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The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)

The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)

List Price: $59.92
Your Price: $44.94
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ZVBXRPL! Get your tootsie-frootsie Marx Bros. Boxed Set!
Review: 7 Marx Bros. classics are gathered here in a boxed set that is guaranteed to have you laughing for years to come. This is the Marx Bros. at their best, featuring their funniest, most entertaining films. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES stand as landmarks in the screen history, and the other 5 included here are a whole lot of fun.

Best of all, Warner promises is bevy of exceptional extras, including new documentaries and vintage cartoons and shorts. There's even a vintage Groucho interview!

This is a must-have for any classic film fan. And best of all...
NO ZEPPO!!!! Hallelujah!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The greatest comedy team of all time in their BEST films!
Review: Time cannot hinder the appeal of the Marx Bros., and they were never better than in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES. This represents their anarchy-filled antics at their best.
This collection not only features those 2 masterpieces, but 5 other Marxian laugh romps at a seductively low price. How can you resist Otis P. Driftwood, Hugo Z. Hackenbush, Wolf J. Flywheel, J. Cheever Loophole, and so many other great characters.

I alsio can't wait to see the new documentaries and other special features added to this set. Sounds like another winner from Warner Bros.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'm a Marxist-fanatic,that is!!!
Review: About time they had the Marx Brothers on dvd,even though some of their older films aren't as good as their first five,but still,why nick-pick??Even though some of their older films aren't as snappy or as sharp as say,Duck Soup or Monkey Business(just to name a few),they're still good jokes and skits in there.Listen,all of the great comedy teams of that era put out lackluster films in this time frame,so let's be thankful and grateful that we have these to watch and enjoy,right???..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Marx Brothers fan Dream Come True! A definite must own!
Review: All I can say is Wow! I can't wait for this to be released!
I love the Marx Brothers, and their films and believe they
are the funniest films ever made! While this collection is
a collection of their films made through MGM studios
(1935 - 1946), it does have some brilliant movies here.
And also note this is just movies with the 3 Marx Brothers:
Groucho, Chico, and Harpo. Zeppo had left the troupe.
The Marx Brothers prime ran from 1930 - 1937, and
if you had to say their collective best movies were the
Paramount movies (from 1929's Coconuts to 1933's
landmark Duck Soup). My top five Marx Bros. movies
would see 3 released in this collection. They are A Night
at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and the killer A Night
in Casablanca. To me, Animal Crackers (released by Paramount
in 1930) was their best ever film. Such a funny movie that I laugh from beginning to end. Their 2nd funniest movie was A Night
in Casablanca. 16 years after Animal Crackers, the Bros.

still had their best movie in them! Here's a breakdown of their
zaniest:

A Night at the Opera (1935) is a classic with such goofy lines
like " the party of the first part shall hereafter be known as the party of the first part"
This movie is definitely A + plus material

A Day at the Races (1937) continues almost were A Night at the
Opera left off but this time the mayhem is at all places the race track.
A + movie

Room Service (1938) is essentially a one room shot movie that is really
the Brothers first sign of loosing steam. It is probably their worst movie next to their final film together 1950's Love Happy (which is not released with this set, due to it being released by United Artists). This film is essentially non-essential even though it has one of the first starring roles
on film by Lucille Ball. C- movie.

At the Circus (1939) and GO West (1940) the Marx Bros. do pick up
some steam! Both movies are basically rehashes to A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races just in different settings. Both have their moments, but the shtick is wearing thin. Both solid B movies.

The Big Store (1941) is perhaps the Brothers zaniest movie. The humor is much like last two movies but the ending contains a hilariously, fast-paced goof-off antics the likes no other movie has since replicated! A definite B film!

Lastly, A Night in Casablanca (1946) is a fitting classic to what this series begins with (A Night at the Opera). This film has it all! Terrific humor, the Brothers characters seemed revitalized from the 5 year layoff, and the story is tops!
A Must see, and any Marx Brothers fan would agree! An A+++ movie!

... So get this while you can. Remember what happened to the first 5 Marx Brothers films released by Paramount on DVD a few years
back. Now they are out of print and to buy a new copy of 1 movie can be (quite a bit).

