Main Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell, Claire Adams
Release Year: 1925
Country: US
Run Time: 141 minutes
Plot
The Big Parade was designed as a modest programmer concerning one young man's disillusionment in the face of war. When the MGM executives took a look at the projection-room rushes, they gave director King Vidor the go-ahead to film an all-out "spectacular", which ended up running 13 reels and costing a then-astronomical $382,000. Shorn of his matinee-idol mustache, John Gilbert is perfect as an all-American-boy who signs up for World War I service, dreaming of adventure and glory. The first half of the film is taken up with the jocular byplay between Gilbert and his army buddies Tom O'Brien and Karl Dane. These scenes seem to take forever, especially to those awaiting the big battle sequences that the MGM advertising copy had promised. But Vidor's slow buildup had its purpose; by lulling the audience into complacency, the director was able to shock the viewers with the horrors of war as suddenly and effectively as the doughboys had been shocked back in 1918. Gilbert survives the war, but returns home minus one leg (the film's script was written by Laurence Stallings, himself a war vet and amputee). MGM head Louis Mayer was terrified that the scenes of a crippled Gilbert would offend his fans, so he ordered that "protection" footage be shot with Gilbert being merely wounded, but with both legs intact. So powerful were the climactic scenes between Gilbert and his parents, however, that not one preview audience ever demanded that the alternate ending be shown. The film's many highlights includes the cute scene in which Gilbert teaches French girl Renee Adoree how to chew gum; the famous shot of Adoree desperately clinging to Gilbert as he and his fellow soldiers march to the front; the chilling Belleau wood sequence, in which the soldiers, walking stealthily amidst the tall trees, are picked off one by one by snipers; and the heart-rending reunion sequence, in which Gilbert's mother (Claire McDowell) embraces her amputee son as she flashes back to the time that he took his first steps. The only concession to MGM formula was in having Gilbert depicted as a wealthy young man, living in a mansion the size of Rhode Island. Though its original impact has been blunted by years of imitations, The Big Parade remains an unforgettable movie experience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The first major American war film about World War I since D.W. Griffith's Hearts of the World (1918) and a key film in the development of the genre, King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925) effectively blended a punishing spectacle of warfare with the personal trials of one American doughboy. Based on a story by What Price Glory? scribe Laurence Stallings, and starring John Gilbert as the soldier, The Big Parade was originally intended to be a smaller production. When MGM exec Irving Thalberg saw the footage of improvised vignettes like a battlefield rapprochement between Gilbert and a dying German soldier, however, he urged Vidor to expand the film. The move paid off, as The Big Parade was lauded for the landmark realism of its battle scenes and the sensitive love story between Gilbert and Renée Adorée's French girl, establishing Vidor and the newly merged MGM studio's artistic prestige. The biggest box office hit of the 1920s, The Big Parade played for 86 straight weeks in New York and confirmed Gilbert's place as one of the top stars of the decade. It remained MGM's biggest moneymaker until (what else?) 1939's Gone With the Wind. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Karl Dane - Slim; Robert Ober - Harry; Tom O'Brien - Bull; Rosita Marstini - Melisande's Mother; Rosita Marshni - French Mother
Credit
James Basevi - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, King Vidor - Director, Hugh Wynn - Editor, Dr. William Axt - Composer (Music Score), Carl Davis - Composer (Music Score), David Mendoza - Composer (Music Score), John Arnold - Cinematographer, Irving G. Thalberg - Producer, Joseph W. Famham - Intertitle Writer, Laurence Stallings - Screen Story, Harry Behn - Screenwriter
The Big Parade is a 1925silent film which tells the story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.
The Big Parade was one of the greatest hits of the 1920s, and made Gilbert and Adorée major stars. Tragically, Renée Adorée would soon be diagnosed with tuberculosis and die only a few years later. The film is the highest grossing silent film in cinema history (taking in $6,400,000 at the box office, $22,000,000 worldwide.)[1] In some larger cities this film was shown for a year or more continuously.
After the film's producers found a clause in Vidor's contract, entitling the director to 20% of the net profits, studio lawyers called for a meeting with him. At this meeting, accountants played up the costs of the picture while downgrading their forecast of its potential success. King Vidor was thus persuaded to sell his stake in the film before receiving his percentage. However, the film's tremendous success did establish Vidor as one of MGM's top directors for the rest of his career.
In 1992 The Big Parade was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film was re-issued in 1931 with a sound-track consisting of William Axt's score. Composer Carl Davis created a new orchestral score for the film in the 1980s (quoting the theme associated with Melisande in Axt's original setting), and it was restored and released on video in the late 1980s as part of the MGM and British television Thames Silents project.
