The Marx Brothers

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
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movieman1957
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by movieman1957 »

I have an old album of radio shows that involve the brothers. Several include Chico and his band. One funny one with Harpo involves Gary Cooper as his interpreter. One whole side of one of the albums is Groucho and Al Jolson. Jolson had a hard time keeping things together as Groucho constantly went off script. Fours hours of it all.

I too have appreciated Abbott as I watched with a more mature attitude. I don't like them like I used to but the best are still worth watching.
Chris

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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by Western Guy »

Still being relatively new to this site and not having perused it thoroughly, I wonder if anyone thinks the MGM Marx efforts are more enjoyable than the early Paramount features. There are great Marx bits in the MGM films but, to me at least, the bland romantic subplots and pretty much forgettable musical numbers take away much of the entertainment value of these offerings and often slows the plot(?) to a crawl. Maybe I'm a purist when it comes to Marxism, but nothing beats the non-stop zaniness of the Paramount films.
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movieman1957
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Re: The Marx Brothers

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Agreed.

Wendy and I were talking about those. (Maybe it was at TCM.) "At The Circus" was okay but certainly not in the same league as anything before. "Go West" had some fun moments. For me "The Big Store" is the weakest of the lot. (I don't even count "Love Happy." I've seen it.) Some generally weak material is pulled to a dead stop by the overblown "Tenement Symphony."

Though not an MGM picture they did do better with "A Night In Casablanca." Overall it is hard to be the Paramount films. I think "The Cocoanuts" would have been a much better picture if all the music would have been lost. It was no big deal seeing 15 "bellboys" doing hand dancing. And watching Oscar Shaw made me happy that Zeppo took over the romantic part.

"Duck Soup" and "Horse Feathers" are at the top of my list.
Chris

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JackFavell
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

I wonder if popular opinion has turned in the last few years toward the Paramount films. I don't know a single person who likes A Night at the Opera or a Day at the Races better than pretty much any of the Paramounts. Maybe because the two Thalberg movies were shown so often, and remarked on as being the best, movie fans like me rebelled, picking the more anarchic Marx films over the staid plot driven ones?

My favorites are Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, followed closely by The Cocoanuts and Duck Soup. I agree about Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton, but it's worth sitting through those creaking numbers just to see the boys as they were on stage. The boys are SO outrageously energetic in The Cocoanuts, half the time they are jumping out of the frame. I don't actually mind the Monkey Doodle Do, it's so ridiculous that I like it. It's such a contrast to the song that was cut from the show because the producers thought IT was lame. The song was Always. :D

I had that record of the radio shows too, Chris.
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movieman1957
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by movieman1957 »

You had the records? I thought I was the only one I'd ever know that had them. That's great.

I think the thing about "Opera" and "Races" was their appeal to a wider audience. I like them but I don't think they are really any better than the Paramount pictures. They almost aren't that different. More of a love story in them but they're crazy too.

"Duck Soup" has a special appeal for me because I waited so long to see it. It was held up in rights problems for a long time and it was the last one I saw so it was real special when I finally saw it.
Chris

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JackFavell
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

That was like Animal Crackers for me. I actually only saw it after I got TCM, so that means in the last 4 years. There may have been one other time seeing it, but I can't really remember. I'm just not as familiar with it as I am with the others, even though I know all the routines and songs, because of all the books I've read on it and the clips I had seen or heard.

I had Three Hours, Fifty-nine Minutes and Fifty One Seconds with The Marx Brothers, and another one that had clips from all the movies, with rainbow op art on the front cover, sections designated for Groucho, Chico and even Harpo, and all the sounds he made. It was narrated by Gary Owens.
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movieman1957
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by movieman1957 »

I am not familiar with the other album.

I have quite a few books on the boys as well. In addition to "Harpo Speaks" several are by Groucho. "The Groucho Phile" and "Memoirs Of A Mangy Lover" and one The Bride sought out for me, "Beds." A collection of newspaper and magazine essays, the name of which escapes me, and several books about them and their films. And one with Groucho and Charlene Chandler "Hello I Must Be Going: Groucho and Friends."

A also have a tape of a very good impressionist, Frank Ferrante, called "Groucho: A Life In Review." He does a very good Groucho at any age. It's almost a one man show and it was better than I expected.

Writing is a different style and he is quite funny but it gives him a chance to be deeper but also go into all kinds of directions.
Chris

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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

Beds is awesome and a collectible, I believe.

I had Harpo Speaks, Memoirs of a Mangy Lover, Groucho and Me (a must have if you don't already), and The Groucho Letters, also a must have, since it includes some devastatingly funny correspondence with Arthur Sheekman, Fred Allen, T.S. Eliot, James Thurber, E.B. White, Goodman Ace (who also wrote some great books), Nunnally Johnson, Alistair Cooke, S. J. Perelman, The Lunts, and even Harry Truman.

Groucho and Me and Harpo Speaks gave me some of the best, most erudite reading of my childhood, and a ton of embarrassment, since I frequently burst into laughter when reading them.

