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Pigskin Parade

Play trailer Poster for Pigskin Parade Released Oct 23, 1936 1h 35m Musical Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews 41% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
When the Yale football team seeks a fair-to-middling opponent for a charity game, a filing mishap results in tiny Texas State University receiving an invite. When the school's new football coach, Slug Winters (Jack Haley), gets the message, he immediately sets to work at building a team that can give Yale a run for their money, a task made much easier when Mrs. Winters (Patsy Kelly) meets a local farm boy (Stuart Erwin) whose gift for hurling watermelons translates just as well to the pigskin.
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Pigskin Parade

Critics Reviews

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com This clunky musical (a formulaic combo of football feature and campus comedy) is best known today for featuring two actresses who would become major stars in the 1940s: Judy Garland (then 13) and Betty Grable. Rated: B- Jan 7, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member For Garland fans only, do I recommend a look at PIGSKIN PARADE. Certainly not for the inane plot, the over-baked acting by Stuart Irwin and Patsy Kelly, and the lackluster parade of campus songs by a mostly overage cast of "college kids." It's all terribly dated--but affords glimpses of some up and coming stars like Tony Martin and Betty Grable, recognizable as the stars they would become. Judy's appearance is not flattering in this Fox film, so we can be thankful MGM did a good job later on, making her up appropriately for all the musical films she did for that studio. Much of the humor falls flat, but there are a couple of musical numbers that almost make the whole film bearable. Still, it's hard to see why anybody but a die-hard fan of bad musicals from the Golden Era would find anything nice to say about this one. Trivia note: Interesting to see Jack Haley in a featured role. He and Judy would walk down the road to Oz three years later. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member An alright film with great singing from Garland and music numbers so corny it made me laugh. However, most of the humour is pretty dull, especially with the referee's wife. The whole story is instigated by a very cliched mistake, where two Texas universities are mixed up by Yale. This message is sent at the same time Texas State receives a new referee. The performances from the referee and his wife are OK but the wife's sarcasm and "jokes" are agonising. She takes up way too much screen time and her action that led to the star player breaking his leg was ridiculous. However, the actual game between Yale and Texas State was OK and had some good comic relief. The cinematography was alright, but it was sometimes hard to tell which team was which. The way the game is won is absurd and was a bit of a let down but I admittedly found it funny in a sort of corny way. Stuart Edwin was nominated for the first Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the hillbilly star player. He was OK in the role but I don't think he was better than Brennan who won the Oscar that year. Overall, a dated film that I still found mildly entertaining. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review steve d A complete waste of time. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member There are funny moments you don't see coming. This is quite a cast, surprises all the way down. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member A big cast in an entertaining college musical; Garland sings four songs in her first feature film including "The Balboa." Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member throwin that ole football around Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Pigskin Parade

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Movie Info

Synopsis When the Yale football team seeks a fair-to-middling opponent for a charity game, a filing mishap results in tiny Texas State University receiving an invite. When the school's new football coach, Slug Winters (Jack Haley), gets the message, he immediately sets to work at building a team that can give Yale a run for their money, a task made much easier when Mrs. Winters (Patsy Kelly) meets a local farm boy (Stuart Erwin) whose gift for hurling watermelons translates just as well to the pigskin.
Director
David Butler
Producer
Darryl F Zanuck
Screenwriter
Harry Tugend, Jack Yellen, William M. Conselman
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Production Co
Twentieth Century Fox
Genre
Musical, Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 23, 1936, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 21, 2014
Runtime
1h 35m
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