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.She was entertaining her American ex-lover - without her husband present.A love triangle existed between Margot, Tony, and Mark.In the film""s first spoken words, as she poured him a drink, she referred to their secretive love relationship that had resumed after Mark had returned to the US about a year earlier - she believed (inaccurately) that her husband was oblivious to their past (and continuing) love affair.Alone, our memories resist this disintegration and grow more lovely with the passing years.The Wienie King points to a bird embroidered on her wrap-around robe: "I love birds." He guesses that if she""s he penniless tenant, she "must be broke." The elderly gentleman sympathetically and grimly remembers his own impoverished youth and his passing years, quickly ready to offer charitable support: "I was broke too when I was about your age, but I didn""t have a figure like you""ve got.Evening - Day OneThe next scene, introduced by the snapping fingers of the guitar player to set the tempo, is within the Elysian Room where a group of five, suited-and-tied jazz musicians on a bandstand play a rhythmic number.Many critics/reviewers and fans have considered the film the best of the series.One of the reasons for its success was that the story and screenplay were co-written by Wes Craven.Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption (1994)andThe Green Mile (1999)) also worked on the screenplay.