Rating: 
Summary: A must-have for any Marx Brothers fan!
Review: Adamson does more than just write a biography of the Marx Brothers -- he legitimately thows how their early lives influenced their movies, and then goes full circle to show how the movies influenced their lives. Most of the book is a literary critique of the movies, in which Adamson shows keen insight. A key point that he drives home is that the boys were best when unencumbered by a plot, and that they lost nearly all of their appeal when asked to do a script not specifically written for them. Much attention is given to the other people in their lives, especially Margaret Dumont (who really DIDN'T get the jokes on her, quite often!) and Irving Thalberg
Rating: 
Summary: Well intentioned disappointment
Review: Adamson is best when delving into the pandemonium that went on behind the screen -- the troupes of writers and endless script incarnations it took to make the movies we love today.But his analysis of the films themselves leaves much to be desired. In his endless scene-by-scene expositions, he assaults the reader with too much of the wrong detail -- surprisingly missing crucial moments and nuances while hitting us over the head with his own facile bias for page after page after page. (Adamson's editor must have been spending a day at the races when this manuscript came up for review.) We also don't get much of anything about the Brothers' famous sidekicks. Only a couple paragraphs are spared for the great Margaret Dumont, and NONE for Louis Calhern, arguably the best straight-man performance in 1930's comedy.
Rating:
Summary: Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo.....
Review: Get this book! A must for Marx Brother fans. Great stuff. Joe hits all of the Marx Brother's movies in detail. He also includes quite a bit of pre-1929 info. Joe is right on the money with rise and fall of the Marx Brothers movies. Chapter vi "Joy Becomes Laughter", page 349 is the best single page on "The Age of Heroic Comedy" (Marx Bros., Buster, Llyod etc.) ever written!
Rating:
Summary: The single best work about the Marx Brothers and their films
Review: If you could only read one book about the Marx Brothers and their films, this one should be it. Incredibly complete and detailed, extremely well-researched; but also, hilariously written (even the footnotes are amusing). I cannot reccomend this title highly enough. Adamson reviews the Marxes films scene-by-scene, as well as providing details of how the films came to be written and produced, plus a good deal of biographical information about the Brothers. A new edition is, I'm told, in the works and LONG overdue
Rating:
Summary: The single best work about the Marx Brothers and their films
Review: If you could only read one book about the Marx Brothers and their films, this one should be it. Incredibly complete and detailed, extremely well-researched; but also, hilariously written (even the footnotes are amusing). I cannot reccomend this title highly enough. Adamson reviews the Marxes films scene-by-scene, as well as providing details of how the films came to be written and produced, plus a good deal of biographical information about the Brothers. A new edition is, I'm told, in the works and LONG overdue
Rating:
Summary: Without doubt the best Marx Bros. book I've read.
Review: It's rare for a book on a specific subject to be so extremely well-written that it's worth recommending to people on that basis alone. This is a book which would be entertaining and even hilarious to people who aren't Marx Brothers fanatics. Even the classic anecdotes that Marxophiles have read a thousand times are told with such wit and energy that they feel new. Adamson's work has served to greatly enhance my already fanatical interest. And yes, even the footnotes are funny.
Rating:
Summary: Without doubt the best Marx Bros. book I've read.
Review: It's rare for a book on a specific subject to be so extremely well-written that it's worth recommending to people on that basis alone. This is a book which would be entertaining and even hilarious to people who aren't Marx Brothers fanatics. Even the classic anecdotes that Marxophiles have read a thousand times are told with such wit and energy that they feel new. Adamson's work has served to greatly enhance my already fanatical interest. And yes, even the footnotes are funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Adamson isn't a Marx Brother
Review: So he should stop trying, at tedious length throughout the book, to be one. Yes there's an admirable wealth of research here but it's constantly obscured by the author's tiresome sense of humor. It feels like he's watched all the movies again and then felt like he could reprocduce their humour. He fails. His writing style is annoying and obstructive. His analysis of the films is pedantic and often misjudged. But the biggest crime of all is making it too much a book about how funny Joe Admason thinks he is and not enough of just letting the Marxes brilliant comic voice shine though. Try Simon Louvish's "Monkey Business" for a better read on the boys or Richard Anobile's controversial but hugely entertaining "A Marx Bros Scrapbook".
Rating:
Summary: Adamson isn't a Marx Brother
Review: The best of the Marx books by far, it is the book that one of the brothers SHOULD have written. Exhaustively researched and written with wit and style, it is the one book you should own if you are a Marx Bros. fan. Don't miss it, under any circumstances. It's funny enough to be a must-read for anyone, not just Marx fans.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: The best of the Marx books by far, it is the book that one of the brothers SHOULD have written. Exhaustively researched and written with wit and style, it is the one book you should own if you are a Marx Bros. fan. Don't miss it, under any circumstances. It's funny enough to be a must-read for anyone, not just Marx fans.
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