Their career in cinema only spanned 20 years, but the Marx Bros. packed some mighty durable comedy into it. For me, their films fell neatly into three groupings:
Excellent Bros.
1949 - Love Happy - More of a simulation of a Marx Bros. comedy than the real McCoy. Sure, all three of the Bros. are in the picture and they inhabit basically the same characters that they normally do. Yep, there's a greedy bad gal as an antagonist and some needy good folks who could use a hand. But, some things just aren't right.
It seems clear that Groucho had to be dragged into this film kicking and screaming. He probably has less than ten minutes of screen time and seems to exist in his own bubble for the majority of the movie. He doesn't encounter a character from the main story until 85 minutes in. This is more of a "The Two Marx Brothers" movie than the typical trio.
However, it's really just the Harpo Marx show. I thought I'd love a movie that was Harpo-centric. He's my favorite brother and I usually can't get enough of him. This film has shown me that Harpo's best when you look forward to his next appearance. When he's onscreen all of the time, his antics lose their impact.
One would've thought that a movie written by Harpo himself and a former Looney Tunes director might be excellent. Unfortunately, this wasn't so, though the film isn't without its good points. I liked the historically interesting chase under the neon billboards. Torturing the mute Harpo to try to get him to speak was a dark, but funny idea. And, Marilyn Monroe was indeed beautiful for the two seconds she was onscreen. (5/10)
d. David Miller & Leo McCarey
1946 - A Night in Casablanca - After a five year absence, the Bros. are back. The film begins very dark, with a Hitchcockian murder in an exotic locale. Then, out of the blue, Harpo appears. "Say, what do you think you're doing? Holding up the building?" He was, and a giant building collapses when the policeman hauls him away. That's what the entire film is like. The darkness of a Nazi war criminal trying to escape to South America with stolen wealth is defeated by the light-hearted antics of the Bros.
This picture contains the best, by far, game of charades between Chico and Harpo of any of their films. Harpo shines also during his "duel" with the Nazi stooge, his blowing bubbles of water and smoke at Beatrice, and his excellent harp tune dedicated to a painting of a beautiful woman. Plus, he finally has someone hold his leg again, after many films. Hallelujah!
The action hero ending to the film, where the Bros. chase and board and airplane using a truck, seems a bit out of place in their pantheon of movies. Despite their slightly advancing age at this point, I bought it. They kept the action light, bonking Nazis on the head and crashing the plane back in the jail they just escaped from.
A huge improvement over the previous few MGM films and a nice slice of fun to boot. (8/10)
d. Archie Mayo
1941 - The Big Store - As always, it's nice to have Margaret Dumont back. Even with her impeccable straight woman routine, this film was merely a serviceable Marx Bros. picture. Maybe I wasn't in the proper frame of mind, but it seemed like the Bros. weren't quite as funny this time out as they normally are.
The musical numbers are so lengthy and large in this film, I'd probably categorize it more as a musical and less as a comedy. Even Groucho's song is huge, with dozens of dancing backup singers and giant, moving sets. I did greatly enjoy Harpo's trio with two copies of himself. Not surprisingly, the man can play a decent fiddle. By the way, what was wrong with the lady who sang "Rock-a-Bye Baby"? She sang a jazzy version of this lullaby with an incredibly bizarre stone face. Was that a "hip" style of singing in 1941?
Why did the bad guy bonk Tommy on the head in a packed elevator? He was supposed to be trying to kill him. Not only did he not even hit him hard enough to knock him out, he tries to do it in a place with no room to maneuver. More than a few plot points didn't quite make sense, despite the story being nearly identical to the last half-dozen films.
My favorite line: "What other hobbies have you got?" said by Groucho when a couple walks in with their twelve kids. You've got love how he always managed to get around the Code when necessary. (6/10)
d. Charles Reisner
1940 - Go West - I like westerns. I like the Marx Bros. This film should've been great. I was looking forward to it. Somehow, however, the film was less than what it should've been.
The scene in which the three Bros. first meet might be a good indicator of why this is. It is essentially a re-working of the "tutti fruiti" scene from A Day at the Races and one of those rare scenes where someone gets the better of Groucho. The gag in Races cleverly builds: you need a code book for the tipsheet, then you need a codebook for the codebook, etc. In West, the gag just repeats itself: Groucho sells Harpo worthless piece of Western wear, Harpo and Chico scam him out of $9 in change. In the former, you can't wait to see what other goofy requirement Chico comes up with that Groucho will be forced to buy. In the latter, you just wait for the scene to end.
