Paramount, 1932
Starring The Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd, and David Landau
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Music by Harry Ruby; Lyrics by Bert Kalmar
We skip ahead a few years for our second college football tale featuring three of the least-likely players in film history. The Marx Brothers were at the top of the movie heap when this debuted. Their first three films were critical and financial successes, and this one would continue that streak. Having parodied land speculation, the art world, and cruise ships and their wealthy clientele in their first three films, they took on no less than higher education in the fourth. How well do they do spoofing college sports cliches that continue to turn up to this day? Let's begin as the new dean Professor Wagstaff (Groucho) arrives at Huxley College and find out...
The Story: Wagstaff's son Frank (Zeppo) convinces his father to hire two professional football players to bump up the roster on Huxley's losing team. He actually ends up hiring ice seller Bavarelli (Chico) and dog catcher Pinky (Harpo) at a speakeasy to help Huxley defeat their rival Darwin University. College widow Connie Bailey (Todd) has been seeing Frank, but she ends up attempting to seduce all the other three as well. After Wagstaff realizes he's hired the wrong guys, he sends Bavarelli and Pinky to kidnap the players. The players end up stealing their clothes and locking them in, but they manage to escape in time for the wildest "big game" on record.
Oh, and you CAN burn a candle at both ends. And the password is always "swordfish."
The Song and Dance: The Marx Brothers' fourth big-screen outing is more than equal to their earlier adventures. The sequences with Harpo, Chico, and Groucho trying to give the password at the speakeasy and them courting Todd are worth the price of admission. Kalmar and Ruby came up with a pretty decent score, too, including the standard "Everyone Says 'I Love You.'"
This is also one of the few Marx Brothers movies with no young lovers taking away from the main story. Todd's no dewy-eyed ingenue, but a comedy scene-stealer in her own right. Check out her reactions to the Marxes when they each perform "Everyone Says." The wacky football finale is one of the best ending action sequences from any of their movies, including the truly insane "chariot race" in Chico's ice seller cart.
Favorite Number: We open with Groucho explaining his philosophy of life in pretty much everything he did, "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It," to the shocked staff and amused students of Huxtley. "I Always Get My Man" is his number with Zeppo and the students as his attempts teach a biology class degenerate into chaos. (Making this spoof one of the few vintage college movies to actually spend time in a classroom.) Chico plays "Collegiate" and his own "I'm Daffy Over You" on the piano, while Harpo gets a lovely harp solo.
"Everyone Says I Love You" starts off fairly normal, with Zeppo singing the sweet number to Todd to explain how much he likes her. Things get a lot weirder when each of his brothers try to serenade Todd with it in their own way. It becomes Harpo's harp solo and a comic dialect number for Chico. Groucho gives her the sarcastic version in a rowboat on a lake (while she's rowing).
Trivia: Like Animal Crackers, this was edited to bring it up to the standards of the Production Code in 1935. Among the missing bits are more of the sequence in Connie's apartment and a Harpo gag with a grapefruit in the speakeasy scene. A far more savage ending that featured the Marxes playing cards while Huxtley burned to the ground was filmed but not used.
Chico Marx got into a car accident during filming, which is why he can be seen limping in several sequences and is frequently shown sitting down.
The term "college widow" showed up a lot in these early school-set musicals. They were young women who hung around colleges trying to pick up young men, as Connie does with Frank here.
What I Don't Like: As with most of the Marx Brothers films, some of the gags have dated better than others. Many viewers nowadays may not even be aware of what a speakeasy or a college widow were. The supporting cast is barely there. It's the Brothers and Todd all the way, with a little interference from villainous Landau. If you're not into the Brothers and their brand of comedy, this is probably not the place for you.
The Big Finale: Marx Brothers fans will find a great deal to enjoy in this farcical take on football and higher education.
Home Media: Not currently streaming, but fairly easy to find on disc, solo and as part of a collection with the other Paramount Marx Brothers movies.
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