A simple, yet powerful trailblazer of epic proportions
The timeless masterpiece “The Big Parade” is one of the few films that has it all. It’s a tremendously moving romance, a blistering World War I film, and the story of a man changed by his circumstances all rolled into a touching, funny, harrowing, and rousing experience. This trailblazing film was such a critically acclaimed and financial blockbuster that it turned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) into a major studio, made John Gilbert a top star, King Vidor a top director, was the highest-grossing film in the US of the 1920s, and the second highest-grossing and most profitable film of the entire Silent Era. It is filled with iconic moments, and also offers tremendous insight into the creativity involved in moviemaking.
To understand and fully appreciate cinema, watch the early masterworks that formed and shaped cinema into what it is today, of which "The Big Parade" is a stellar specimen. Not only is it exciting entertainment, but its influence can be seen both visually and thematically in movies as varied as "All Quiet on the Western Front", "The Seventh Seal", "Sounder", "Saving Private Ryan", and countless others.
"The Big Parade” begins in the spring of 1917 as we meet three men: "'Slim' Jensen”, a laborer building a skyscraper; "'Bull" O'Hara", a bartender from the Bowery; and “James ‘Jim’ Apperson”, the idle rich son of a factory owner. There’s also “Jim’s” mother (who loves him unconditionally), his father (who fights with him and tells him "There's no room in my house for idlers! You'll do something or... get out!”), his brother “Harry” (clearly his father’s favorite), and his fiancée, “Justyn Reed” (whom he’s loved since he can remember).
War is declared and “Jim” assures his worried mother that he won’t enlist, telling her, "I have enough war on my hands... with Dad". Meanwhile, “Justyn” encourages “Jim” to enlist, telling him “You’ll look gorgeous in an officer’s uniform. I’ll love you even more than ever then”. Soon after, as he watches a war send-off parade, “Jim” gets so swept up in patriotic fervor, he enlists.
While in the army, “Jim", “Slim", and “Bull" become buddies and are sent to France where they’re billeted in a small farmhouse in Champillon owned by a woman and her beautiful young daughter “Melisande”. It’s love at first sight for “Jim" and "Melisande". But just as their love blossoms, he and his company are abruptly sent into battle. I’ll leave you to see the emotional ride that follows when you watch the film.
“The Big Parade” came out seven years after World War I ended, and during the war, American war films were either propaganda or romanticized versions of war. Along with being impassioned entertainment, this film was groundbreaking in its portrayal of war. It was the first to tell its story from the point of view of a regular doughboy (soldier), capture the feeling that death could come at any time, show the camaraderie and bonds between soldiers, and was the most honest view of war to date, emphasizing its ugly and gruesome side and exposing the naïveté many had about war prior to WWI.
This film came about because of King Vidor. A director under contract to the newly formed MGM, Vidor wanted to make what he called a “serious picture”, and he and MGM’s head of production, Irving Thalberg, decided on a war film. It was a gamble, since war films had become out of favor with audiences since the end of WWI. But in 1924, three war-themed plays landed on Broadway, “Nerves”, “Havoc”, and the hit “What Price Glory?”.
Unable to obtain the screen rights for “What Price Glory?”, Thalberg hired one of its co-writers, Laurence Stallings (a WWI veteran who lost a leg from battle wounds) to write a war film. Stallings came up with a five page treatment titled “The Big Parade” (lifting the title from a short story he wrote about the war). After spending a couple weeks listening to Stallings war anecdotes and experiences, Vidor and scenarist Harry Behn transformed his treatment into an original story. Vidor also watched documentary footage of WWI taken by the US Army Signal Corps to help him create a realistic depiction of The Great War.
It all paid off, for though “The Big Parade” is a sweeping epic (it runs 151 minutes, originally with an intermission, features 4000 soldiers as extras, 200 trucks, and 100 airplanes), it feels like a very personal account. In Norman Kagan’s book “The War Film”, Vidor described the film as “A man walks through the war and looks at it, neither a pacifist nor a soldier, he simply goes through, and has a look, and is pulled into these experiences”. And so are we.