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movieman1957
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Re: The Marx Brothers

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I've read "Groucho and Me" and "The Groucho Letters" when I got it from the library but one of these days I'll get them for my own. Too bad letter writing has been lost as an art form.
Chris

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ChiO
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by ChiO »

Groucho's finest letter, and perhaps the greatest letter ever written:
Dear Warner Brothers:

Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making a picture, I had no idea that the City of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers.

However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received a long, ominous legal document, warning us not to use the name "Casablanca".

It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, the great-great grandfather of Harry and Jack, while looking for a short cut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock, which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common, named it Casablanca.

I just don't understand your attitude. Even if they plan on re-releasing the picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don't know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.

You claim you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without their permission. What about Warner Brothers -- do you own that, too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. When Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor's eye, we were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers and even before us, there had been other brothers -- the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazoff; Dan Brouthers, an outfielder with Detroit; and "Brother, can you spare a dime?" This was originally "Brothers, can you spare a dime" but this was spreading a dime pretty thin so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other brother and whittled it down to "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

The younger Warner Brother calls himself Jack. Does he claim that, too? It's not an original name -- it was used long before he was born. Offhand, I can think of two Jacks -- there was Jack of "Jack and the Beanstalk", and Jack, the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his day. As for Harry, the older brother, he probably signs his checks, sure in the belief that he is the first Harry of all time and that all other Harrys are impostors. Offhand, I can think of two Harrys that preceded him. There was Lighthorse Harry of Revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum who lived on the corner of Ninety-third Street and Lexington Avenue. Appelbaum wasn't very well known -- I've almost forgotten what he looked like -- the last I heard of him, he was selling neckties at Weber and Heilbroner; but I'll never forget his mother, she made the best apple strudle in Yorkville.

We now come to the Burbank studio. This is what the Warner Brothers call their place. Old man Burbank is gone. Perhaps you remember him -- he was a great man in a garden, he was the wizard who crossed all those fruits and vegetables until he had the poor plants in such a confused and nervous state, that they never were sure whether they were supposed to come in on the meat platter or the dessert dish.

This is just conjecture, of course, but, who knows -- perhaps Burbank survivors aren't too happy over the fact that a plant that grinds out pictures settled in their town, appropriated Burbank's name and uses it as a front for their films.

It is even possible that the Burbank family is prouder of the potato produced by the old man than they are of the fact that from this town emerged "Casablanca" or even "Gold Diggers of 1931".

This all seems to add up to a pretty bitter tirade but I don't mean it to. I love Warners -- some of my best friends are Warner Brothers. It is even possible that I am doing them an injustice and that they themselves know nothing at all about this dog-in-the-Wanger attitude. It wouldn't surprise me at all to discover that the heads of Warners' legal department know nothing about this dispute for I am acquainted with many of them and they are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits and a love of their fellow man that out-Saroyans "Dr. Gillespie". I have a hunch that his attempt to prevent us from using the title is the scheme of some ferret-faced shyster serving an apprenticeship in their legal department. I know the type -- hot out of law school, hungry for success and too ambitious to follow the natural laws of promotion, this bar sinister probably needled Warners' attorneys, most of whom are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits, etc., in attempting to enjoin us.

Well, he won't get away with it! We'll fight him to the highest court! No pasty-faced legal adventurer is going to cause bad blood between the Warners and the Marxes. We are all brothers under the skin and we'll remain friends till the last reel of "A Night in Casablanca" goes tumbling over the spool.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
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JackFavell
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

Dog-in-the-Wanger always slays me..... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by RedRiver »

One of the movie review books calls "Opera" their best work. I don't share that opinion, though it does feature some classic bits. The music, while integral to the story, bogs it down like quicksand. And forget the obligatory romance. That never serves. The other MGM outings don't even come close. A DAY AT THE RACES tries too hard. The humor feels forced. GO WEST barely even manages to entertain me.

MONKEY BUSINESS is so fast and wacky it's amazing. HORSE FEATHERS has, perhaps, the funniest musical numbers of them all. But DUCK SOUP delivers the very best of these lunatics. It's hilarious, thoughtful, and so crazy you think you're on acid. In fact, maybe we are!
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

I don't mind the later ones, but man, comparing them to the early ones is rough. I remember watching them all enchanted as a kid, waiting to find out Groucho's name in each one, wondering what Harpo was going to pull out of his coat. If only we could go back with a less jaundiced eye.


Even though I am not as big a fan of the later ones, some of the scenes are priceless:

Image
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JackFavell
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by JackFavell »

Some more photos.

Gummo in uniform
Image

My favorite photo:
Image

My NEW favorite photo, courtesy the NY Public Library:
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The boys showing off some sexy gams:
Image

The boys helping Chico pick the right horse:
Image
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pvitari
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Re: The Marx Brothers

Post by pvitari »

Some of my favorite Marx brothers are the fake ones in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine (one of my favorite musicals... had the great fortune to see the original cast on Broadway way back when...)

From a student production...

[youtube][/youtube]
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