Even in the Old West, Chico and Harpo both manage to find their signature instruments. Like A Day at the Races, Harpo finds his harp within another object. This time he plays a Native American blanket in the process of being weaved. I thought this working prop was nicely constructed. It had me fooled and the song Harpo played on it sounded great.
The chase sequence with the steam train was impressive. They have the thing going off the rails and pushing houses around, while the Bros. run on top of it. It was exciting and funny enough to almost make up for the previous scenes. Still, I miss Margaret Dumont. (6/10)
d. Edward Buzzell
1939 - At the Circus - Considering this and A Day at the Races, I think I can safely ignore the "common knowledge" that the post-Paramount Marx films weren't any good. This film is pure fun. I loved the setting, the songs, the gags and the wild ending.
A circus troop is a great place for the Bros. to play around in. You can have giraffes licking Margaret Dumont (and Groucho taking credit). You can watch Peerless Pauline and Groucho having an upside-down tête-à-tête. You can laugh at a hysterical investigation by Chico and Harpo in the tiny room of a little person. At the circus, the Bros. can terrorize a poor, sleeping strongman. And, Groucho can croon about a tattooed lady named Lydia. It's a great setting and the Bros. take advantage of it.
I noticed that Groucho appears to have donned a wig for this film. It struck me as odd at first, as it isn't particularly real-looking. Then I remembered that Harpo has always worn one, and the hair styles are a part of the Bros.' characters costumes.
I think Harpo's harp song in this film was my favorite thus far. There's a shot in the middle of it that I found fascinating. It showed Harpo's face from a low angle, through the strings. His eyes were closed and his face was fixed in an expression of pure intensity. It's clear that Harpo the Id and Harpo the serious musician were two different characters. (8/10)
d. Edward Buzzell
1938 - Room Service - This film barely registers as a Marx Bros. film. Sure, the Bros. are present and inhabiting their usual personalities. Sure, there's a Zeppo-ish straight man for them to bounce off of, as well as a clearly defined upper class bad guy. Somehow, however, the Bros. are muted. Groucho doesn't seem as sharp, Harpo isn't as insane and Chico fades into background most of the time. I wasn't surprised at all to learn that this was a Broadway play not written for the Bros. It feels like a standard issue comedy of the era and most of it takes place in the stage-like hotel room.
Another disappointment was Lucille Ball. One of the great female comedians joins the Bros. on a picture, yet she's barely in the film and exists only for exposition. True, this is thirteen years before "I Love Lucy," but it's still disappointing.
The Bros. tried to spice things up with their brand of comedy, but they weren't able to transform this film into their usual madcappery. All was not lost. There are a handful of decently funny scenes in film. The only time they get actual room service was classic Marx as they scramble to consume the food as fast as possible. Harpo repeatedly saying "ah" for the doctor using a squeaking cupie doll got a laugh from me. I thought Donald MacBride did a great job as the perpetually irritated Wagner.
Lucky for the Bros. and us, this is their only RKO film and only script not written specifically for them. (4/10)
d. William A. Seiter
1937 - A Day at the Races - Maybe I'm nuts, but I found this to be the most enjoyable film from the Bros. so far. Everything works like a well-oiled machine, from Groucho and Dumont's love-hate relationship, to the lavish MGM musical numbers, to Chico and Harpo's game of charades.
What about the big jazz number in the middle? Isn't that more "thirties-style racism," as I noticed in Duck Soup? Some people certainly see it that way. A commenter on another blog calls it "That embarassing happy darkies musical number." Another commenter on yet another blog describes it as (3/4 down the page, 18th paragraph) "the kind of scene that makes modern day audiences cringe like crazy, what with all the goggle-eyed smiling blacks who sing and wave their hands in their air and drink moonshine, and whatnot" and declares the scene "INCREDIBLY offensive." What I find incredibly offensive are those descriptions by these supposedly enlightened individuals. "Goggle-eyed"? Jesus.
