He then appeared in the classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927); Yale vs. Harvard (1928), another Our Gang short; Mother Machree (1928) and Four Sons (1928) from John Ford; Speedy (1928) with Harold Lloyd; Riley the Cop (1928) for Ford; The Iron Mask (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks; The Divine Lady (1929); The Racketeer (1929); Anna Christie (1930) with Greta Garbo; the anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); The Big Trail (1930) with John Wayne; Up the River (1930) for Ford; The Right to Love (1930) with Ruth Chatterton; Charles Chaplin's City Lights (1931); Scandal Sheet (1931); I Take This Woman (1931); Forbidden (1932) for Frank Capra; The Miracle Man (1932); and Scandal for Sale (1932).

Parrish was in This Day and Age (1932) for Cecil B. de Mille; Doctor Bull (1933), Judge Priest (1934), The Whole Town's Talking (1935), and The Informer (1935) for Ford; The Crusades (1935) for de Mille; Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) for Ford; Shipmates Forever (1936); One in a Million (1936) and Thin Ice (1937) with Sonia Henie; History Is Made at Night (1937) for Frank Borzage; Thrill of a Lifetime (1938); Having Wonderful Time (1938); Mr. Doodle Kicks Off (1938); and Dramatic School (1938).

He worked on Ford films behind the scenes in editing and sound capacities, including Stagecoach (1939), Young Mr Lincoln (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Long Voyage Home (1940) and Tobacco Road (1941).

Both Ford and Parrish served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and together they also produced a number of documentary and training films, including The Battle of Midway (1942), How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (1943), German Industrial Manpower, and December 7th: The Movie (1943).

[6] Parrish's second Academy Award nomination, shared with Al Clark, was for the political drama directed by Rossen, All the King's Men (1949).

"[12] Film historian Kevin Brownlow wrote of Parrish's first memoir, Growing Up In Hollywood (1976), "His stories about these pictures were marvellous in themselves, and he often came at them sideways, so not only the punchline but the situation took you by surprise.

We all entreated him to write them down and in 1976 he did so, producing one of the most enchanting – and hilarious – books about the picture business ever written [...] [Growing Up In Hollywood] ought to be reprinted in this centenary [birth] year.