Then he recounts all the times in his life that he acted like the manic character in the films.) (In his autobiography, Harpo Speaks, he says that he is really that harpist, not the manic character he plays in the films. (If the dialog is boring, why not change it?) But you could spend all of A Night at the Opera just watching Harpo’s expressions: looking amazed when he gets in line for dinner and his plate is heaped with spaghetti, his amazement growing as the food is piled higher and higher his evil grin as he finds himself in a room with three sleeping men with beards and a pair of scissors his concentration as he plays the harp, the way he seems to understand the harp and what the two of them can do together. Groucho and Chico were very funny in these movies, the more so since, as I later learned, they had made up a lot of their dialog. If a man was being unbearably pompous, why not eat his tie - with mustard, of course? Now I saw that there were other ways of thinking, of being, that everything that seemed unchanging and permanent didn’t have to be, that you could rebel, shake things up. I was a dutiful kid, getting good grades and doing what was expected of me, not thinking of very much outside of home and school. That ninety minutes was the longest month of my life.I saw my first Marx Brothers’ movies, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, on my twelfth birthday, and my life changed forever. The second time was when I bought the green box set of the non Paramount films. Within the week I had donated the tape to a thrift store. Not only is it barren of any laughs it does something that no other film does - takes away Margaret Dumont's dignity. The finale has to be the most embarrassing one of the entire Marx tome. From announcing why he's there to the constant presenting of cigars, we are seeing a totally non-Chico character. However in this scene he is just plain stupid. Chico has always been portrayed as slow and dim but a good manipulator. It's difficult to pinpoint one scene that is heads and above the worst but if I had to choose I would choose the cigar scene. Your group hit most of the weak areas in this film. Circus remains my least favorite film (yes, much worse than Love Happy). I started watching the Marxes in 1974 but didn't see Circus until 1987 when I found a Betamax copy on a closeout table.
Marx brothers shirt movie#
Reply DeleteĬircus was the last Marx movie I "discovered". Again, sorry for not chiming in as often as I used to when you fellas started this podcast - life just gets in the way a lot. But once you've seen Animal Crackers or Horse Feathers, etc., that's when you realize some of those later films are amusing, but they are NOT good Marx Brothers movies. Anyway, my older brother put it best and I paraphrase - if you've never seen the Marx Brothers, you will probably enjoy At The Circus or Go West a good deal.
Overall, as several of you have said in the podcast, The Big Store seems like the most pleasant. I do like it more than I like Go West, but then again, I like jabbing pins into my bald head more than I like Go West. But it is telling that my two favorite lines in the film are "He's going to get himself a new shirt" and "Elephants - at your age!". Yes, the Chico and Harpo scene in Goliath's room is probably the funniest scene in the movie, and I think Groucho is a little better once Maggie shows up. But I did get to this most recent one, all about At The Circus, one of my least favorite Marx Brothers movie. Gentleman ("Who came in?"), I must apologize for missing many past podcasts.
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