Customer Reviews

MGM's The Big Parade of Comedy [VHS]

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What "That's Entertainment" is to MGM musicals, this compilation is to MGM comedies. There are some great moments here: Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, and Abbott & Costello are shown to best advantage in lengthy excerpts from their vintage features, and there are good gags from Pete Smith and Robert Benchley shorts. The Marx Brothers and Red Skelton scenes are taken from their less familiar appearances. Producer Robert Youngson tried to cram too much into the feature, so some of the clips are very short (you'll barely see The Three Stooges, Bert Lahr, Jimmy Durante, Lucille Ball, and others). Still, there is a surprising amount of material from a studio that wasn't strong on comedy, and movie buffs should enjoy this.

Producer/director Robert Youngson received an Oscar for his silent era film clip compilation THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY (1957). MGM'S THE BIG PARADE OF COMEDY was another of the many montages Youngson created. Clips are augmented with modern sound effect and music tracks.

CONTENTS:
Silent comedy and thriller footage, plus behind the scenes at MGM circa 1927. This 20 minute segment includes samples of: "The Boob" (1926) with Joan Crawford, Fatty Arbuckle's "The Red Mill" (1927), "China Bound" (1929), "Detectives" (1928) and Buster Keaton's "The Cameraman" (1928). We leave the silent era with a clip of Charlie Chaplin getting an autograph from Marion Davies.

The first sound segment is a "Coming Attraction" parody featuring Lupe Velez and Jimmy Durante as Schnarzan the Conqueror.
Marie Dressler in "Reducing" (1931) and "Tugboat Annie" (1933) with co-star Wallace Beery.
Jean Harlow: and Clark Gable in "Hold Your Man" (1933), with Franchot Tone in "Bombshell" (1933), with Lionel Barrymore in "The Girl from Missouri" (1934), with Cary Grant in "Suzy" (1936), with Robert Taylor in "Personal Property" (1937) and with Wallace Beery in "Dinner at Eight" (1933).
Carole Lombard in a scene from "The Gay Bride" (1934).
The 3 Stooges and Ted Healy, from 1934.
W.C. Fields in "David Copperfield" (1935).
In "Hollywood Party" (1934), Laurel & Hardy have an egg fight with Lupe Velez. The two do a kilted dance in "Bonnie Scotland" (1935).
Clark Gable in "Too Hot to Handle" (1938).
Brief glimpse of "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), with Hepburn and Grant.
Robert Benchley shorts: "That Inferior Feeling," (1940), "How to Read" (1938) and "A Night at the Movies" (1937).
"The Thin Man" (1934) and "After the Thin Man" (1936), with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Powell in "Love Crazy" (1941); Loy and Bert Lahr in "Meet the People" (1944).
Abbott & Costello's giant washing machine scene from "Rio Rita" (1942).
"A Southern Yankee" (1948) with Red Skelton is based on a Buster Keaton short.
Greta Garbo's first comedy, "Ninotchka" (1939), plus skiing footage from her last movie, "Two-Faced Woman" (1941).
An extended train chase segment from the Marx Bros. "Go West" (1940).
Our comedy montage concludes with sight gags from several Pete Smith shorts, starring Dave O'Brien.


"MGM's Big Parade of Comedy" is not available on DVD.
Youngson's THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY has been packaged in a great budget-priced DVD, along with WHEN COMEDY WAS KING (1960)-- another superb collection of silent-era slapstick.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(5.9) MGM's The Big Parade of Comedy (1964) - Clark Gable/Greta Garbo/Marx Bros./3 Stooges with Ted Healy/Jean Harlow/Cary Grant/Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn/W.C. Fields/Laurel & Hardy/Abbott & Costello/William Powell/Myrna Loy/Lucille Ball/Red Skelton/Robert Taylor/Joan Crawford/Marie Dressler/Wallace Beery/Carole Lombard/Jimmy Durante/Buster Keaton/Lionel Barrymore/Franchot Tone/Melvyn Douglas/Robert Benchley/Marion Davies/Lee Tracy/Polly Moran/Gail Patrick/Lewis Stone/Bert Lahr/Nat Pendleton/Chester Morris/Lupe Velez/Freddie Bartholomew/Zasu Pitts/Leo Carrillo/Dave O'Brien/James Finlayson

(uncredited: Charles Chaplin/Tod Browning/Elisha Cook Jr./John Gilbert/Brian Donlevy/John Ireland/Anita Page/Lew Cody)

Perhaps my sense of humor has changed over the years. I found it kind of interesting, but didn't find it all that funny. Not a strong collection of comedy, sorry to say.