THE BIG PARADE
Sog.: Laurence Stallings. Scen.: Harry Behn. F.: John Arnold. M.: Hugh Wynne. Scgf.: Cedric Gibbons, James Basevi. Int.: John Gilbert (James Apperson), Renée Adorée (Melisande), Hobart Bosworth (Mr. Apperson), Claire McDowell (Mrs. Apperson), Claire Adams (Justyn Reed), Robert Ober (Harry), Tom O’Brien (Bull), Karl Dane (Slim), Rosita Marstini (madre di Melisande). Prod.: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 35mm. L.: 3424 m. D.: 149’ a 20 f/s. Bn
Film Notes
One day I had a talk with Irving Thalberg and told him I was weary of making ephemeral films. They came to town, played a week or so, then went their way to comparative obscurity or complete oblivion… If I were to work on something that I felt had a chance at long runs throughout the country or the world, I would put much more effort, and love, into its creation.
Thalberg replied that my wishes were certainly in line with his own. Then he asked if I had any ideas commensurate with this ambitious goal. I said I had. I would like to make a film about any one of three subjects: steel, wheat, or war. After discussing the possibilities of the first two subjects, he suddenly asked if I had a particular war story in mind.
I said that I had only an approach. I wanted it to be the story of a young American who was neither overpatriotic nor a pacifist, but who went to war and reacted normally to all the things that happened to him. It would be the story of the average guy in whose hands does not lie the power to create the situations in which he finds himself but who nevertheless feels them emotionally. I said that the soldier doesn’t make war. The average American is not overly in favor of it, nor abnormally belligerent against it. He simply goes along for the ride and tries to make the most of each situation as it happens. Thalberg was immediately interested.
…The production of The Big Parade cost $245,000. It catapulted John Gilbert to the status of a major star, and advanced Renée Adorée and Karl Dane way up the ladder of fame. It ran at the Astor Theater on Broadway for two years and took in a $1,500,000 at that theater alone. It played for six months at Graumann’s Egyptian in Hollywood. In a few years it had grossed over $15,000,000 and quickly put Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on an extremely solid foundation and, with Ben Hur (1925), pushed the new company into top place. Irving Thalberg was hailed as the production genius of the industry; Laurence Stallings was praised for his original story; and I found myself among the top directors.
King Vidor, A Tree Is a Tree (1953), Samuel French, Hollywood, CA 1981