Starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, and Chico), Margaret Dumont, Allan Jones, and Kitty Carlisle
Directed by Sam Wood
Music and Lyrics by various
Let's celebrate a day devoted to merriment with three of the craziest pranksters in classic film. Paramount dropped the Marxes after their previous film, Duck Soup, wasn't a hit. Head of MGM Irving Thalburg recognized their genius and snapped them up, encouraging them to hone their craft on a vaudeville tour before they made this movie. How well does the MGM largess and their big musical numbers fit with the Marxes' brand of madness? Let's begin at an expensive restaurant in Milan, Italy, where Otis P. Driftwood (Groucho) is supposed to be meeting his boss Mrs. Claypool (Dumont), and find out...
The Story: After she finally gets his attention, Driftwood introduces Mrs. Claypool to Herman Gottleib (Sig Rumann), the director of the New York Opera. Driftwood has arranged for Mrs. Claypool to invest $200,000 in the opera company, which will allow Gottlieb to hire star tenor Rodolfo Laspari (Walter Woolf King). After hearing how much Laspari will make a year, Driftwood tries to get him under contract instead. He ends up getting Ricardo Baroni (Jones), a chorus performer at the opera, thanks to Baroni's self-styled manager Fiorello (Chico) and Laspari's dresser Tomasso (Harpo). Baroni is in love with leading lady Rosa Castaldi (Carlisle), but Laspari is also interested in her.
During the voyage from Italy to New York, Driftwood discovers that Baroni and his two friends stowed away in his trunk. He tries to hide them in his already-small stateroom at first, but they get caught. He manages to get them into New York anyway when they pose as three heroic European pilots. Driftwood's continued attempts to keep his friends from the police and Baroni returning to Rosa's side ends with Driftwood and Rosa losing their jobs and everyone thrown out on the sidewalk. Driftwood may not be able to sit on the grass, but he and his friends are never down for long. They come up with an idea that'll bring Rosa and Ricardo together onstage and keep Gottlieb and police officer Sergeant Henderson (Robert Emmet O'Connor) from stopping their own show for good.
The Song and Dance: One of the Marxes' best films. My favorite sequence has always been the Stateroom Scene, where fifteen people, a giant trunk, and 30 hard-boiled eggs are stuffed into a stateroom barely bigger than a closet. There's also Harpo and Chico wrecking havoc in the orchestra pit and onstage in the finale while Groucho makes sarcastic comments in the audience, and Groucho and Chico tearing apart Ricardo's contract before they can even agree to make it. Great performances across the boards, from the Marxes having an absolute blast to Jones and Carlisle being funnier than the lovers in most of their movies to the wonderfully hissable King.
The Numbers: We open in Milan with a chorus number from the opera I Pagliacci, "Stridonu Lassu," which gives us a glimpse of what Rosa and Rodolfo do and why they're so popular. Our first number outside of the opera house is the ballad "Alone." Rosa sings it to Ricardo as the boat is leaving Milan. He picks it up on the docks, and the chorus joins in while Driftwood ducks out of paying his hotel bill and Tomasso hugs everyone on-deck. Driftwood belts "Sing Ho for the Open Highway" briefly while being hauled around on his trunk.
The Italian peasants are singing the traditional Neapolitan song "Santa Lucia" when Ricardo, Tomasso, and Fiorello head on-deck for dinner. Ricardo is so delighted with their hospitality, he goes into the Brown-Freed dance number "Cosi-Cosa," which turns into an enormous chorus routine all around the deck. After the dance, Fiorello dips into the MGM vault for an instrumental "All I Do Is Dream of You" on the piano, while Tomasso reprises "Alone" and "Dream of You" on the harp. (His rendition of "Alone" is especially pretty.)
Tomasso and Fiorello get Il Trovodore off to a wacky start when they replace the overture with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." It even includes them hitting a ball around and Driftwood selling peanuts in the audience. Gottlieb and Henderson try to catch Fiorello and Tomasso during "The Anvil Chorus," but they evade them. Driftwood has more fun tossing quips about the ancient old hag singing "Stride La Vampa." Laspari is performing "Di Quella Pira" when he's dragged backstage. Rosa and Ricardo replace him for the tragic "Miserere," which has her singing to him in prison.
Trivia: According to Wikipedia, the movie originally began with a long number depicting the sights and sounds of everyday Milan workers before cutting to Mrs. Claypool at the restaurant. It was either cut in 1938 or during World War II to remove references to Italy and has since been lost.
What I Don't Like: It's been pointed out that the Marxes tend to work better with looser storylines that give them more room for anarchy. Their last two films had also de-emphasized the roles of the lovers. This one builds them back up again and adds musical numbers. The opera sequences in the beginning and end show what Rosa and Rodolfo do and give the Marxes a chance for gags. "Alone," on the other hand, is lovely but goes on for too long, and "Cosi Cosa" is fun but largely extraneous.
The Big Finale: I'm going to agree with Groucho Marx himself and say this has long been my favorite Marx Brothers movie. It's probably the best place for newcomers to the Marxes' nutty world to start along with Duck Soup.
Home Media: Easily found on all formats. The Blu-Ray is a Warner Archives release.
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