Pigskin Parade

Depression-era musical comedies were often silly affairs, bearing little or no relation to reality—a deliberate choice, since in those dark days, moviegoers hungered for escapist entertainment, not realism. Pigskin Parade (1936) takes place in a collegiate never-never land where a desperate football coach (Jack Haley, the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz) recruits a dimwitted farm boy (Stuart Erwin) after seeing him effortlessly throw a watermelon 50 yards. But the yokel won't play unless his younger sister (14-year-old Judy Garland) can tag along as well. The student body includes an inordinate number of musically gifted coeds (Betty Grable, Tony Martin, Dixie Dunbar, and Johnny Downs), a quartet of middle-aged men (the Yacht Club Boys, the original rappers), and even a bona fide communist (character actor Elisha Cook Jr. in one of his earliest screen appearances). Pigskin Parade is unquestionably wacky, but it also crackles with energy, moves like an express train, and includes the song “It's Love I'm After,” delivered with gusto by the dynamic young Garland. DVD extras include featurettes on the production, Garland, and former 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck, as well as a restoration comparison, and a stills gallery. Recommended. (E. Hulse)