User reviews

Fools' Parade (also known as Dynamite Man from Glory Jail) is directed by Andrew McLaglen and stars James Stewart, George Kennedy, Kurt Russell, and Strother Martin. It's based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb with a screenplay by James Lee Barrett. Harry Stradling Jr. photographs on location in Marshall County, West Virginia and Henry Vars scores the music.

Three men released from prison, one with a cheque for $25,452.32 in his pocket. One crooked bank manager and one vindictive prison captain, both men determined not to let the prisoners cash in that cheque.

Something of an under seen picture due to no home format release as yet, Fools' Parade is a well acted story set around the depression era. It's got a mixture of violence, comedy, adventure and whimsy, while its themes of corruption, new beginnings and moral quandaries are neatly put together as a melodramatic whole. The characterisations are most interesting, not least the three criminals, who having served time for some terrible crimes, are actually the most stand up guys in a town that's full of desperation; where the residents are teetering on the brink of badness.

The cast speaks for itself as regards quality, and they deliver on the promise of their names. While an unrecognisable Anne Baxter also enters the fray late on with a heartfelt and dramatic performance. Special mention for Stradling's photography, which captures the hazy atmosphere of the troubled 30s especially well. A more than involving film that prospective new viewers should try and catch if they get the chance. 7/10

My Dad grew up in WV and took my brother and I to see this movie at the theater when it came out in 1971. It was a great film! I have waited for 35 years to see it again, with no luck.

The beginning of the movie was set and filmed in Moundsville, WV in the early 30s. Jimmy Stewart played a character with a glass eye, who had served some 30 or 40 years in prison and was headed to the WV capitol to cash his check for funds owed to him for his prison labors. The conflict in the movie is the evil warden type, played by George Kennedy, who is out to kill Stewart and his two buddies, one of which is played by Strother Martin. The Strother Martin character wants to open up his own grocery store with the help of the Jimmy Stewart character.

This is a wonderful film, somewhat similar in style to The Film Flam Man, and of the same vintage. I would love to get a copy of it, or see it again on TCM or another channel.

Could anyone guess why this movie has never been made available since its original release? I would sure like to know...

After doing about four or five straight westerns, James Stewart obviously wanted a change of pace, so he starred in this Depression era film about a man just released from prison and ready to cash a check for $25,000.00. This is the equivalent of 40 years of working in the prison mines as convict labor and apparently never buying anything in the prison commissary. Which is the part I find hard to believe.

Now possibly had this story been set in 1925 in the boom times of the Roaring Twenties, Stewart might have had different ambitions. But he and friends Strother Martin and Kurt Russell just want to open up a general store in some small town and live quietly.

But this is the Thirties a decade of hard times and bank failures. Local banker David Huddleston can't afford to cash Stewart's check or the bank in which he's been dipping in the till will go belly up with his name on the failure. So he goes to whom he usually goes to bail him out of these situations; prison guard George Kennedy and henchmen Mike Kellin and Morgan Paull.

The story is far fetched but Andrew McLaglen put together a really good cast and the film definitely had some colorful characters. Anne Baxter plays the painted prostitute of the river who has a boat for assignations and a young girl played by Katherine Cannon for those who don't like the older model. Her life's ambition is to get into the Daughters of the American Revolution because as she puts she and her family have been serving our country by servicing our soldier's needs since 1776.

George Kennedy's part is also a gem. He's a Sunday school teacher as well as a prison guard and contract killer for hire. We haven't seen a religious hypocrite like him since Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter. Then again that's no accident since Davis Grubb wrote the novels on which both films are based.

Robert Donner has a key role in the film as the train conductor with a conscience. I can't say more, but the man's conscience is what brings about a righting of all wrongs.

Best scene in the film is James Stewart getting the drop on Morgan Paull during the first confrontation. Paull is a would be country singer who does a little killing on the side, but only if they're atheists. And of course it's Kennedy and Kellin who point out the atheists to do in.

Kennedy is also carrying around one ton of homosexual repression. Note that in his scenes with Paull and with Kurt Russell as he declaims loud and long about how he doesn't like boys. He likes them too well when his religion tells him that's a big no-no.

