FOOL'S PARADE (1971) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Andrew V. McLaglen
James Stewart, George Kennedy, Strother Martin,
Kurt Russell, Anne Baxter, William Windom,
Mike Kellin, David Huddleston, Kathy Cannon
In 1935, three convicts (Jimmy Stewart, Strother Martin and Kurt Russell) get out of prison with a check for $25,000 and a plan to open a store together. A corrupt prison guard (George Kennedy, with bad teeth) stands in their way. An offbeat character study wrapped in a period chase movie, in which the cons are the heroes, the cops are the villains, and the harder the would-be storekeepers try to get away, the more they don't go anywhere at all. It might be the best thing Andrew McLaglen ever did. Anne Baxter has a juicy cameo as a houseboat madam, and Stewart, flashing (and sometimes removing) a conspicuous glass eye, gives his most colorful late-career performance.
