10/02/2002 Entry:
"A Night At The Opera - Sam Wood (1935)
A Day At The Races - Sam Wood (1937)"

So I had the day off work today and took in a couple Marx Brothers classics on TCM in order to celebrate Groucho's birthday. Having seen these two films, as well as Duck Soup, I have come to the following conclusions regarding Marx Brothers movies - they need less songs and more Groucho. The bits in these movies are great. Selling the books, the contract argument, the climaxes of both films - all inspired bits of slapstick comedy. I am especially fond of Groucho's one-liners. Even when you see them coming they crack you up just through the delivery. The songs though, why did we need 15 minutes of Vivien Fay in the middle of A Day At The Races, then followed later with 15 more minutes of singing in the farm? Man, these sequences really slow things down, making me wish they just shortened them to 60 minutes and threw the comedy at you nonstop like a Buster Keaton movie. It was still pretty fun watching this stuff, but unless someone puts forth a pressing need to see any others I think I'm done with Marx Brothers movies. Oh, does anyone know if Chico really plays the piano in his scenes? It really looks like he did. If not, he fakes it really well.

Replies: 1 Comment

That is really Chico playing. Good, isn't he? Posted by stennie @ 10/03/2002 12:40 PM CST