Fools' Parade (sometimes released under the title ''Dynamite Man from Glory Jail'') is a 1971 crime-drama Period Piece starring James Stewart, Strother Martin, and Kurt Russell as a trio of ex-convicts during The Great Depression who plan to use the money they are owed for convict labor to become honest storekeepers. They find themselves framed for murder and hunted across the territory by so-called respectable figures (including a corrupt guard played by George Kennedy). The film is based on a novel of the same name by Davis Grubbs.
Tropes in the film:
- Adaptational Heroism: The local cops are confederates of Council and Grindstaff in the book but are honest men in the film.
- Adaptational Wimp: A wounded Kilfong fires several shots at Council after being double-crossed in the book, but just wallows in pain and fear until he is finished off in the movie.
- Doorstop Baby: Johnny was abandoned in a cardboard box beneath a movie theater seat as an infant.
- Face Death with Dignity: Sizemore, an Innocent Bystander wounded when Council tries to ambush Appleyard and the others, straightens his collar and brushes his hair back as he lies wounded and sees the villains coming up to finish him off.
- Glass Eye: Mattie has a bulging glass eye that is sometimes emphasized by the camera for comedic or dramatic effect, and which he claims gives him prophetic visions.
- Heel–Face Turn: Train conductor Hampton takes a bribe to lure Appleyard and his friends into an ambush where they will be robbed and killed, but ultimately can't do it, warns them, gives them his bribe money, and helps them escape from their pursuers at other points in the film.
- Hidden Depths: Lee is a shy, seemingly unimaginative man who looks more like a bank teller than the convicted bank robber he is, but he is the originator of a plan to pool the convicts' money to open a general store in his hometown and break the oppressive monopoly of the Company Town store, with the novel stating that this was the purpose of his original bank robbery.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Prison guard Doc Council may seem like a polite and upstanding Sunday School teacher, but is a sadistic bully, thief, and killer who tells his men that stealing from atheist ex-convicts (who are implied to not even be actual atheists) is alright while clearly being motivated solely by greed.Matty Appleyard: God uses the good ones. The bad ones use God.
- Hypocrite: Doc Council taunts Cottrill for sweating (insinuating that he’s a weak or untrustworthy man while claiming it isn’t too hot outside) while visibly sweating himself. He and Grindstaff also agree that criminals like the convicts don't deserve the $25,000 moments after casually discussing their own complicity in embezzlement and murder.
- Licked by the Dog: One of the first signs that murderer Matty (whose killing was a Crime of Self-Defense), bank robber Cottrill, and Johnny (an accused rapist who protests his innocence) are sincerely reformed is when Doc Council's bloodhound licks Johnny as they are being released from prison (a sign of affection it notably never shows Council himself).
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Grindstaff the banker plots to rob and kill some of his biggest depositors (recently released convicts with a nest egg) before they can withdraw their money from his bank, as he needs their money to cover up his embezzling, and Council later says that he's killed four other men for Grindstaff.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Council confides in Mystic Steve and Junior that he is considering betraying their boss, Council, once they get the money he sent them after, and later he betrays them for it, killing both men.Doc Council: I never was good at dividing, Steve.
- Read the Fine Print: At the beginning of the film, Appleyard and his friends are run out of the town of Glory after being given a check for $25,000 for years of convict labor at the local prison. They are miles away before reading the check closely enough to see that it can only be cashed at the bank that issued it, meaning they have to return to Glory.
- Young Gun: Junior Kilfong is by far the youngest of the three crooks chasing the heroes and is a gunman in cowboy garb with a part-time job as a country singer.
