The Big Parade of Comedy **** (1964, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy) Classic Movie Review 7889

Writer/ producer/ director Robert Youngson’s mostly marvellous 1964 comedy film compilation The Big Parade of Comedy is assembled from footage of the MGM studio’s golden age. The tasty comedy excerpts (mostly slapstick) juxtapose sophisticated Greta Garbo and Clark Gable with the daffy Marx Brothers and the slapstick Laurel and Hardy. It is 90 minutes of vintage film buff bliss.

Youngson also raids the archives to highlight Jean Harlow, Buster Keaton, Robert Benchley, Cary Grant, Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, W.C. Fields, William Powell, Red Skelton, Robert Taylor and Marion Davies notable among 48 of MGM’s great stars and players.

On the other hand The Three Stooges and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are also here, so maybe you should fast forward to the best bits.

The compilation of scenes from classic MGM comedies runs from the silent era to 1948’s A Southern Yankee, showcasing excepts from a delightful selection that includes The Thin Man, A Night at the Opera, Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Libeled Lady, Hollywood Party, Meet the People, Personal Property, Suzy, Ninotchka, Hold Your Man, Go West and Bonnie Scotland.

The Big Parade of Comedy was made to celebrate the MGM studio’s 40th anniversary.

It paved the way for the That’s Entertainment compilations of the Seventies.

Robert Youngson is a double Oscar winner for Best Short Subject. His other compilation features include The Golden Age of Comedy (1957), Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing 20’s (1965) and The Further Perils of Laurel and Hardy (1967).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7889

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