Starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Lillian Roth, and Louis Sorin
Directed by Victor Heerman
Music by Bert Kalmar; Lyrics by Harry Ruby
Let's laugh our way into the spring with two semi-musicals featuring one of Hollywood's favorite comedy teams. After The Coconuts was a hit, Paramount brought the Marxes back to their Astoria Studios in New York to film their third Broadway show. Nowadays, this is probably best-known for the two opening songs that continued to be associated with Groucho for the rest of his life, It was little-seen from the 50's through the 1970's; its restoration and re-release in 1974 brought it back into the public eye and revealed how sharp and funny this is. Is it just as hilarious now, or should it be knocked out? Let's begin at the Long Island home of wealthy Mrs. Rittenhouse (Dumont) and her daughter Arabella (Roth) as they prepare for a party and find out...
The Story: The guest of honor is Captain Jeffery Spaulding (Groucho), who claims he just came from exploring Africa. With him come Signor Ravelli (Chico) and The Professor (Harpo), who were hired to provide music for the party. Spaulding almost leaves right away before he starts in on flirting with Mrs. Rittenhouse. Arabella is more interested in showing off her artist boyfriend John's (Hal Thompson) work to art collector Roscoe W. Chandler (Sorin). He painted an exact copy of a priceless artwork Chandler recently acquired and intends to show off at the party. She encourages John to replace the real artwork with his to show how good it is.
Party guest Grace Carpenter (Kathryn Reece) also copied the painting as a student and decides to replace the real one with hers to humiliate Mrs. Rittenhouse. Arabella gets Ravelli and the Professor to take the real one and put up John's...but then the paintings get switched. When the police are called in, Grace decides things have gone too far...but the Professor seems to have vanished with all the paintings...
The Song and Dance: This may be my favorite of the Paramount Marx Brothers movies. I fell in love with it after it turned up at a local video store in the 90's and my family rented it several times. No wonder it was a big hit in the 30's and again in the 70's. Groucho's "Hello, I Must Be Going" says more about his snarky character than any dialogue ever could. He gets some of his most famous lines here, including his delightfully absurd African safari story and his mock-deadpan "strange interlude" asides with Mrs. Whitehead (Margaret Irving) and Mrs. Rittenhouse. Adorable Roth and Thompson fit far better with the Marxes and their brand of comedy than the stiffer lovers in The Coconuts, too. Chico and Harpo get to have fun with a wacky bridge game and with their attempt to switch the paintings.
Favorite Number: We open with the butler Hives (Robert Greig) instructing six footmen (The Music Masters) as how to handle Spaulding. After all, "He's One of Those Men." Spaulding's secretary Horatio Jamison (Zeppo) announces "I Represent the Captain" to Mrs. Rittenhouse and her anxious guests. Spaulding finally arrives on a litter borne by four men, prompting "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" from the delighted guests. Spaulding is not delighted. He'd rather be anywhere else, as he admits in "Hello, I Must Be Going." Later on after the paintings are switched,
Arabella and John wonder "Why am I So Romantic?" and why they're so crazy about each other. Chico performs his own charming instrumental "I'm Daffy Over You" on piano later during the party, while Harpo gets the lovely antique standard "Silver Threads Among the Gold" on the harp. The Marxes turn up triumphantly with Harpo and the paintings after a prolonged chase while singing "My Old Kentucky Home."
Trivia: The Marxes filmed The Coconuts while appearing in Animal Crackers on Broadway. It ran for six months from October 1929 through April 1930, not bad for the time. It finally got a brief run in the West End in 1999. The show does turn up occasionally on regional stages, usually with other Kalmar-Ruby songs of the 20's and 30's padding the score.
"Hooray for Captain Spaulding" was so associated with Groucho, it later became the theme song of his game show You Bet Your Life.
Though many songs were deleted from the movie version, it also added "Why am I So Romantic?"
The Marxes, Dumont, Craig, Irving, and Sorin repeat their Broadway roles.
Strange Interlude was a wildly popular and influential nine-act experimental play written by Eugene O'Neil that ran in New York at the same time as Animal Crackers. Characters make asides to explain their thoughts in the middle of soliloquies as Groucho does.
Several minutes of especially spicy dialogue was deleted for a reissue in 1936. The original version was thought lost until 2016, when a full copy was found in England and released on Blu-Ray.
What I Don't Like: This is very clearly an early sound film. Most of the movie is extremely stagey, with everyone standing around and talking or singing. When you hear thunder, it's clearly a sound effects man rattling tin offstage. Though it largely avoids the dull chorus numbers from The Coconuts, it also doesn't have much music besides Groucho's two iconic songs. Some of the jokes, like the "strange interludes" mentioned above, may not land with those who don't know the Marxes or the time period.
The Big Finale: If you want to find out how the Marxes started out, this is a far better introduction to them than The Coconuts. Highly recommended for fans of early sound comedy or those who just want to find out more about the Marxes and their brand of madness.
Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming. The Blu-Ray is the 2016 restored version.
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