I remember back in my working days at NYS Crime Victims Board I did a claim for a homicide victim who was a 67 year old letter carrier for U.S. Post Office. He was a man described by the police as someone who just worked all his adult life for the Post Office, never married and raised a family, never took a vacation, just worked and saved. He managed to accumulate over $350,000.00 in his life and the estate was going to go to our claimant who was his 88 year old mother. Sad when you think of it, but letter carriers are a bit better paid than convict labor even granting the differing values of the dollar in those eras. It's why I can't grasp how Stewart saved all that money.

Despite my inability to suspend disbelief Fools' Parade is a colorful film with some fine acting in it and a must for fans of James Stewart like myself.

Interesting story set in Great Depression with tension , intrigue , some violence but also amusement and too many moments to be taken seriously . Glory, W.Va., 1935. It wasn't exactly a parade . It wasn't a time for celebration. It was a time to run for your life. When a trio ( Stewart ,Strother Martin , Kurt Russell ) of ex-inmates led by Mattie Appleyard (James Stewart) is released from jail , they hope to open a general store . Homer Grindstaff ( David Huddleston) is a big named banker in Glory and Doc Council (George Kennedy) is a prison guard and they team up to scheme to kill Appleyard and his ex-convict friends who were trying to open up a general store in Stone Coal, West Virginia and then to take the money . After the three ex-cons boarded a passenger train( the locomotive used in this movie is none other than Southern Railway 4501 ) headed for Stone Coal , Council join forces with an assortment of bad guys , Steve Mystic (Mike Kellin) and Junior Kilfong (Morgan Paull) to stop the train before it reaches its destination and kill all three convicts . After an unsuccessful attempt, Junior Kilfong fires one shot from his double barrelled shotgun into Roy K. Sizemore (William Windom) knocking him to the ground. Later on , the trio escapes and goes to a brothel-ship where they find a Madam ( Anne Baxter) and a young girl (Katherine Cannon) .

This entertaining film about three ex-cons stalked by their former warden contains action , melodramatic events , thrills , some violence but also humor , though clichés run through-out . Comic relief for amusing moments developed among main characters and especially on the relationship between James Stewart and Strother Martin . Another great James Stewart acting as a good ex-convict who puts explosives on his body , hence the alternative name of the film "Dynamite Man from Glory Jail" . Very good support cast with special mention to George Kennedy as an extremely villain and Anne Baxter as an old prostitute . Colorful cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr , Victor MacLagen's usual , and was filmed in Moundsville, West Virginia, which was the hometown of Davis Grubbs, author of the novel titled "Fools' Parade" .

The motion picture sometimes receives an excessive melodramatic treatment and being well realized by Andrew V McLagen, son of great actor Victor McLagen . He's a a known Ford's disciple . Andrew holds the distinction of directing the most episodes of "Gunsmoke" . Furthermore , he holds the honor of filmmaking the most episodes of ¨Have gun , Will travel" (1957). And is one of the few directors to have directed both Clint Eastwood and John Wayne . He's a Western expert (McLintock, Shenandoah, Bandolero, Chisum, Cahill, Way west) and warlike specialist , such as proved in several films ( Return to Kwai, Wild Geese , Dirtdozen: the next mission, Sea wolves, Breakthrough ) . Rating : Nice 6,5 . The picture will appeal to James Stewart fans , an old master in the art of conjuring sympathy out of nothing . Worthwhile watching .

When James Stewart, Strother Martin, and Kurt Russell are released from prison, they decide to go straight. Jimmy has been in prison for forty years, and for his time, he's received $25,000. He and his two friends are planning on opening up a grocery store and enjoying a legitimate life. But George Kennedy, the crooked prison guard who never liked Jimmy, wants that money for himself. He and his cronies follow the three ex-cons as they travel by train to cash the check in the bank that issued it.

Fool's Parade features a really fun role for James Stewart. He wore a prosthetic glass eye during the production (which was so uncomfortable he could only wear it for twenty minutes at a time) and got to play a bit of a villain. In my favorite scene, he straps himself with dozens of dynamite sticks and threatens to blow up the bank if they don't cash the check. He's a scoundrel, but for the right reasons. He really does want to open up a grocery store. George Kennedy is the real villain in the film, even though he's usually such a likable fellow. I'd recommend this oddball comedy if you want to see Jimmy in a different type of role. Keep an eye out for an unrecognizable Anne Baxter. I didn't know it was her until the end credits!