I see that scene more as a statement on the Bros.' class allegiance. The Bros. stand for the little guy. Harpo and Chico always play lower class characters and all three Bros. use their wits to tear at the upper class establishment. This is illustrated as well as it ever is in the musical number prior to the jazz scene. There, the Bros. raise hell at a stuffy theater populated by tuxedo-clad elites. Harpo, in particular, demonstrates his contempt by playing the piano so furiously it disintegrates. In marked contrast, the jazz scene has Harpo leading an ever-growing crowd of revelers. White, black -- it doesn’t matter -- all are working class folks that share a love of music and are in need of cheering up. Another indicator of the Bros.' intentions for this scene is the fact that they knew it would be cut out of the film for Southern audiences, but shot it anyway (as noted at the end of the 6th paragraph in the film's Wikipedia article). Yes, the scene ends with the Bros. in blackface, but I think Harpo makes a positive statement by only painting half of his face.
I dunno. It's pretty complicated stuff. As the blog link in my Duck Soup review said "race relations during the 1930s were considerably less simplistic than most people realize--and certainly no less murky than they are today."
Supposedly this is the last good Marx Bros. film. Hopefully the rest aren't too bad, as I still have six more to watch. (8/10)
d. Sam Wood
[watched at Brother-in-Law's house using an Xbox 360]
1935 - A Night at the Opera - Made at MGM and Zeppo-free, still this film still feels like a Marx Bros. movie to me. It probably has a slightly more standard plot than the Paramount films, with more concentration on the two lovers than ever before. There was probably slightly more of the soundtrack dedicated to sappy loves songs as well, but the regular doses of comedy helped alleviate that quite well.
I was glad to see the return of the Harpo and Chico musical numbers. It was particularly great to see, what appeared to be, the kids' authentic joy at watching the Bros. perform. Their smiles at Chico's fingerwork on the ivories were as entertaining to behold as Chico's actual fingerwork. I chuckled loudly at the kids' reaction just to Harpo's appearance, which made them all break out into laughter. You could see also the Bros.'s joy at performing for the kids. Hopefully, we'll see more like this in future films.
Favorite moment of the film: the look on Harpo's face when the cooks on the ship continue to pile food upon food on his plate. (7/10)
d. Sam Wood & Edmund Goulding
1933 - Duck Soup - I was glad to see Margaret Dumont return for this one. As the "fifth Marx brother," she plays the perpetually bemused/offended straight-woman to perfection. The reactions on her face to what Groucho says to her was, alone, enough to elicit some laughs.
Also honed to perfection was Chico and Harpo's schtick. The scene with the lemonade vendor is, by far, my favorite scene from the Bros. in the five Paramount pictures. Harpo enters a new level of insanity in this film when he arms himself with scissors. No feathers, cigars, hankies, hats or coats can possibly be safe.
I did have to stop the film about halfway to jump on the Internet and verify that Groucho did indeed spew a racial epitaph as the punch line of a joke. It turns out that the joke is a pop culture reference to a then-famous song. I found this blog post, which explains the complex back-story. Still, it's not something I wanted to hear Groucho say and it dampened the rest of the film for me somewhat. I spent the remainder worried the fun was going to be further diminished by thirties-style racism.
With this film, we say goodbye to Zeppo… not that it'll be noticeable when he's gone. I will say it was nice to see all four of the Bros. performing with each other, especially during the war song. But, I don't think Groucho's quips will be harmed much with the loss of his straight-man brother. Whether harm will come from the change in studios, I supposed I will find out. (8/10)
d. Leo McCarey
1932 - Horse Feathers - Moves along at an enjoyably snappy pace. This Marx Bros. film doesn't mess around. At the start, we dive directly into a scene with Groucho which evolves into a musical number sung by him. I love that in this musical, all of the songs are performed by the Bros. There's no troupe of dancing girls and the only sappy love is sung by each of the Bros. in a progressively funny manner. It was a little annoying that the accompanying off-screen orchestra tended to drown out Chico and Harpo's piano and harps song, however.
Little time is spent with the actual plot. A mere nine hours later, I can't remember the reason the villains wanted to win the football game so badly. I'd assume it was because they were gambling on it, but I have no idea why the widow -- who has a servant and a nice pad -- would need the cash. All of that doesn't matter in the least, as it was just a structure to support the Bros.' college antics.
