Starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Mary Eaton, and Oscar Shaw
Directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
We celebrate a day devoted to laughter with the debut of the most popular comedy teams of all time. The Florida land boom began in the early 20's, thanks to Florida's image as a tropical paradise, World War I cutting off travel for the very rich to the French Riviera, and new dry land created by draining the Everglades. Land prices were skyrocketing, and everyone and their grandmother wanted to come down and get a piece of the orange grove pie for themselves. Con-artists and honest workers mingling with the wealthy and famous in Miami set the stage for the Marx Brothers' second stage musical and their first sound film. How does their initial vehicle look today, as housing prices in Florida and elsewhere begin to rise once more? Let's start at the Hotel du Cocoanut in Miami and find out...
The Story: Mr. Hammer (Groucho) is trying desperately to get paying customers into his hotel. The bellhops are starting to demand their back pay. One of his few customers is filthy rich Mrs. Potter (Dumont) and her daughter Polly (Eaton). Polly is in love with hotel clerk and struggling architect Bob Adams (Shaw), but her mother would rather she married upstanding Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring). Turns out that, not only is Yates not socially connected, he's broke. He and his partner Penelope (Kay Francis) steal Mrs. Potter's diamond necklace and accuse Bob of the theft. Now, not only do Mr. Hammer and hotel guests Harpo and Chico have to sell land of their own, they have to get Bob out from behind bars and make sure the right groom ends up at the wedding.
The Song and Dance: The Marxes take over the movie from the second Groucho makes his entrance berating the help. They get some classic bits here, notably the "why-a-duck" sequence when Groucho and Chico discuss what land parcels they're auctioning off, Chico making way too many bids at the auction, and all three running around and trying to hide in Penelope's hotel room. Kay Francis also debuts in this film, giving a hint of her later glamorous drama queen as the nasty partner in the stolen necklace scheme. (And I have to admit, those opening credits shots of the "Monkey Doodle Doo" number run in negative are genuinely cool.)
Favorite Number: We open with shots of the rich living it up, dancing and romping through the sand in "Florida By the Sea." The Gamby Hale Dancers get a rather nifty and fairly well-shot dance routine on the stairs in their cute bell-hop costumes after Groucho tells them they should work and not worry about money. "The When My Dreams Come True Ballet" at the wedding begins with the first overhead shot in a sound film, more than a year before Busby Berkeley arrived in Hollywood. We get operatic when the local sheriff (Basil Ruysdael) complains about his dress shirt being missing, turning "The Tale of the Shirt" into an opera spoof for the full chorus.
Trivia: All of the paper in the movie made so much noise, it had to be soaked in water to keep it from rustling and damaging expensive early sound equipment. That's why the map Groucho holds in the "why-a-duck" sequence is so droopy.
It was director Robert Florey's idea to let Harpo eat the telephone and drink the inkwell to give him more to do. The telephone was made of chocolate, and there was soda in the inkwell.
This was filmed in Paramount's Astoria studios in Queens, New York. The Marx Brothers made this during the day while starring in their next stage vehicle Animal Crackers at night. Groucho almost calls Chico "Ravelli," his character name in Animal Crackers, during the "why-a-duck" sequence.
This movie's been chopped up since before its release. It was filmed as over two hours. More than a half-hour of footage was cut and subsequently lost, including sequences with Zeppo and Groucho and a duet for Groucho and Margaret Dumont, "A Little Bungalow." Current copies were pieced together from three different prints, which is why the photographic quality varies dramatically from scene to scene.
The Broadway show eventually ran almost nine months, not bad for the time. It's made occasional appearances on regional stages (usually with songs from other Marx Brothers films added in) and has been revived twice off-Broadway.
What I Don't Like: Though this is likely the most overtly musical of the Marx Brothers films, most of the numbers stand out like sore thumbs. "When My Dreams Come True," the love theme for Bob and Polly Berlin wrote expressively for this film, is silly and dull. It works all right for the ballet, but the lyrics are drippy and disappointing for Berlin, and no amount of instrumental solos can make it a hit. The "Monkey Doodle Doo" number is almost as bad, with out-of-step dancing, a too-goofy song, and ridiculous costumes.
Overhead shot aside, this is just as static as most films made during the late 20's and early 30's, with everyone frequently standing around talking and the camera droning on. Eaton and Shaw tend to be a bit stiff as the lovers, though Eaton does have a nice dance solo in "Monkey Doodle Doo" where she pirouettes all around the auction. The cheap sets feel less like Florida and more like "someone poured sand and stuck a few fake palm trees on a small soundstage in Queens.
The Big Finale: The out-of-place music and stiff leads makes this for major Marx Brothers fans only. Casual viewers may want to start with their better-known entries like A Night at the Opera or Duck Soup before coming here.
Home Media: The solo film is DVD only, but it can be found on Blu-Ray in a collection with the other Marx Brothers movies currently owned by Universal.
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