Strange. I remember Andrew McLaglen's quaint little Fool's Parade as a bit of period pleasantry that made a Saturday evening comfier and warmer sometime in--I think--1975 on NBC.

And here we are, 2021, and I just watched it on YouTube. Either I had aged well (intellectually) or the movie hadn't. It was cheap and predictable with cardboard cutouts for characters, cheesy 1930s mythos, and George Kennedy sporting gangrenous dental-work.

The difficulty I saw was that I never once bought into the story of three Depression-era ex-cons who try to leave town with the money one of them has earned from 40 years of hard labor. It was all so much antique cars and floppy fedoras, and Jimmy Stewart popping a glass eye out of his skull to weird out the locals.

Throw in some bad language to earn a "GP," and you've got a flick that looks as if was shot as a cheapjack TV movie.

Even an excellent cast and a less-than-gory ending can't save Fool's Parade. Skip it.

If you've found your way to these comments then know that you've found in me a true fan of this film. I got here in an attempt to find a source for buying this film. Alas, it was not to be! The 1971 movie features great dramatic performances by James Stewart, Strother Martin, George Kennedy and Kurt Russell. It's a pretty fair example of a road movie that features, I believe, West Virginia as a backdrop in the mid 1930's. It's great entertainment, fun, exciting and suspenseful, too.

Hopefully it will be available someday. I believe it could be productively marketed as a rather important DVD release considering the cast and over all quality of the movie.

So it's now 13 months after I've originally posted and the question is, When is this movie going to be released on video/DVD?

It's 1935 Glory, West Virginia. Mattie Appleyard (James Stewart), Lee Cottrill, and Johnny Jesus (Kurt Russell) are released from prison. Prison guard Doc Council (George Kennedy) escorts them to the train station, eager to sent them off. Appleyard has a check for over $25k from his prison work. He realizes that he has to return to Glory to cash in the check at the local bank. Doc had schemed with banker Homer Grindstaff (David Huddleston) to keep the cash while keeping Apppleyard away from the town.

First thing first, there is no way that he saved $25k even after 40 years. Honestly, it would be more devastating if all the murder and mayhem happens for a lot less money. Overall, this feels like a middling affair. Stewart is plenty charming. The gang is likeable enough. Russell is too young to do much of anything other than puppy love. I buy going on the houseboat but it's an obvious bad move. Then I don't understand going back to the houseboat. It's a gang that can't shoot straight and it's not happening in a funny way. It's also not happening in an exciting way. They don't ever seem to go anywhere. I guess that's point of the title but it is oddly unsatisfying. This is mostly for the actors trying to squeeze some interest out of the material.

Fools' Parade is for the most part a slightly below average movie except for two things or two actors to be precise: Jimmy Stewart and George Kennedy. Stewart is, of course, a Hollywood icon and there's not a performance he gave that was bad or a film he didn't improve. Though this isn't one of his best works. But it is more notable for George Kennedy. His role in it isn't too distant from most of the other heavies he plays but his performance here should rank higher on his filmography. Maybe it's because there's not much else or maybe it's just him but George Kennedy's character is the most memorable aspect of Fool's Parade.

I was 10 years old when Fools Parade was filmed in my hometown of Moundsville, West Virginia, and I remember vividly all of the excitement we felt as we observed the actors at work in various locations. Kurt Russell couldn't go anywhere without a crowd of adoring young females screaming for his attention. I made it to the front of the crowd just once as he was ushered into a limo that would drive him to the days shoot. As I stood on the other side of the car window, my 10 year old face twisted with the emotional devastation of just missing the chance to touch him, he looked directly at me and flashed a brilliant, "I'm sorry" smile that made my day! Jimmy Stewart was very friendly and often took time to converse with the locals. My mother remembers a having conversation with him in which he demonstrated his use of the glass eye. To answer an earlier question - I believe the glass eye was called, "Tye".