Long Live the Marx Brothers

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 1 Box Set, 5 disc, and 7 Marx Brothers films
Review: Disc 1: "A Night at the Opera"
Special Features:
Commentary by Leonard Maltin
All-New Documentary "Remarks On Marx"
The Hy Gardner Show (1/1/61) excerpt featuring Groucho Marx
Three Vintage MGM Shorts:
Fitzpatrick Traveltalk's Los Angeles: Wonder City Of The World
Sunday Night At The Trocadero
Robert Benchley's Academy Award -Winning How To Sleep
Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2: "A Day at the Races"
Special Features:
Commentary by The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia Author Glenn Mitchell
All-New Documentary "On Your Marx, Get Set, Go!"
Four Vintage Shorts: Robert Benchley's Oscar Nominated A Night At The Movies plus the rarely-seen MGM Cartoons Gallopin' Gals, Mama's New Hat and Old Smokey
Audio-Only Treasures: Musical Outtake A Message From The Man In The Moon (performed by Allan Jones) and an MGM Radio Promo Leo Is On The Air
Theatrical Trailer

Disc 3: "Room Service" and "At the Circus" (double feature)
Special Features:
Vintage Our Gang Comedy Short Party Fever plus Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in the Looney Tunes Classic The Daffy Doc
Vintage Our Gang Comedy Short Dog Daze and Classic MGM Cartoon Jitterbug Follies

Disc 4: "Go West" and "The Big Store" (double feature)
Special Features:
Vintage Shorts, Pete Smith Specialty Quicker 'N A Wink and Fitzpatrick Traveltalk Cavalcade Of San Francisco
Vintage Cartoon, The Milky Way
Leo Is On The Air Radio Promo
Vintage MGM Short Flicker Memories and Vintage MGM Cartoon Officer Pooch
Audio Musical Outtake: Where There's Music

Disc 5: "A Night in Casablanca"
Special Features:
Bugs Bunny in the Looney Tunes cartoon classic Acrobatty Bunny
Vintage Joe McDoakes Short So You Think You're A Nervous Wreck

A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and A Night in Casablanca are also available separately.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hello Hugo Z. Hackenbush
Review: I purchased the box set of the Marx Brothers movies issued by Warner Brothers. I must say that "Night At The Opera"(1935) is the obvious superior movie in the set. "Day At The Races" (1937) is 2nd to "Night at the Opera" and is funny. The selling of the books for the betting on the horses that Chico sells to Groucho is funny. Overall, "Day at The Races is good and entertaining.

"Go West" (1940) which is often underrated and is also funny especially when Groucho gets swindled at the beginning of the movie by Chico and his brother Rusty (Harpo)for money for a train ticket.The other funny scenes includes the chopping up of the train passenger cars to supply more fuel for the train engine. Even as late as 1940 in "Go West", the Marx Brothers still look young and fresh (Even though they were in their mid to late 40's and early 50's in age). "Room Store" (1938) is a departure from their usual comedy of the Marx Brothers and is not too funny. "At The Circus" (1939) seems to return them to the usual zany comedy, but the laughs are less. "Go West" sees them return (about comparable to "Day At The Races"). "The Big Store" (1941) is a weaker effort than "Go West", but still is enjoyable as an afternoon movie with a few chuckles and laughs. "Night In Casablanca" (1947) has a return of the laughs and mayhem, but you can see the Marx Brothers are getting older.

I would have given the set 5 stars, but I was a little disappointed by Warner Brothers lack of packaging for these films. It would have been nice to have had a small booklet giving a brief history of the Marx Brothers. I know the movie is the most important, but still, it would have been nice.
I read the reviewers who moan about the perfect set should include "Animal Crackers/Duck Soup/Horse Feathers/Monkey Business along with "Night At The Opera", but those films (AC,DS,HF & MB) are under Univeral Pictures and were released on DVD back in 1999-2001. They can't be included for obvious reasons.
Someone being introduced to the Marx Brothers for the first time in this set, "Night At The Opera" is the best to start out with and go from there with "Day at The Races and Go West". Other than the packaging, the set completes their best movies on film (including the Universal films--Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, Horse Feathers). If you have the Universal films and this set, "You're set". Its great to have the Marx Brothers on DVD. Hopefully, future generations will enjoy them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth the price...Good but not great
Review: Day at the Races is my favorite from this set, but they're all enjoyable in their own way. What makes it worth shelling out $40 for the box set is all the extras: cartoons, shorts, commentary, documentaries, etc. Some of the shorts and cartoons are boring, and others are funny and fascinating. This set will keep you chuckling until DVDs of the earlier Marx films- Duck Soup, Animal Crackers, Cocoanauts, Monkey Business, and Horse Feathers- are released.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Day and a Night at the movies
Review: Let's be perfectly honest. The films in this collection are not exactly the highest regarded films of the Marx Brothers' illustrious career. Oh sure, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES are almost universally praised, but the rest fail to completely satisfy the masses. I had some doubts when I initially thought about pre-ordering this set. Since some of the discs were being released individually, I wondered if it would make more sense to just purchase NIGHT and DAY, forgetting about the rest. In the end, I decided to take the plunge and buy the whole thing.

