Rating: 
Summary: SWORDFISH!
Review: I'm professor Wagstaff of Huxley College. Harpo and Chico are two great football players recruited in a speak easy. Huxley College v. old rival Darwin College. The password is Swordfish.Need I go on?Hilarious Marx Brothers fare is funnier than Animal Crackers and Cocoanuts, and they had one more to go(DUCK SOUP-THE BEST ONE OF ALL!)before they left Paramount.
Rating:
Summary: Maximum Marx
Review: If I had to recommend one flick out of the Marx cannon (an impossible task, I admit) this is the one. Sure, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers opened the door for the Marxes in Hollywood and Duck Soup and A Night At The Opera are considered the peak of their talents. But everyone dwells on those. For my money, start to finish, Horse Feathers never lets you down. Whether its the "Swordfish" hijinks of the speakeasy scene, Groucho's musical opener "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" or the four Marxes doing their own unique takes on "Everybody Says I Love You", there isn't a dull moment in the film. After producer Irving Thalberg died, Zeppo left the act and Chico's gambling debts began to climb, most of the later Marx brother flicks settled for and suffered from poor scripts and the padding of those dreary romantic subplots. The Marxes still had some great years after this one. But not many. Check it out! On a side note, blonde knockout Thelma Todd does her usual screwball best with the Marxes as The College Widow. Sadly, only a few years later, she'd be found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning (one of Hollywood's more infamous unsolved deaths). It's too bad...with her comedic roles in the early thirties, Thelma's career was taking off and she could've been one of Hollywood's greatest starlets if her life hadn't been cut short.
Rating: 
Summary: "Whatever It Is I'm Against It!"
Review: In my own personal opinion is you were to look at any Marx Brother film just based on the story,you'd say NOTHING makes sense! But that was the charm of their movies. The crazy antics they played on each other and the other characters involved. This is my favorite film by them! I'd seen it years before when I was younger and loved it even then. My favorite moments are when Groucho sings "Whatever it is I'm against It". And the scene in the speakeasy. Groucho asks the bartender if he could break a check for 15 dollars and 22 cents. The bartender gives him the change,Groucho quickly takes the money and says "As soon as I get a check for 15 dollars and 22 cents I'll send it to you! Swordfish!" And runs out!
Rating:
Summary: They were right: Marxists are out to destroy our colleges
Review: It is a mistake I think, admittedly easy to make, to consider the Marx Brothers to be postmodern comedians. Indeed, there is a moment in "Horse Feathers" (1932) where Chico has started to play the piano and Groucho turns to the camera and tells the audience that while he is stuck listening to this there is no reason they cannot go to the lobby until this whole thing blows over. Rather than explaining this as an example of self-reflexivity, characters in a movie aware they are in a movie being watched by an audience, I think the fact the Marx Brothers were raised and educated in vaudeville offers a simpler and more accurate explanation. Similarly, their insistence on destroying the existing order wherever they find it, whether it be a college classroom or a local speakeasy, is symptomatic of anarchy rather than an instantiation of Fukyuama's declaration of "the end of history." Postmodernism is based on metonymic order, syntagmatic combinations involving a perception of contiguity which can generate metonym (naming an attribute or adjunct of the thing instead of the thing itself, e.g. "crown" for royalty) or synecdoche (naming the part for the whole, e.g., "keels" for ships). However, when it comes to tropes and other figures of speech, the Marx Brothers simply resort to puns, eschewing even the Modernist notion of metaphoric order. If Groucho, as President of Huxley College needs to stamp a document with a seal, Harpo brings him a real live seal that the boys can chase around the room. Still, the Marxes can be literal, but only when the situation does not demand it: Harpo cannot speak (itself a telling indictment of conventionality and propriety), but can still communicate the secret password "swordfish" to gain entrance to a speakeasy and can respond with to requests to cut the cards or to help someone get a cup of coffee with more speed than a Groucho zinger. For the Marx Brothers the messenger is more important than the message. Note with care that the boys are at Huxley College, whose chief rival is Darwin. Clearly, while Darwin first articulated the theory of evolution and the idea of survival of the fittest, the Marxes side with Huxley, who popularized those theories and made them palatable to the masses. Of course, there is also an implicit tribute to Huxley, who got off one of the great academic one-liners of all time in his infamous debate with Bishop Wilberforce over evolution. Within this Darwinian context the film's climax, taking place in a football game between the two aforementioned schools, becomes a pointed refutation of the idea human beings have evolved too far beyond our brutish ancestors. Of course, this is open to debate since the negotiated meaning we can draw from the text does not necessarily subvert the dominant meaning; unfortunately, this opens up the possibility of the film's oppositional meaning and once we get into the notion of subverting the text in anything involving the Marx Brothers academic towers start developing foundational cracks. Nor