Fools Parade was the second Davis Grubb novel to be filmed in Moundsville (Davis Grubb's hometown), the first being, Night of the Hunter. Both novels (and movies) explore the hypocritical, mindless nature of the "herd mentality" that can be so easily manipulated by rotten leaders & officials - especially through the use of religion and labeling. Those who see through it end up being society's outcasts, while those who follow it (in mindless hopes of acceptance and salvation) foolishly cut off their own noses to spite their faces. It's a scenario that plays out again and again in human history and is especially relevant today. A thoughtful viewer will easily see how these themes of labeling, discrimination, and fear of rejection have played out in forming the personal values of each character and boxing them into specific life circumstances - from the pathetically self-serving, desperately patriotic Cleo, to the train attendant with the tormented conscience who must choose between doing the right thing or keeping his job (and being able to feed his family during the depression).

I don't know why this movie is not easily accessible, but I have heard that it has something to do with legalities involving the Ann Baxter estate. It has, however, played on late night TV occasionally and I have a low quality video recording from quite a few years ago.. I hope it will eventually come out on DVD.

There's a sucker born every minute, but Jimmy Stewart was not going to be the next one. Mattie Appleyard (James Stewart) has just been released from prison after serving decades behind bars and he is leaving prison with a decent size cheque which some scam artists think they have it all planned out to take it away from him. But after serving decades behind bars Mattie Appleyard has no intention of going back there any time soon, nor is he planning to just get sucked in for what are his life savings.

I wouldn't classify this film as a tour de force, nor was it one of Stewart's finest performances but when you add in a young up and coming twenty (20) year old Kurt Russell then you have a decent recipe to keep us entertained even when the plot is simple and the good versus evil con men is on full display.

I give it a decent 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Aside from seeing Jimmy Stewart, I really can't think why anyone would want to see this rather silly film. I have seen almost every film Stewart has made and I am a bit compulsive about things like this, so I forced myself to watch this slight film. The problem is that the writing and acting was rather poor and it's a sad way for Stewart to begin wrapping up his acting career with such films.

Stewart and two other men are being released from prison in 1935. They're all friends and plan on going into business together but they are indeed a motley crew--guys you wouldn't expect to be friends, as they range in age from an old Stewart to a very young Kurt Russell. The film begins with the three being placed on a train and being sent to a West Virginia town near the Ohio border. However, once they arrive, the same nasty jailer (George Kennedy) is waiting for them with some sidekicks, as they want to kill and rob the three men. It seems that Stewart has accumulated a huge bankroll while in prison and Kennedy will stop at nothing to get it. Now at this point you are left wondering--if the three men took a train, given the roads of 1935, how could Kennedy have beaten the train there?! The rest of the film consists of the three men being chased by the homicidal maniacs. Considering Stewart was a very fine actor, such chase films seem way out of his league and he certainly deserved better. There were also some clichés in the film that just seemed more like plot devices than anything else (such as the romance between Russell and the teenager they pick up during their travels). As for the acting, it wasn't too bad except for George Kennedy. With his horribly stained teeth and over the top acting, he more closely resembled a wild hog than a villain--making it one of the worst performances of his career.

The bottom line is that this isn't a particularly interesting or inspired film. In hindsight, I really wish Mr. Stewart hadn't done this film as it was simply beneath his abilities and star power to be in such a sub-par movie.

I haven't seen this movie for at least fifteen years, but have never forgotten it...if it were released on video I'd probably buy several copies for friends, because it is such a good story to start with, and so well-done as a movie. James Stewart, George Kennedy, and Kurt Russell give memorable performances, and there is never that sense that you sometimes get with movies that it doesn't matter whether you watch it or not, you know how it will turn out...not with this one! George Kennedy is excellent as the villain, and the whole reversal of roles (the ex-con as the good guy, and the Sunday School teacher/prison official as the bad guy) make the movie one to remember. I highly recommend it!

1935. When three men are released from a prison in west virginia, they have big plans lined up. They have money put away in a bank to start a general store. But, as robert burns told us, the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men often go astray. What they don't know is that forces unknown to them are already plotting against them. It's pretty good! And who doesn't like a heist movie?? Stars jimmy stewart, strother martin, and a twenty year old kurt russell. And he had already been in show biz for ten years! Anne baxter, twenty years after "eve". Directed by andrew mclaglen, son of the actor victor. Based on the book by davis grubb.