Vidor’s innovative storytelling with its deeply human moments are what gives “The Big Parade” such lasting appeal. The film’s famous chewing gum scene is a prime example. The script simply said “Love Scene”, and it was up to Vidor to figure out what that would be. While on the set waiting for inspiration, he noticed writer Donald Ogden Stewart (who was visiting the set) chewing gum. Struck by the thought that French girls didn’t know about chewing gum, he had the prop man get him a pack of gum, gave it to John Gilbert (who was playing “Jim”) and told him to teach “Melisande” how to chew gum. That intimate human interaction became the basis for an electrifying love scene.
Vidor filmed the nearly five minute scene in just two shots – an almost forty-five second medium shot of “Jim” and “Melisande” followed by an approximately four minute two shot of them sitting on a bench. Filming two sedentary people in one place for such an extended time was new to movies, and by doing so, Vidor gives us a chance to witness their playful chemistry and watch them fall in love. It’s an intoxicating scene filled with a myriad of emotions that establish the depth of feeling they begin to have for one another.
Another very effective use of a lengthy, static two-shot takes place on the battlefield in a shell hole when “Jim” is face to face with his enemy. This scene lasts nearly four minutes, including one nearly three and a half minute shot. It shows the bond shared by two men thrown into war, each facing death, and humanizes war in a gripping and personal way (the look on the German boy’s is heartbreaking). This scene is so powerful, it was closely duplicated in 1931’s anti-war sound masterpiece “All Quiet on the Western Front”.
While watching hours of WWI documentary footage, Vidor was struck by the slow cadence of a funeral procession. In his 1953 autobiography "A Tree is a Tree”, Vidor remembered "It was a rhythm of suspended animation and their movement suggested an ominous event. There was no soundtrack, but the whole pattern spelled death... if I could duplicate this slow, measured cadence as my American troops approached the front line, I could illustrate the proximity of death with a telling and powerful effect. I was in the realm of my favorite obsession, experimenting with the possibilities of 'silent music'".
Vidor set a metronome to the footage, which became the pace for the battle at Belleau Wood, another of the film's signature scenes. While filming, Vidor had a drummer play an amplified bass drum to the metronome and instructed all actors that all movements must happen on a beat – be it taking a step, turning one's head, lifting a gun, pulling a trigger, or falling to the ground. Its effect is overwhelming in creating a relentlessly driving tension as the soldiers walk the front line of battle. Even without words (or the blood and gore of today’s films), it stands as one of the best and most intense battles scenes in any movie.
Perhaps the film’s most iconic scene is when the troops suddenly depart for battle and “Melisande” and “Jim” search for one another for a last goodbye. Vidor presents it in a five-plus minute montage with “Jim” reluctantly moving on with his troop while “Melisande” desperately tries to find him in an endless parade of marching soldiers, trucks, horses, and so forth. This glorious sequence is heart-wrenching and ends the first half of the film (an intermission used to following it).
In a 1970 interview for the Directors Guild of America (as heard on “The Big Parade’s” blu-ray commentary), Vidor recalled coming up with this spectacular sequence: “Those scenes were planned sitting at the Philharmonic Hall in Los Angeles listening to the symphony… Its whole movement is choreographed… men are walking at one tempo, motorcycles are going at another, trucks are going at another, horse-drawn caissons at another, and it’s all paralleling the movements of a symphony to build up to a climax”. This scene has become one of the most famous in all of cinema and has served as inspiration in many other films (”The Big Parade’s” ending is also iconic and has also been replicated in different ways in countless films).
If one thinks about Vidor’s outside-the-box creativity (the chewing gum, the metronome, the symphony, the static shot...), one gets a clear-cut illustration of how much thought and artistry goes into making a great movie. His choice of shots, framing, and edits add a precision to his exceptional storytelling. Across the board, Vidor’s direction is phenomenal.
