Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Disturbing yet enthralling

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

In Pigskin Parade, a misunderstanding leads to a pretty funny comedy of errors. College bigwigs intend to invite a strong football team to the championships, but instead they invite the team of another college with a very similar name. That team is terrible, so they send out for a new coach-who's also terrible!Jack Haley stars as the poor excuse of a coach, with Patsy Kelley by his side as his wise-cracking wife. If you liked Jack in Poor Little Rich Girl, you'll be cracking up just as much as I was at his similar rapport with Patsy in this musical comedy. He's so endearing when he's an idiot, isn't he? Patsy is hilarious with her no-nonsense, common sense solutions, and underneath it all, you can tell she's still crazy about her goofball husband.Stuart Erwin, a veteran actor by the time 1936 rolled around, was nominated for an Oscar for his aw-shucks hick-turned-football-star role. It's almost funny when you see this movie to think that this was the one that won him ecognition from the Academy, when he did much more acting in 1933's Hold Your Man. Other soon-to-be stars joined the cast, including Betty Grable, Tony Martin, and Judy Garland in her very first film. If you decide to rent this, just be prepared for a very low-budget comedy, with lots of random songs interspersed to stretch out the story.

No, not Oscar nominee Stuart Erwin (who must have impressed someone in the Academy for his ability of tossing watermelons across a field), but his on-screen sister, Judy Garland, who catches them in a net without falling into the mud. She sings three songs, and intercepts the audience's affection from the rest of the cast.Not that the rest of the cast isn't a dream. Long before a Kansas Tornado took Garland off to the land of Oz where she met Tin Man Jack Haley, he was the big city football coach assigned to Texas University by mistake, not the University of Texas. This corn-pone town could fit onto any university campus, and that makes his comically nagging wife Patsy Kelly want to head back to New York on the latest train. This film is all about the big game, ridiculously teaming them against Yale.This was an inauspicious debut for Garland in a full-length feature, not flatteringly photographed, but the magic in her presence transcends the awkwardness of the 12 year old initially seen in pigtails, bringing her big voice into the production number of "The Balboa" , "The Texas Tornado" and "It's Love I'm After". Something in her eyes and smile indicates that one day, she will be one of the biggest stars in the world. Another future legend, Betty Grable, also appears, although fellow co-eds Arlene Judge and Dixie Dunbar get more footage and storyline.The Yacht Club Boys get several rousing songs of mixed memorability, and Tony (billed her as "Anthony") Martin displays his fine young baritone. But when you've got the future Dorothy and Tin Man together three years before that legendary film, funny lady Patsy Kelly (swinging on the rings while tipsy, singing "The Man on the Flying Trapeze") and sexy Betty (even in what is basically a specialty), that's where the attention will lie and the memories will be sustained.

MGM studio had signed Judy Garland to a contract, but didn't quite know how to use her talents, so they loaned her out to Fox for this little film. Little did they know how big an impact she would have in her first major feature-length film. (Never again would they loan her out.) Pigskin Parade concerns a invitation (by mistake) to a small college in Prairie, Texas to play Yale for charity. When they get the invitation, they're ecstatic; they're never told the truth. When their star player is injured, they're in a bind and try to get someone outside of their college to play. But in their quest, they come across Stuart Erwin who can throw a melon like no one's business. (Watch the movie to understand.) They meet him and sister Judy Garland, who are simple country people who ain't never been educated. Get the crux? Stuart Erwin apparently was so good in this film, he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. While this film stretches the viewer's imagination, it sure is fun. Its cast is a virtual who's who of early Hollywood. Jack Haley is the new football coach, who was the future costar of "The Wizard of Oz" with Judy, as the tin woodman. His wife here is played comedienne Patsy Kelly, who is a riot. Betty Grable, Tony Martin, Elisha Cook, Jr. all costar, and Alan Ladd has a bit part, which if you blink you'll miss him. And, Judy has musical numbers, which she knocks out of the park and knocks your shoes off, at the same time. They had to do a retake due to the applause and bravos of "It's Love I'm After," which she sings near the end of the film. For a great old-fashioned film and to witness the beginning of Judy Garland's rise to stardom, this is the film for you.

For Garland fans only, do I recommend a look at PIGSKIN PARADE. Certainly not for the inane plot, the over-baked acting by Stuart Irwin and Patsy Kelly, and the lackluster parade of campus songs by a mostly overage cast of "college kids." It's all terribly dated--but affords glimpses of some up and coming stars like Tony Martin and Betty Grable, recognizable as the stars they would become. Judy's appearance is not flattering in this Fox film, so we can be thankful MGM did a good job later on, making her up appropriately for all the musical films she did for that studio.Much of the humor falls flat, but there are a couple of musical numbers that almost make the whole film bearable. Still, it's hard to see why anybody but a die-hard fan of bad musicals from the Golden Era would find anything nice to say about this one.Trivia note: Interesting to see Jack Haley in a featured role. He and Judy would walk down the road to Oz three years later.Directed without any distinction by David Butler, who did better once he moved over to Warner Brothers.