Showing posts with label Marx Brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marx Brothers. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

I didn't love 'Love Happy'

Love Happy (1949)
Starring: Harpo Marx, Vera Ellen, Chico Marx, Ilona Massey, Groucho Marx, Paul Valentine, Melville Cooper, Raymond Burr, and Marilyn Monroe
Director: David Miller
Rating: Five of Ten Stars 

A struggling Broadway play gets drawn into the game of cat-and-mouse of a psychopathic jewel thief (Massey) and an oddball private detective (Groucho Marx) when the theater's gopher (Harpo Marx) happens to take diamonds she was smuggling in a sardine can while on a shoplifting spree.

Harpo Marx and Vera Ellen in "Love Crazy" (1949)

There are two historically noteworthy things about "Love Happy". First, it was the last time that the three-man center of the Marx Bros. comedy team appeared together in a film. Second, it was the first film appearance for future star Marilyn Monroe. Beyond that, there really isn't to recommend this film for anyone but the most entertainment-starved viewers--even huge Marx Bros. fans will be saddened by how the passage of time appears to have dulled their comedic edges. The frenetic pace and escalating insanity that was present in their great films from the 1930s is almost completely absent here, with just some faint echoes of it hovering around Harpo's character.)

Reportedly, the film was originally conceived to revolve entirely around Harpo Marx, and he also came up with the the story--which could be why the strongest echoes of what the Marx Brothers had once delivered is found around his character. While Chico is here, his character serves no purpose (other than to make references and a couple musical performances that remind us of much better Marx Brothers vehicles). Similarly, Groucho's role in the film is entirely incidental to the main action, and, although his character serves a purpose in the story, nothing would be lost--other than a few mildly amusing jokes--if it wasn't present at all. Although there's a widespread belief that both Groucho and Chico were added late in the development process, the only character that feels completely irrelevant is Chico. In fact, if most of his lines had been given to the Vera Ellen character, the film would have been much stronger for it. It would have put a greater emphasis on the relationship between Vera Ellen and Harpo Marx's characters, which would have made the film feel more coherent, as well as giving the two best performers and characters in the film more screen-time together.


The best parts of the film are all the scenes involving Vera Ellen; she's a bubbly, cute, and talented dancer playing a bubbly, cute, and talented dancer. Her song-and-dance production number at roughly the halfway point through the film is a definite highlight. Her scenes with Harpo are also great, even if a little sad since it's clear that he loves her, but she's got him squarely in the "Friend Zone." The plot elements advanced in those scenes are also among the most engaging in the film, both when they cross-over with the jewel thief plot, or are just there to advance mushy romance. Sadly, the film is so poorly scripted that neither Vera Ellen's character's relationship with Harpo, nor the main romantic subplot with Paul Valentine are given a proper resolution. Instead, after a wanna-be madcap chase around the theatre and across the rooftop involving the Marx Bros., the film's villains, the diamond necklace and some costume jewelry being passed back and forth, the film ends on the character portrayed by Groucho Marx. Some take this as evidence to the theory that he and Chico were forced into the film late in the process, but production notes and correspondence implies that Groucho was intended to be part of the project from the outset. He has some funny lines, but the fact the film ends on him--and in a way that is completely nonsensical and disconnected from just about everything that's been established previously in the film--is the final and most obvious sign of how poorly written this film is.

The low quality of the script also manifests itself in the fact that even otherwise funny gags are allowed to drag on to the point they become dull--like Harpo shoplifting; the bad guys (one of which is played hilariously by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr) pulling an impossible amount of items from Harpo's jacket; and the climactic rooftop chase where multiple antics on the part of Harpo and other characters start funny and end up tedious. The continuity issues and the attempt to augment comedic performances hampered by bad writing with dumb sound effects (which pretty much ruins some of Ilona Massey's scenes) only make the experience of watching this film more miserable.

I thought Vera Ellen and Harpo were so charming in this film, and their scenes together so enjoyable that I couldn't bring myself to give it the Four Rating that "Love Happy" probably deserves. I wish everything else around them had been better (and that their characters had gotten the proper story wrap-up they deserved.)