At the age of six, Texas-born King Vidor witnessed the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (the deadliest natural disaster in US history to date), where he saw hundreds of dead bodies, animals, and destroyed buildings. It marked him for life and perhaps is the reason his films contain such sensitive examinations of the human condition. With an early interest in photography, Vidor began working as a ticket taker and projectionist at a Nickelodeon (an early type of movie theater) when he was sixteen. He soon began making his own films, including newsreels and comedy shorts, before moving to California to pursue work in Hollywood. After working as an extra, Vidor began writing and soon directing short films. In 1924, he directed his first feature, "The Turn in the Road", a success that led to more films, and in 1920, he founded his own small production company, Vidor Village. Vidor When Village soon went bankrupt he began directing films for producer Louis B. Mayer. When Mayer's company eventually merged to become MGM in 1924, Mayer brought Vidor along. Vidor’s first MGM film was 1924’s "Wine of Youth", followed by two films starring John Gilbert that same year, "His Hour" and "The Wife of the Centaur". Vidor’s fifth film at MGM was "The Big Parade”, which established him as a major Hollywood director.
Vidor’s new born fame gave him the power to direct the occasional passion project, including his other great silent masterpiece, 1928’s “The Crowd”, which earned him his first Best Director Academy Award nomination. He effortlessly transitioned to talking pictures, becoming one of the early innovators of sound starting with another passion project, 1929's pioneering all-Black musical "Hallelujah" (one of the first and few all-Black films made by a major Hollywood studio, for which he put his salary into the film to get MGM to make it). It earned him a second Oscar nomination.
Vidor earned three more Best Director Oscar nominations (for 1931's "The Champ", 1938's "The Citadel", and 1956's "War and Peace"), but never won a competitive Oscar. He directed over seventy films, more than half of which were silent and many of which were outstanding, including the silent "Show People”, and the sound films "Northwest Passage", "Stella Dallas", "Our Daily Bread", "The Fountainhead", "Duel in the Sun", “Beyond the Forest”, and “American Romance”. He worked briefly on "The Wizard of Oz", directing its iconic song "Over the Rainbow". After 1959's "Solomon and Sheba", Vidor retired.
Vidor later directed three documentary short films, 1964's "Truth and Illusion: An Introduction to Metaphysics", 1973's "A Personal Culture: Artist Tony Duquette", and 1980's "The Metaphor". In 1978, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator. A guiding force in the creation of the Directors Guild of America, he was honored with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1957. In addition to his autobiography "A Tree is a Tree”, he published anecdotes about his film career in 1972's "On Film Making”. He was married three times, including marriages to actresses Florence Vidor and Eleanor Boardman. King Vidor died in 1982 at the age of 88.
In a bravura performance, John Gilbert stars in “The Big Parade” as “James ‘Jim’ Apperson”, the spoiled rich kid who goes to war. With a tremendous freedom in his performance both physically and emotionally, everything Gilbert does feels quite real and often unexpected. I find the quick scene fascinating when “Jim”, “Slim”, and “Bull” are resting just before going to battle and “Slim” asks for a cigarette. Gilbert seems completely instinctive as he wearily studies his two buddies, passes a cigarette and lighter, and even caresses “Slim’s” fingers for a fleeting second, demonstrating the deep bond between them. It’s a “nothing” scene that Gilbert makes say so much.
Gilbert has an irresistibly youthful charisma (and a million dollar smile), most blatantly witnessed in the scene when he first speaks with “Melisande" under the archway and she reties his fallen puttee. It’s our first glimpse of their remarkable chemistry, another of the film's mesmerizing aspects.
When “Jim” and “Melisande" are together, sparks fly and love radiates off the screen. The chewing gum scene is another golden example. Gilbert and his co-star improvised the entire sequence, and their dazzling interplay lets us experience two people laughing, getting aquatinted, and falling in love. It’s extraordinary.
Another of Gilbert’s standout moments (and there are many), is in “Melisande’s” house, when she pours wine to guests. As he watches her go from guest to guest, we can see him fall deeper and deeper in love. It’s an astonishingly real moment that continues as his emotions shift when she runs out of wine and asks him to join her in the wine cellar to get more. Throughout it all, Gilbert is completely truthful.
Gilbert’s rich talent for observing and uninhibitedly reacting to the actors and situations around him is extraordinary. It’s no wonder “The Big Parade” made him a superstar and won him a Best Performance of the Month Photoplay Award (before the inception of the Oscars), one of eleven he’d win between 1925 and 1928. From this film until the end of the Silent Era, Gilbert remained a top star.
