the great war from a new angle, but after all it la King 'Vidor's direction amounting to a stroke of genius that really makes "The Big Parade." Mr. 'Vidor has succeeded in producing a big vital picture that suggests better than has ever been done before the tremendous power and force of war, at the same time preserving the human note of the individuals and making the whole thing from the most significant detail of the setting and action of any of the characters to the hand(Continued on page 483) Cast Jamen Apperson John Gilbert Melisanile Renee .\doree Mr. ,\pper»on Hobart HoHworth Mrs. .Appemon Claire McDowell JiiKtyn Heed Claire Atlama jl„„y Robert Ober Mull Tom O'llrlen Karl Dane French Mother Roi.Ha Maratlnl Story by Ijiurence Stalllnita. Directed by King: Vidor. Length 12.550 feet.