The Marx Brothers

F

fijibabie

New member
Anyone else love their movies? I just finished watching their movie Monkey Business for the first time in ages. :D My favourite movies that they made are Duck Soup, Night at the Opera and Horse Feathers although they are all great!
Also Harpo speaks is a great autobiography and anyone interested in the man should definitely pick it up!

Who else is a fan of them and what was your favourite film of theirs?
 
I love 'em. They could teach a lot of our modern comedy film makers a thing or two about being funny. My favourite has to be Duck Soup - still one of the funniest movies ever.
 
I used to watch them with my Dad when I was younger. I can remember a few of the films, The Coconuts (in a hotel?) Day at the races and Night at the opera. I remember the scene on the boat where Groucho has smuggled in Harpo and Chico in his case or something and hes in a very small room on the boat and he asks for food and Harpo keeps honking his horn? Then when the room gets full everyone falls out.
 
I did the same with my nephew. I showed him Duck Soup and he didn't want to see some creaky ancient black and white movie - within a few seconRAB of Groucho appearing he was crying with laughter.

"Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honour, which is probably more than she ever did."
 
I remember reading that when they made their early films, they first went on tour with a stage show based on the script. During the tour they fine tuned the script so that anything that didn't get a laugh was removed. By the time they got round to making the movie they had been rehearsing for months and everything was honed to perfection - and it shows. They have more laughs per minute than most modern comedies have in an hour.
 
I absolutely love the Marx Brothers - Duck Soup has to be my favourite for the mirror scene alone, which might well be the funniest thing ever put to film.

A weird book I only read recently is "The Marx Brothers Scrapbook" from the early 70's - I think was intended to be Groucho's version of "Harpo Speaks", but he fell out with the ghost writer, who then published all these conversations with Groucho verbatim, including toilet breaks! Groucho sadly comes across as very bitter and misanthropic throughout... for a happier experience, I second "Harpo Speaks" as a great book for any "Marxists" out there, and Simon Louvish's biography is worth checking out, too.

Also interesting is that they were going to make a film with surrealist artist Salvador Dali, called "Giraffes On Horseback Salad" - sadly it never happened and the script has been lost...
 
I'm a big Marilyn Monroe fan and one of her earlier movies was a walk on appearance in the Marx Bros film "Love Happy."
Having seen Marilyn's scene countless times before in nearly every single bio on her life, the question was, did I want to watch a Marx Bros film? the answer was yes as I knew that they're considered screen legenRAB. But the result was disappointing. I know that this is universally regarded as their worst film and even the Marx Bros themselves hated it, but as I disliked it THAT much, it's really put me off watching more of their films, which is a shame, but I'd just be afraid it would be more of much the same "humour."

xx
 
I loved Groucho's exchanges with Margaret Dumont.
"I hear they're going to pull you down and put up an apartment building !" :D

"Is your husband dead ? Did he leave you any money ? Answer the second question first !"

"I held him in my arms, kissed him and then he died"
"So it was murder !"

:D:D
 
Back
Top