Monday, December 17, 2018

'Horse Feathers' is high-quality nonsense

With the college football season coming to an end for 2018, it seemed like the perfect time to rewatch one of my favorite Marx Brothers films with an eye toward reviewing it for Shades of Gray. And it was.


Horse Feathers (1932)
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd, Nat Pendleton, and James Pierce
Director: Norman McLeod
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A crazy university president (Groucho Marx) tries to rig the Big Football Game against a rival school... with disastrous results.

"Horse Feathers" is one of the greatest movies the Marx Brothers ever made. It is an almost non-stop barrage of wild comedy--both visual, physical, and spoken--that is book-ended by my most favorite Marx Brothers song and dance routine--"Whatever It Is, I'm Against It"--and the craziest football spoof ever committed to film. Every joke and gag comes off perfectly, and the Marx Brothers are all top form, even the straight-man of the group, Zeppo, shines as a college football star and son of the university's president.

The stellar performances from the Marx Brothers are ably supported by equally great showings from Nat Pendleton (who appears as a football player) and Thelma Todd (who proves here that she will forever be one of the sexiest commedienes in history; films like this really show what a great loss to the world her tragic and premature death  was). Todds comedic timing is absolutely perfect throughout this film, as she vamps it up as a campus man-eater and femme fatale with the scenes she shares with Chico and Groucho being among the film's brightest highlights.


There is really only one part of the film that doesn't click is the musical number performed by Harpo in an attemtp to woo Thelma Todd's character. It goes on for too long and it brings the movie to a screeching halt for over three minutes. Yes, "Everyone Says I Love You" is a nice tune and Harpo plays beautifully, but the segment is out of place... and Zeppo and Groucho's respective uses of the verses of the same song in serenading Todd don't interrupt the flow of this zany movie. (In fact, Groucho's performance and its aftermath cranks it up a notch.)

There are few films I have watched more than once--there are simply too many movies in the world--but I am glad that I now number "Horse Feathers" among them. This second viewing was time well spent.




Friday, December 27, 2013

Marx Bros deliver 'Room Service'

Room Service (1938)
Starring: The Marx Bros, Frank Albertson, Donald McBride, Lucille Ball, Cliff Dunstan, Philip Wood, Alexander Asro, and Ann Miller
Director:  William Seiter
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A broke theatrical producer (Groucho Marx) engages in an increasingly desperate series of ruses to prevent eviction of himself and the cast of the play he is trying to secure financial backing for.


"Room Service" is the only Marx Bros. film that was not specifically written for them. It's an adaptation of a play that was hugely successful at the time, and many of the supporting actors (such as Donald McBride as the long-suffering hotel inspector) play the same roles the originated on stage. I assume it's a faithful adaptation, as the stage roots are so visible that the vast majority of the film takes place in a single room, with characters coming and going through its three different doors and one can even sense where the lights would dim and come up between acts.

The fact that the film is "stagey" doesn't hurt it, however, as running in and out of doors and verbal patter is the Marx Bros. stock and trade. I felt that the only weakness here over material tailor-made for the trio was that Harpo feels under-utulized, even if he gets to be at the center of the film's culmination and the conclusion of one of its funniest sequences--a prolonged fake suicide and impromptu memorial

While Groucho and Chico expertly deliver some superb lines, the aforementioned suicide scene and the aftermath with Harpo are the only parts that compare to the many great bits in "Duck Soup" or "A Day at the Races." The pacing of the film is solid and the comedy is top-notch, but in general only that the suicide sequence really felt like it could only have been done by the Marx Bros.

In some ways, this might be a film that even those who don't usually like Marx Bros. movies can enjoy. The story serves a greater function here than just moving us from comedic set piece to comedic set piece, and there isn't the sense that there's a single character that's the target of Grouch's abuse is also lacking. As stories go, the only weak point I felt was the romantic subplot between the playwright (Frank Albertson) and one of the hotel staff (Ann Miller); it added nothing whatsoever to the film.