This film: Starts off, Typical STEWART- The very beginning of this film is almost Hitchcock-ian.

Stewart is a released convict who has saved $25,000 over the 40 years of his imprisonment. A "Murderer," he is accompanied by a "Bank Robber" Strother Martin and "Rapist" - A teenage Kurt Russel.

The year is 1935 and on release from work prison in "Glory," a fictional town in Virginia: they are "accompanied" (By Double Barreled Shotgun) to the train leaving town by bible-spouting (And slime encrusted) George Kennedy (With Really Nasty Ugly Shark-like Teeth).

As they board the train, Kennedy spouts threatening innuendo- And as the train begins to roll, we know that the train is not going to the intended rendezvous, and the suspense embedded in the film during this point, before we know exactly what is going to happen is very Hitchcock-ified. And this is where I stop lest there be spoilers.

Directed and Produced by Victor McLaglen's son Andrew: And so the homage to Hitchcock may or may not be intended as James Stewart had starred in no less than 4 Hitchcock films and was one of Hitch's best leading men.

The screen is graced also by an Anne Baxter under caked on makeup, which is rather great... She almost-reprises her role as Eve (All About Eve) in her greed... Which is not apparent at first, but once she finds out that there is a large sum of money floating about... The greed of the Baxter character is poetically dealt with in a most humorous fashion, and is a refreshing comical "Handle" for the viewer in the middle of this film.

Even through there are spots where the pace of the film seems to lag, this did not harm my interest in seeing what was going to happen at the end.

Production wise, it is obvious that this is an early 70's almost TV-like movie: The only thing that gives away the fact that this was a theatrical release was the Wide Screen Aspect Ratio.

This is well worth seeing, especially if you watch Vertigo first. Wonderful Film.

It has been since the early 70's and as a young teenager since I have seen this movie, but will always remember it and be in my heart also. You see I was born in W. Virgina at the location this movie was filmed (at least parts of it). Without taking from a great movie and great stars in it (Jimmy can do no wrong),I enjoyed seeing the different and familiar locations and knowledge of what they were then and to what they are presently, you would be surprised. The prison during the filming was in full use then, but now it is closed with tours in it. The railroad station is there still but with houses and trailers around it and a huge bridge crossing the Ohio river almost over top of it now A very good movie, funny and great acting, this movie is on my mind very often and wish I someday can get a copy of this, it would be in my top 5 for sure

In one of my earlier reviews I stated that although James Stewart may occasionally have played morally ambiguous, conflicted characters, especially in the Westerns he made with Anthony Mann in the fifties, I could not recall him ever playing an outright villain. At first sight it seems that this film is going to be an exception, as we learn early on that his character, Mattie Appleyard, is a murderer. It soon becomes clear, however, that this is going to be one of those films where the criminals are the good guys and those supposedly charged with enforcing the law the bad guys.

The story takes place in 1935 in West Virginia. The elderly Appleyard is one of three prisoners released from jail on the same day; the others are middle-aged bank robber Lee Cottrill and the young Johnny Jesus. (We never learn exactly what Johnny's alleged crime was, although he continues to protest his innocence). The three are put on a train out of town, but soon realise that they are in danger from an unexpected source. A prison official, Captain "Doc" Council, and two accomplices are trying to track them down and kill them. The reason is that Council, who is in league with a corrupt local banker, wants to embezzle the large sum of money, in excess of $25,000, which Appleyard has received for all his work during his 40 years in prison.

During the earlier part of his career, Stewart was as accomplished a comic actor as he was a serious one, appearing in classic comedies as good as "Mr Smith Goes to Washington", "Destry Rides Again", "The Philadelphia Story" and "Harvey". After about 1950, however, his gift for picking the right film seemed to desert him when it came to comedy. He continued to appear in some excellent serious movies, principally Westerns, but few of his comedies from this period are of the same standard, and "Fools' Parade" is an example of what I mean. He has one splendid bravura passage where, in the throes of a supposed religious conversion, he plucks out one of his eyes in order to frighten off one of Council's sidekicks who has come to shoot him. (What the said sidekick doesn't realise is that this is in fact a glass eye). For most of the time, however, Stewart is simply trying to invest Appleyard with a greater depth and significance than he really merits; as one critic said "Time and again he gives you the impression of an interesting character that really isn't there in the role."