Disappointingly, Harpo doesn't get anyone to hold his leg this time. Though, he very subtly changes his "Dog Catcher" hat into one that reads "Kidnapper" when he and Chico attempt to kidnap the ringers. Speaking of ringers, Robert Altman and comedy, I wonder if M*A*S*H is the direct grandchild of Horse Feathers? (8/10)
d. Norman Z. McLeod
1931 - The House That Shadows Built: "I'll Say She Is" - This is a five-minute-long segment in a promotional film from Paramount. Though the entire film itself is impossible to find, this short is on the Inside the Marx Brothers DVD. It's unnamed, so I borrowed the name from here. Basically, the Bros. enter into a casting office and annoy a theater director. Notably, Zeppo is the first to enter and speaks more lines in this 5-minute short that he has in the previous 90-minute films combined. More notable to me: Harpo manages the very difficult "double leg hold," using the director and Chico (and subsequently getting tossed to the ground). The short is much zanier that we've seen in the two previous films, which I think might be a sign of things to come. (6/10)
d. ??
1931 - Monkey Business - Hijinx from an ocean liner to a barn. One thing I noticed right away is that Groucho is physically wackier in this film. He dances and sings, meows and struts like a cat in heat, and uses his trademarked stooped walk to get where he's going. I like this change. Chico's unending song "Sugar in the Morning" from Animal Crackers makes appearance in both the opening credits and in Harpo's harp composition this time around. It seems like it might be the Bros.' theme song now. Both this film and "I'll Say She Is" reference and poke fun at Maurice Chevalier. Luckily, not knowing who this is doesn't diminish the laughs. You can easily infer that he was some famous dope who sang love songs. I doubt, 75 years from now, people would be able to make sense of, for example, the "Wassup!" jokes in Scary Movie. And, amazingly, Zeppo manages to actually work in this film as he takes over the male romantic lead. He even gets the girl at the end after a massive fist-fight (!) which begins when he dives off of a barn loft (!!) onto the bad guy . (7/10)
d. Norman Z. McLeod
1930 - Animal Crackers - The second and final film based on one of the Bros.'s vaudeville acts is not as successful as the first. This film feels much more stage-y than The Cocoanuts. It mostly takes place in a couple of big sets, Groucho has lengthy asides with a live audience that isn't there and scenes tend to be constructed using long takes with unmoving cameras. This theatrical heritage does give us an interesting moment in which Chandler flubs a line at the end of a lengthy take and Groucho deftly recovers to turn it into a gag.
Harpo and Chico's musical numbers aren't quite as great as they were in the previous film. Groucho's cracks didn't tickle my funny bone quite as much. Some of the humor in this film was a bit dated; I felt I missed more of it than in The Cocoanuts. Zeppo, again, is fairly useless, though he does get more lines this time around and actually got me to crack a smile during the note-taking bit with Groucho. Still, Harpo getting people to hold his leg will never fail to get me to laugh out loud. (6/10)
d. Victor Heerman
1929 - The Cocoanuts - The only Marx Bros. film I'd seen before this was, I think, Duck Soup. That was over a decade ago but the memories of the heavy guffaws it caused lead me to this particular chronocinethon. Going into this film, I was curious to see if I could still laugh at the Bros. Was their humor, at 76-years-old, too dated to understand? Already films like Austin Powers, at the ripe age of 7, are losing their comedic kick. No worries. Once past the obligatory love song, the scene between Groucho and Mrs. Potter had tears rolling out of my eyes. You need to be nearly as quick-witted as Groucho just to keep up with the jokes in this scene. It's easy to see why Margaret Dumont is the "fifth Marx Brother," as her utterly lost straight man is perfect for Groucho's rapid-fire wisecracks. The rest of the film never quite reaches such a comedic peak, though the scene in which Harpo begins randomly tearing people's mail in half had me laughing nearly as hard.
The songs are pretty bland -- with the exception of the bizarrely titled "Monkey Doodle Doo" -- but I found them watchable just to study 1929’s approach to sexuality. On the other hand, the Bros.'s songs were excellent. In particular, Harpo's harp composition was incredible. Chico's piano tune wasn't bad, either. Both play their instruments with a breezy flair that's fun to watch. Zeppo, however, was entirely useless in the film. It's easy to see why he takes off for behind-the-scenes later on.
A special raspberry to Universal, the worst major studio out there when it comes to DVDs. Their box set of the Paramount Marx Bros. films lacks special features and, judging from the shoddy image quality, appears to be complete unrestored. Universal: send an intern over to WB and have him takes some notes, for Pete's sake. (8/10)
d. Robert Florey & Joseph Santley
Chico Marx (1887 - 1961) | Harpo Marx (1888 - 1964) | Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977) | Zeppo Marx (1901 - 1979)
"a total, unadulterated maniac"
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