Rating: 
Summary: Classicly funny Marx brothers, video is fair
Review: This film has some very funny lines and is done in the classic slapstick Marx brothers style. Because of its age and being Black and White, the video is only fair and the audio is quite quiet. A classic you will want to add to your collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard Marx hilarity!
Review: This is a showcase for the peerless talents of the funniest comedy team of all time. Highlights: the card game, and "one morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got into my pajamas I don't know." Written by Morrie Ryskind.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best
Review: This is one of the best.The Routines are top notch. The piano bit is great.This is hilarious marx brothers. The Plot is funny too.Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: absurd
Review: This is outrageous. These brothers have sullied the fine name of Hollywood, where it is now difficult to walk down the boulevard without seeing a plethora of tacky vendors of bizarre paraphenalea, not to mention that now Jeff Bezos gets to add to his absurdly valued equity at my expense...
Rating:
Summary: This movie will keep you laughing until your stomach hurts.
Review: This movie has got to be one of the funniest movies that I have ever seen. If you are looking for some funny stuff, watch this movie. All the little one-liners that the Marx brothers are famous for are present in this movie. This is like the funniest comedy I have seen in my whole life. The best part about it is that they didn't have to use foul language or explicit subjects to be funny. They were just plain funny. This deserves 5+ stars. It goes overboard in the humor. Every time I see it, I laugh so hard that I cry.
Rating:
Summary: A must-see, but not well acted.
Review: This movie is hysterical, with classic bits you'll recognize. It's a must-see if only to know the foundations of Marx Brothers (and therefore American) humor. But look out for the bad acting and bad musical numbers. The best part is when Groucho interacts with Margaret Dumont. My favorite: the Captain Spaulding song. It's also available in package sets with other Marx Brothers videos. A good bargain.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This movie is not also funny, but also gives the listener some great music. I think that the plot was very cool. I do wish that there was a more bit of mystery to it. But overall, the movie is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Two aces of Spades?
Review: This, the second film released staring the four Marx Brothers, seems to be much more a star vehicle for Groucho than some of the others. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, probably his most famous role ("Hooray for Captain Spaulding" eventually became the theme song for his quiz show "You Bet Your Life"), an african explorer who is invited to the home of the wealthy Mrs. Rittenhouse (Margret Dumont) for the unveiling of a famous Beaugard painting. When two different people decide to switch out the original painting for a counterfeit, mayhem breaks loose. This movie contains Groucho's famous African lecture, with the well know and oft-quoted "elephant in my pajamas" line.Allthough this is Groucho's movie, all the brothers manage to get in their share of the funny. Some highlights include Chico and Groucho's discusion about who stole the painting (by the end of which Chico concludes the painting must have been "eaten by left handed moths"); Chico trying to get Harpo to find a "flash" (flashlight) and Harpo pulls everything from flutes, to fasks, to fish (!) out of his pockets before finding the flash; the card game with Chico, Harpo, and Mrs. Rittenhouse during which the brothers cut for partners and both pick up and Ace of spades (when Mrs. Rittenhouse questions, "Two Aces of spades?", Chico replies, "Sure, hesa got hudreds of 'em"); Chico's Piano solo during which he just can't think of the the finish and Groucho can think of nothing but; Groucho's "strange interlude" and bigamy dialoge; and last but not least Harpo's famous knife dropping gag. I would recomend this movie to anyone who likes to laugh!
Rating:
Summary: This film perfectly captures the Marx Brothers "on stage"
Review: While the vast majority of Marxist scholars debate whether "A Night at the Opera" or "Duck Soup" is the greatest Marxs Brothers film, there seems to be pretty much universal agreement that "Animal Crackers" occupies the third spot on the list. For years "Animals Crackers" was the fabled "lost" Marx Brothers film, never seem because of legal wranglings. I remember when the film was finally re-released and Groucho attended the "premier." This was back in the days of yesteryear, when the only way to see the movie was at an art theater. "Animal Crackers" is the last and the best of the Marx Brothers play-to-film movies (okay, so "Coconuts" is the only other one on this list), which simply means that all the routines were finely honed on the stage. Even after they started making "original" films the Marxs continued to work out their routines on the vaudeville stage. Anyhow, my meandering point here is that "Animal Crackers" is probably the most polished of the entire Marx Brothers oeuvre. Perhaps more importantly, it contains Zeppo's finest comic moment on film. The play was written by George S. Kaufman who once stopped a conversation during a performance because he actually thought he heard one of his original lines, while the original songs are by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmer. As always with the Marx Brothers the characters are more important that the plot, which is just a necessary device for the boys to engage in comic interaction. Grouch is Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (of "Hooray for" fame), Chico is Signor Emanuel Ravelli (you cannot afford for him to NOT practice), Harpo is The Professor (who forgot to dress for the party) and Zeppo is Spaulding's personal assistant Horatio Jamison (who leaves out the most one). Margaret Dumont, a necessary ingredient for any first rate Marx Brothers film, is on hand as Mrs. Rittenhouse who is hosting a ritzy party at which Beauregard's "After the Hunt" will be displayed (the painting and its various copies become the motivational devices for pretty much everything in what follows). The romantic couple this time around are Lillian Roth as poor little rich girl Arabella Rittenhouse and Hal Thompson as John Parker the starving young artist she loves; he is bland white bread and she does not take the film seriously at all, which means she totally misses the point on how to be a foil. Louis Sorin is the comic foil this time around, the pretentious art critic Roscoe Chandler, but it is Robert Grieg as Hives the Butler who proves a great comic target. Now on to the specifics. With "Animal Crackers" you get: (1) Groucho's greatest entrance as Captain Spaulding who came to say he cannot stay he must be going; (2) Chico's worst piano solo since he is hindered by the fact he cannot remember how the piece ends; (3) Harpo's best comic routine in the dark trying to come up with a flashlight; (4) Zeppo's best comic moment when he omits the body of the letter Groucho dictated because it was just a bunch of stuff he did not consider to be important. Groucho even has a "Strange Interlude" in a minor tribute to Eugene O'Neill. The bottom line is that "Animal Crackers" is the best record we have of what the Marx Brothers must have been like on stage at their zenith.
Rating:
Summary: Hooray, Hooray, Hooray
Review: Wild comedy from the Marx Brothers which is guaranteed to delight their fans (however, if Looney-Tunes style farce isn't your cup of tea, by all means, stay away from this one). I've watched this one at least 20 times and I never get tired of it (the film's comedy routines move at such a frantic pace, it'll seem like, every time you view it, you'll hear a joke you missed beforehand). One low point: the song by Lillian Roth, directly followed by a harp solo by Harpo - it bogs the movie down a bit (maybe if they'd split them apart, it would've helped a bit). But any film with the Marxes and Margaret DuMont is worth owning - to me it's reasonable to say she was as important to the brothers's films as they themselves were. This is the film which features Groucho's famous African monologue, and one of the things I noticed about this was how risque some of his statements were, knowing what was considered censorable in Hollywood in those days (his "native girls" line stands out to me as an example of this). Also of note is the hilarious scene where the valuable piece of art, "Ze Bogard!" is stolen and Groucho plays the detective - how DuMont ever kept that poker face of hers is a mystery to me (it'd have taken me several hundred takes, at least). Oh, and Eugene O'Neill enthusiasts will enjoy Groucho's send up of "Strange Interlude." Definitely worth the cash.
|