After appearing in about fifty films, in 1921 John Gilbert signed a three year contract with the Fox Film Corporation and began starring in films as a dashing romantic lead starting with "Shame". Thalberg later convinced him to come to MGM, and with his first MGM film, 1924's "His Hour", Gilbert was finally headed for stardom. "The Big Parade" was intended as another Gilbert vehicle, but Vidor (who directed Gilbert twice before) thought he was too polished to play an everyday soldier. But Thalberg believed in Gilbert, so Vidor created a situation to aid Gilbert, as he explained in "A Tree is a Tree": "I decided he would use no make-up and wear an ill-fitting uniform. Dirty fingernails and a sweaty, begrimed face were to take the place of perfectly made-up skin texture. [Gilbert] rebelled, as I knew he would. He was well on his way to being established as the 'Great Lover', and it wasn't fair to change his character when his career after all these years was fully in the ascendancy". But Gilbert complied (and is even sans his trademark mustache), and his performance is considered one of the best and most naturalistic in all of silent films. He never read the scenario for "The Big Parade", but came to the set each day ready to do what Vidor asked. Gilbert said they had a type of telepathy between them, and in Peter Hay’s book “MGM: When the Lion Roars”, Vidor agreed: “I actually remember moments when I didn’t say a thing. I’d just have a quick thought and Gilbert would react to it”. “The Big Parade” proved Gilbert wasn’t just good-looking but could also act. He loved working with Vidor and appeared in three more of his films ("La Bohème", "Bardelys the Magnificent", and a cameo in "Show People”).
There’s been a lot of misinformation about John Gilbert and the coming of sound, for he is often cited as the biggest casualty of the transition from silents to talking pictures due to a high-pitched voice. While he was among the biggest stars to lose his star status with sound, it wasn’t because of a high-pitched voice (his voice wasn’t unusually high). Rather, for a man whose persona was greatly built by ultra-passionate, steamy love scenes, sound detracted from his idealized appeal, spoiling the fantasy. Vidor had great insight about this in his book “On Film Making”: “[Gilbert’s] type of love-making was so intense and aggressive that when it came to putting words to his actions the result turned out to be funny instead of serious. John Gilbert was a casualty of talking films. Imagine in a hot love scene speaking the words ‘I adore you, I worship you, I love you’… better to let each individual member of the audience supply the words to his own taste”. Other factors also aided in Gilbert’s quick demise, including his heavy depression, excessive alcohol use, and the fact MGM head Lous B. Mayer loathed him and was no longer committed to maintaining his star status. You can read more about the life and career of John Gilbert in my post on “Queen Christina”. Just click on the film title to open the post.
In the Director’s Guild interview, Vidor commented, “How wonderful to have a girl who cannot speak English and a man who cannot speak French and therefore there’s the excuse for all the pantomime you want”. That could easily lead to overacting, but Renée Adorée plays the simple French farm girl “Melisande” with a staggering mix of truth and sincerity. She gives a powerhouse portrayal that feels so real and precise that even though “The Big Parade” is silent, we know exactly what she’s saying and feeling (as “Jim” says to her, "I don't understand a word you say... but I know what you mean”).
A prime example is the scene when “Melisande” sees the photograph of “Justyn”. Adorée clearly walks us through this woman’s shifting feelings of joy, sympathy, frustration, deep concern, grave disappointment, kindness, love, and devastation. It’s a tour de force emotional journey, so underplayed and genuine that acting doesn’t get any better.
Another of Adorée's astounding moments occurs in the above mentioned scene when “Melisande” searches for "Jim" as the troops are leaving for battle. With “Melisande’s” overwhelming fear she will never see him again driving the scene, Adorée's mix of joy and tears is the stuff that makes cinematic moments and performances immortal. Her stupendous performance helps this scene remain one of the most iconic in movie history.
In the chewing gum scene, Adorée keeps stealing longer and longer looks at “Jim” when he’s unaware, and does so with a clear attraction and yearning. Because of the truthfulness between them, the scene becomes totally lifelike as they discover one another while chewing gum. They share so much authentic joy, love, and mutual admiration that I’d argue that it is one of the most romantic scenes in cinema. It makes sense that this film made Adorée a movie star.
