When compared to the first anti-war film of the talkie era,All Quiet on the Western Front (1930),The Big Paradeis more a film of escapist entertainment rather than an anti-war treatise, although its powerful battle scenes and staging undoubtedly influenced director Lewis Milestone""s later film.Nothing pleases me more than when they don""t like me.It means I don""t belong."Her milksop husband (drinking a glass of milk!) realized hat she didn""t care about his dedication to his work as a small-town doctor who saved the lives of common folk, especially when she sarcastically asked: "Saved her for what?" The dour and cynical Rosa answered him: "There""s only one person in this town who does anybody a real favor, that""s he undertaker."What a splendid way to wake up each morning," she old her husband at 5 AM.On that Sunday morning while the Hoggetts went off to church, Ferdinand had become frantic after seeing that Farmer Hoggett""s wife Esme had a new, wind-up alarm clock ("mechanical rooster") positioned at her bedside." The substance was a knock-out substance, and when he awoke, an explosive charge was injected into Ethan""s brain through his nasal cavity."Mommer" Sieppe (Sylvia Ashton) carries a large picnic basket; the twin brothers Max and Moritz (Oscar and Otto Gotell) and kid brother ""Owgooste"" (Austin Jewel) are dressed for the picnic outing and carry a butterfly net and a toy boat; and buck-toothed cousin Selina (Joan Standing).