do we want to consider the implications of Groucho's character being named Wagstaff from a Freudian let alone a Darwinian (or even Marxist) perspective. This is not to say the Marx Brothers are not ahead of their time, ironically in their support of consumerism. We have one of the earliest examples of product placement when Connie Bailey (Thelma Todd), the college widow involved with Zeppo, falls into the lake while canoeing with Groucho and makes the mistake of asking him for a "life saver." Amazingingly prescient regarding the harms of tobacco smoking, they undercut the mentioning of a popular cigarette by turning its slogan into a pun: "I'd walk a mile for a caramel." Who knows how many young people have seen this film over the years and decided to consume mass quantities of chocolate instead of smoking harmful cigarettes? This is a number, I truly believe, that cannot be accurately calculated. Indeed, we should not even try. "Horse Feathers" is a second tier Marx Brothers comedy, below the sacred trinity of "Animal Crackers," "Duck Soup" and "A Night at the Opera," which still makes it a great comedy. It marks the second time that a film script was written for the brothers from scratch, rather than being adapted from a successful Broadway stage show. "Horse Feathers" was written by S.J. Perelman, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman (uncredited) and directed by Norman McLeod, who had worked with the brothers the year before with "Monkey Business," and who managed to direct a football film "Touchdown" in the interim period. Although the film does have its mundane moments, mostly involving everyone's attempt to court the college widow, the speakeasy scene is an absolute gem and the football game makes for a grand finale.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Marx Blessing
Review: One of the Marx Brothers' funniest and most subversive films - and including the songs "I'm Against it" and "Everyone Says I Love" performed by each of the Brothers (even Zeppo!) to the lovely Thelma Todd, this is a five star movie if there ever was one. Except it isn't - there's nothing wrong with this DVD, the problem lies with the prints available. There is a lot missing from the 1932 version of Horse Feathers, the result of cuts made directly on the negative from the late Thirties on. These aren't even well made cuts, but chops in the middle of lines, jumps and lopping off of scenes. But this footage is considered lost - so there you have it. Take it or leave it - I recommend you take it, as even two-thirds of a Marx Brother is still a Marx Brother!
Rating:
Summary: Yet another great Marx bros. extreme success.
Review: Probably the best comiediens of all time, the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers is one of their best films. On DVD they are even better because I can enjoy them without leaving my room. "Whatever it is, I'm against it!"
Rating:
Summary: The Marx Brothers were WAY ahead of their time!!!
Review: The first time I saw this film I laughed myself silly! It was my first-ever experience watching the Marx Brothers, and I couldn't believe that this kind of humor was acceptable back in 1932! Although it may seem pretty tame by today's standards, it's still hilarious! Groucho is my favorite --- I especially loved his attempt to be a teacher, foiled by a spitball fight with Harpo and Chico. Great stuff!
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical!
Review: The Marx Brothers are the best comedy team ever. "Horse Feathers" is on of their very finest. Listening to Groucho singing "I'm Against It" is extremely funny. It's a shame this movie isn't longer. This kind of film will cheer you up if you had a bad day. If you ever do, watch this film. It's bound to make you chortle. However, in one part of the movie, when the brothers go over to Thelma Todd's house, the film in various points jumps ahead. For instance when Groucho and Zeppo are going to leave Todd's house (Groucho stays), Groucho kicks Zeppo, than the next frame Groucho runs to the window. Try to keep up with it if you can at that point. Than there are all of these film scratches and huge bars on the screen on every frame at one point. Universal did a pretty sloppy job at trying to remaster this movie. Other than that, this film will make you split your sides laughing.
Rating: 
Summary: At least Groucho is still funny
Review: There are some amusing moments in this film, but it seems badly dated to me. While Groucho is extremely funny at times, Harpo and Chico seem like products of a bygone era when dopey ethnics and soulful mutes represented the apex of comic invention. I smile whenever I see Groucho on screen, but those other two just don't do a thing for me.
Rating:
Summary: The Four Marx Brothers at their very best; guaranteed laughs
Review: This fast-moving comedy has Groucho Marx taking over a college. Zeppo advocates football on campus, so Harpo and Chico are recruited to kidnap the opposition's star players. In between, there are some inspired comedy sequences (including the Marxes' "schoolroom" vaudeville act) and some excellent musical performances. The harp solo is this writer's candidate for Harpo's all-time best, and Chico shoots the piano keys in a delightful rendition of "Collegiate." Lots of fun for comedy fans. The DVD, unfortunately, is no improvement on the VHS version: every copy of "Horse Feathers" has a damaged section containing numerous splices and choppy dialogue. The damage is very brief (maybe a minute or two) and shouldn't detract from your enjoyment. The surviving master print may not be perfect, but the film itself gets a perfect score.
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