Biographical information on Renée Adorée is a bit sketchy and incongruous. Many sources say she was born in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, but it seems she was actually born in Germany near Hamburg. Her parents were circus performers (her father was English, not sure about her mother), and Adorée began performing in the circus at a young age as an acrobat, dancer, and bareback rider. She worked in vaudeville, and found her way to Paris where she was a chorus girl at the Folies-Bergères. While on tour in Australia, Adorée made her film debut in 1918's "£500 Reward”. The following year she headed to New York City where she continued on stage (working on Broadway in "Oh, What A Girl!" and "The Dancer”), and began appearing in American films starting with Raoul Walsh's 1920 silent "The Strongest”.
By 1922, Adorée made her way to Hollywood and had a breakthrough in 1923's "The Eternal Struggle”. True stardom came nearly a dozen films later with "The Big Parade”. She appeared in a total of forty-two films, nine with Gilbert, and four opposite another top leading man, Ramón Novarro. Her other films include "Mr. Wu", "The Show”, “The Blackbird”, "La Bohème", "The Exquisite Sinner", "The Cossacks", "The Pagan”, a cameo in “Show People”, and the Buster Keaton short "Day Dreams”. Many of her films are lost. Adorée easily transitioned from silents to talkies, but only appeared in a handful of sound films. Suffering from major health issues, her doctor advised her not to finish making 1930’s “Call of the Flesh”, but she ignored him and finished the film, which became her last. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, after filming she went straight to an Arizona hospital for nearly two years with strict bedrest for seventeen months. She returned to Hollywood to resume her career but immediately relapsed, and like Gilbert, tragically died in her 30s. She was married and divorced twice, including her first marriage to actor Tom Moore. Renée Adorée died from tuberculosis in 1933 at the age of 35.
Tom O'Brien plays "'Bull" O'Hara", the bartender turned solider who becomes one of “Jim’s” closest buddies. True to his name, “Bull” is imposing, and O'Brien injects a sensitivity and gruff personality, making him highly interesting. Whether ordering his men to shovel dirt, arguing with "Melisande's" mother, losing his corporal chevrons, trying to get his mail, or doing his best to stay cool while hiding in a shell hole with his pals, O’Brien is believable and intriguing. He also adds comedy.
Biographical information about Tom O'Brien is also hard to find, and as with Adorée, found facts don’t always match. Either born in San Diego, California (according to his Variety obituary) or Grand Rapids, Michigan (according to the 1916 Motion Picture News Studio Directory), he started performing in the Barnum and Bailey Circus, in vaudeville, and in stage productions (and may have also spent a year and a half with the Royal Northwest Mounted Police). He turned to movies in 1914 with his debut in the short "McCarn Plays Fate" (also playing a character named "Bull"). O'Brien briefly worked as an assistant director on two 1915 films, one of which was D.W. Griffith's legendary and notorious "The Birth of a Nation". Continuing to act in movies, by the time "The Big Parade” rolled around, he'd already appeared in both major and minor roles in thirty-five films. With a knack for playing tough but endearing fellows, the stocky O’Brien largely portrayed rugged, working-class (often Irish) characters. “The Big Parade” was a giant boost to his lucrative career, though he never became a star. O'Brien had no trouble transitioning to sound, but after a role in the 1933 film ”The Murder in the Museum”, he retired from acting to become a deputy sheriff. Of his 91 films, others include "The Gentleman from America", "White Fang", "Moby Dick", "That's My Daddy", "Hurricane", "The Fire Brigade", and "Poker Faces". He was married once. Tom O'Brien died in 1947 at the age of 56.
Karl Dane plays "'Slim' Jensen”, a riveter turned solider who befriends “Jim” and “Bull”. Together, “Slim” and “Bull” provide the bulk of the film’s comedy, especially “Slim”, who Dane plays in a broad comedic style, always chewing and spitting tobacco and facing fate with a calm, wide-eyed grin. Dane can be genuinely playful (as when taking a shower with “Bull”), bitingly happy (taking over “Bull’s” role as corporal), or realistic (as when telling “Bull”, "Quit squawkin'! You don't want to live forever, do you?”). He also has tender moments, many with “Jim” (patting him on the shoulder in a shell hole or giving him chocolate during battle). “The Big Parade” turned Dane into a star.