This was really Stewart's last starring role. After the film came out in 1971, he was absent from the screen for five years, and in his later films, starting with "The Shootist", he confined himself to supporting roles and cameos.

In his autobiography Charlton Heston recounts a conversation he had with his co-star Maximilian Schell during the making of "Counterpoint", in which Heston played an orchestral conductor captured by the Nazis during the war and Schell played the German officer holding him. Wouldn't it be fun, they agreed, if a second version of the film could be shot, this time with the music-loving Schell playing the musician and Heston (who rarely got the chance to play a villain) as the Nazi? Someone seems to have had a similar idea with "Fools' Parade" because it stars both George Kennedy and Strother Martin, both of whom had several years earlier appeared in another prison drama, "Cool Hand Luke". Only here their roles are reversed. Kennedy, who had played a prisoner in the earlier film, here plays Council, whereas Martin, a brutal prison warder in "Cool Hand Luke" ("What we have here is failure to communicate"), here plays the prisoner Cottrill.

Martin does not have the same impact here as he did in the earlier film, but Kennedy is one of the better things about "Fools' Parade". His Doc Council, complete with pebble glasses, bad teeth, an ill-fitting suit and a curious stooping gait, is a splendidly leering pantomime villain who combines his villainy with religious fanaticism. (In his spare time he is a Sunday-school teacher).

I earlier described the film as a comedy, although I note that some reviewers on this board have insisted on taking it seriously, possibly because the film-makers and cast seem to have been unsure what sort of film they were actually making. As I said, Stewart was trying to invest his character with a certain seriousness, but others, especially Kennedy's Doc and Anne Baxter's Cleo, a raddled old whore with an obsessive grievance against the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who refuse to have her as a member, seem to be played firmly tongue-in-cheek. The result is a rather uncertain black comedy which occasionally tries to cross the border into seriousness but never gets very far.

A frequent complaint by my fellow reviewers is that "Fools' Parade" has not been released on DVD. Well, keep asking, lads, but personally I feel that there is more chance of Cleo being accepted by the DAR. 5/10

I've seen some references state that Anne Baxter didn't like her own performance and had the ability to block distribution. Her vanity pretty much assured that the city of Moundsville would lose a rare lifeline to drag itself out of poverty oblivion. It must have been a terrible let-down at the time because you can bet that the townsfolk were tickled pink.

I do not think it is possible to come up with a better version in a remake, but perhaps someone should try that out. I see no chatter to indicate that the distribution will ever be approved.

A new version with current actors might attract a following and create the stimulus to release the original. Want to make a movie? You can rent this town for cheap - it's not changed a lot since the movie except for Walmart and other eyesores on the highway.

I consider this a must-see movie and if you look hard enough around the Internet, you will find copies.

I grew up in Moundsville W.Va. where the movie was filmed and got to watch many of the areas they filmed, i was able to get several signatures from the actors, Jimmy Stewart, Struther Martin and George Kennedy. I never got to meet Kurt Russell. It was a really good movie, not Oscar material, but very enjoyable. The last comment about why the movie never made it to copy, is because (this is what I've heard) Anne Bancroft did not like her portrayal and would never authorized a release in copy. She is now deceased, so i can only hope this will allow copies to be made and distributed. I for one would be the first in line to get it!.

One of the other reviewers asked, "Why has this movie been so forgotten?"

Because it's BAD. On almost every level. Plain and simple.

My gawd, when I first saw Anne Baxter in this, I thought she was a man in drag. She never was a great actress, but here is the perfect example of why she never was an A-lister. What a ham!

And James Stewart, one of the all-time GREATS -- what in the world was he thinking using that distractingly fake glass eye as a prop? It's a gimmick that wasn't in any way necessary for the role.

I suppose it could've been worse, hence the 3-stars. But don't waste your time...all of the actors involved have made far, far better movies.

Simply put.. an all star cast with Jimmy Stewart as vibrant as ever. Great acting, writing and character portrayal. Andrew McGlaglen directed.. what's left to say other than watch this film, available on DVD and Prime, among others. A solid 10.