Thankfully, I found a lot here to like. While overall this is a far inferior set of films to their previous work at Paramount, it isn't without some merit. There's a lot of funny stuff here, and only one film that I would classify as an out and out failure (the awful ROOM SERVICE featuring the criminally underused Lucille Ball). NIGHT and DAY are rightfully regarded as classics (12th and 59th respectively on the American Film Institute's list of the hundred funniest films), and the rest of the films are at least amusing and entertaining.

The three constants in this collection are, of course, the Brothers themselves. Groucho with his quick one-liners, Chico with his sly crafty schemes, and Harpo with his utterly bonkers and hilarious silent persona. These films are at their finest when the Brothers are on screen and at their nadir when vainly trying to develop the supporting romantic subplots.

One sad thing I noticed while watching the film was not just seeing the Brothers age, but noticing how progressively cheaper the movies themselves looked as the years progressed. The earliest films in this collection, NIGHT and DAY, were produced under the careful eye of Irving Thalberg who had the entire resources of MGM at his disposal. Big musical numbers, high production values, sharp scripts, and lots of rehearsal time were the order of the day. But after his sudden death (while only in his late 30s) during the production of A DAY AT THE RACES, the Brothers found themselves bounced around different producers and managed by studios suits who just didn't know what to do with the talent that they had. The result is significantly less care given to each subsequent picture. The huge opera house set seen in NIGHT is wonderful and the cheap sets in, say, GO WEST just look woeful in comparison.

This set comes with a multitude of DVD extras, many of which have nothing to do with the Marx Brothers. Someone thought it would be a good idea to place some contemporaneous cartoons and short films on the DVDs, with the idea (one assumes) of giving the viewer the ability to recreate a night out at the movies in the 1930s in the comfort of their own home. All this taught me was that if I were a cinemagoer in the 1930s, I'd stay in the lobby through the cartoons and shorts until the main feature began. To be fair, though, I should mention that I did enjoy one or two of them; Robert Benchley's HOW TO SLEEP won an Oscar, deservedly so. There are also some trailers included, which are welcome. In the spot for THE BIG STORE, they address the camera in character and announce this as their first farewell picture, and as one can see from a quick perusal of the black print on the box, it would not be their last.

For Marx Brothers fans, there are two DVD commentary tracks: Leonard Maltin for DAY, Glenn Mitchell for NIGHT. Maltin's comments are informative and fun; I was amused by his shouting at one of the movie's bad guys. Mitchell is a little more reserved, and unfortunately allows a lot of dead air. According to the box, he is a "Marx Brothers Authority", which leads one to wonder if there exists an academy somewhere, churning out these experts. "Respect mah Marx Brothers Authority!" he never shouts, alas.

There are also two mini-documentaries featuring interviews. The two female romantic leads from NIGHT and DAY are, in fact, still alive and remarkably coherent; while it's nice to hear from contemporary "comedians" about what a great influence the Brothers were and are, it's more satisfying to hear from the co-stars themselves about how the Brothers were to work with.

One word of caution, however. Since Zeppo had left the act after DUCK SOUP, he doesn't appear in this set. Some of his replacements (and their songs and love-interests) are truly painful. Consider yourself warned.

This collection should truthfully be called a mixed bag, yet I enjoyed the films so much that I can't help but recommend this. The worst film here at least has some good jokes sprinkled in it, and the best films are priceless. Yes, taken as a whole, the Marx Brothers' MGM years were poorer than their Paramount years, but so are most other films by any great comedians. Take these movies on their own merits and hopefully you don't be disappointed. I wasn't.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh la la !!
Review: Realy a great value !
The technical quality of the DVD is good, the scene selection is sentively done, the bonuses are interesting and the set is unexpensive !
For once, it's not a cheap "re-recording" of old movies. It's a real new product with work behind it.
Every true Marxist should get it !

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Make Mine Marx!
Review: Both "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races" are wonderful vintage comedies that sell themselves. They are also hilarious! The rest of the films included here all have their moments, especially if you are a fan of Groucho, Chico & Harpo. Honestly, if you've got more than a passing interest in the Marx Brothers, you will probably end up buying this set. The image and sound quality is first-rate, and Warners did a good job putting together commentary tracks and bonus documentaries. This is especially nice to see, because these films are well over 60 years old and any "lost" scenes are by now permanently lost. The cartoons and short subjects are a nice added touch, although I would have preferred to see Marx-themed cartoons. But why complain? As a rule, movies of this vintage are poorly served by major studios and allowed to fall into public domain and inferior releases. Warners did the right thing with the Marx Brothers, and I hope this is part of a new trend that shows greater respect for all good films made before 1970.


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