Trivia: Ann Miller  was only 15 when she appeared in as the love interest in "Room Service", having lied about her age to be hired at RKO as a contract player.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Groucho Monthly

Groucho Marx appears on "What's Your Line" and causes chaos and embarrassment for everyone on the stage.



Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Groucho Monthly

More outtakes from "You Bet Your Life", from a blooper reel compiled by the show's sponsor.

Contestant to Groucho: Have you ever been made love to a Frenchman?
Groucho: [Pause] Not that I can recall.



Groucho Marx and Eden Hartford

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Groucho Monthly

Here's a compilation of outtakes from 1950s game show "You Bet Your Life".

("Let me explain something to you Pat," says Groucho at one point. "This audience is even filthier than I am.")



Groucho doing more than just dreaming of Jeanie with Barbara Eden

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Groucho Monthly

Starting a new series... hilarious clips featuring the great Grouch Marx. I'm kicking it off with outtakes from the "You Bet Your Life" series. (This was inspired by a post on Boingboing.net.)



Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Marx Bros mock fascist Europe
in 'Duck Soup'

Duck Soup (1933)
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, and Raquel Torres
Director: Leo McCarey
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Zany dictator Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) leads his country to war against its neighbor, Sylvania, for the fortune of the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Dumont).


"Duck Soup" is possibly the craziest of comedies made in the 1930s, and during its breakneck pace of non-stop gags, comedy routines, and rampant silliness, it manages to spoof the fascist states of Europe, musical comedies, war movies, and aspects of every day life at the time, such as street vendors. The film is full of scenes and gags that are imitated and copied to this very day, such as the mirror image sequence and Groucho's many rants.

A mark of a true classic is its timelessness. "Duck Soup" is as funny as it was in 1933, with a story that even speaks to modern-day politics and world events.


Monday, December 7, 2009

'A Day at the Races' was a crazy time!

A Day at the Races (1937)
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont, Allan Jones, Douglass Dumbrill and Esther Muir
Director: Sam Wood
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A crooked businessman, J.D. Morgan (Dumbrill), threatens to foreclose on a sanitarium operated by young Judy Standish (O'Sullivan). Her fiance (Jones), friends (Chico Marx and Harpo Marx), and a horse doctor-turned-conman (Groucho Marx) launch a variety of schemes to save her business, ranging from attracting new clients, securing investments from a rich patient (Dumont) to winning a horse race that is being fixed by the greedy Morgan.


"A Day at the Races" is a great film featuring a comedy team that I feel has never gotten quite the degree of recognition they should have. The Marx Brothers were making anti-establishment comedies thirty years before they became all the rage and they were doing it with more wit, grace, and insanity than just about anyone has been able to match. (I think that only Mel Brooks has come close.) What's even more remarkable is that they were making their movies in an environment that was becoming increasingly friendly to fascist and authoritarian ideals, a move that was only halted when Americans woke up to the truth about Hitler and the like. (Too bad current mass-media and politicians seemed to have forgotten that lesson, what with their increasingly obvious love for totalitarian regimes and philosophies that like the color red.)

The story of the film isn't really that spectacular, but then it's just there to serve as a platform for the Marx Brothers to throw spears at authority figures (and whether it's doctors, bankers, lawyers, or business magnates, they all get poked during the course of this film) and as a vehicle to get us from one excellent comedic set-piece or musical number to another.

Highlights of the film include the craziest medical exam ever caught on film a perfectly timed Vaudeville-style routine where Groucho's fast-talking character is conned by Chico's deceptively simple immigrant salesman of ice cream and racing tips; a scene where Chico and Harpo use extreme measures to stop Groucho's hormones from leading him into a trap laid by the bad guys and baited with the sanitarium's and a fun musical routine where Chico and Harpo demolish a piano by simply playing in, transforming it into a harp for Harpo to play; and a great jazz routine that showed African Americans in a way that they weren't often seen in 1930s cinema.

"A Day at the Races" is a true comedy classic that is as funny today as it was seventy years ago. If you enjoy well-made satire, razor-sharp dialogue, and perfectly executed physical comedy, this is a film you need to check out.