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Karl Dane was influenced by his father's love of theater. His parents divorced when he was young and he was raised by his mother with his two brothers. His father built a puppet-type theater in which Dane and one of his brothers performed for the public, igniting his interest in acting. Much like "Slim", Dane was a laborer and then a solider, and later became a corporal during WWI. In 1916, he immigrated to the US, ending up in New York City where he worked as a mechanic. He began pursuing acting in 1918, working steadily, often in anti-German propaganda films. After nearly a dozen films, he stopped acting, moved to Los Angeles, and ran a chicken farm. An actor friend convinced him to return to the screen in 1925, and "The Big Parade" was his third film back. Now a star, MGM offered him a contract in 1926 and major roles followed in A list films, including 1926's "The Scarlet Letter" and Vidor's "La Bohème".
In 1926, Dane appeared in Vidor's "Bardelys the Magnificent" in which he was paired with British actor George K. Arthur, and he and Arthur became a successful comedy team known as Dane & Arthur. They starred together in the 1927 hit "Rookies", which led to a longterm contract at MGM. More films followed including many opposite Arthur, but when sound hit movies, MGM feared audiences wouldn't understand Dane's thick Danish accent, so MGM stopped making Dane & Arthur films and gave Dane fewer and fewer roles, terminating his contract in 1930. Dane & Arthur starred in six short sound comedies at other studios, and briefly hit the vaudeville stage before ending their partnership. After two small film roles, a bad investment in a mining company, and failing as a solo comedian, to make ends meet Dane took odd jobs, including as a mechanic, carpenter, waiter, and owner of a short-lived diner. He appeared in nearly sixty films, such as "The Son of the Sheik", “The Big House", "My Four Years in Germany", "The Enemy", and as himself in a cameo in "Show People". He was married three times, divorced twice, and lost his second wife during childbirth. Completely broke, after being pickpocketed of all his remaining money ($18), Karl Dane took a gun to his head and committed suicide in 1934. He was 47 years old.
I must point out one more person who greatly shaped “The Big Parade” into the masterpiece it is, and that’s MGM’s Irving Thalberg. A genius at combining the artistic and commercial, after watching Vidor’s initial version with a preview audience, Thalberg sensed the film would be a hit and knew that with some changes it could be even greater and more profitable. He had Vidor reshoot many of the battle scenes to look more grand, and recast and reshoot “Jim’s” family scenes with new actors playing his family. Thalberg also felt the film needed a major battle scene at the end, but Vidor refused to add one. So Thalberg hired director George Hill to direct one, which became the night battle scene (taking place after we see “Jim” and the German boy in the shell hole).
Thalberg was right, and “The Big Parade” was a mega hit that played in some cities for over a year (it ran 96 weeks at the Astor in New York, a record held for 29 years). Costing less than $400,000 (even with retakes), the film earned somewhere between $6M and $15M (depending on which sources you read), becoming the most profitable film of the Silent Era and MGM’s highest-grossing film until 1939’s “Gone with the Wind”. It also firmly established Thalberg as one of the most important figures in Hollywood history and a major innovator (he virtually invented the process of story conferences, preview screenings for audience feedback, and most famously, shooting retakes). He put his personal stamp on over 400 films before his death in 1936 at the age of 37. You can read more about Irving Thalberg in my posts on “The Good Earth” and “Red-Headed Woman”.
This week’s classic is a mighty piece of cinema with a sweeping story, an intimate feel, glorious directing, and riveting performances. It’s a perfectly entertaining film that you certainly don’t want to miss. Enjoy “The Big Parade”!
This blog is a weekly series (currently biweekly) on all types of classic films from the silent era through the 1970s. It is designed to entertain and inform through watching a recommended classic film a week. The intent is that a love and deepened knowledge of cinema will evolve, along with a familiarity of important stars, directors, writers, the studio system, and more. I highly recommend visiting (or revisiting) the HOME page, which explains it all and provides a place where you can subscribe and get email notifications of every new post. Visit THE MOVIES page to see a list of all films currently on this site. Please leave comments, share this blog with family, friends, and on social media, and subscribe so you don’t miss a post. Thanks so much for reading!
YOU CAN STREAM OR BUY THE FILM ON AMAZON:
OTHER PLACES YOU CAN BUY THE FILM:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, and any and all money will go towards the fees for this blog. Thanks!!
Comentarios