Marx Brothers: Paramounts or MGM?

Here's a new Marx Brothers podcast which you might enjoy, despite my involvement...

Also featuring Matthew Coniam, author of "The Annotated Marx Brothers" and Noah Diamond, who recently brought "I'll Say She Is" back to the New York stage.

The Marx Brothers Council Podcast

 

Read the book about Groucho by Charlotte Chandler. Groucho was interesting. Minimal education but very smart. Good pals with Bill Cosby.Woody Allen, Dick Cavett among others.

 

Paramount. MGM tried to tame the guys and make their anarchy more generic. The MGM's to me also have dated much worse than the Paramount films. Technically, the MGM films may be superior but in terms of raw talent, that isn't the case at all.

 

My opinion continues to be that the five Paramount movies (even "Cocoanuts") continue to delight, even after countless viewings. I love "Night..." but find the rest of the MGMs (including "Day...") a bit tedious.

 

The Paramount films have an almost surreal quality that elevates them quite a bit. The MGM movies are silly and formulaic but they are still funny as hell. I appreciate the Paramounts more as films, but I probably laugh louder at the MGM's.

 

Both...

 

I'd rather watch Love Happy than The Big Store from MGM. MGM in the '40's seemed to think all comedies should conclude with an endless, unfunny chase scene. The doubles for the brothers in Big Store are severely obvious as their faces are so visible. Painful movie for me. But they left a great legacy.

 

I am just the opposite, I have a hard time making it through Love Happy, which also ends with a mostly unfunny chase scene (Except for Harpo on the Mobil Pegasus).
I know there is a lot wrong with The Big Store, but I absolutely love that film, I am extremely sentimental about it and I number among the few who actually like "Tenement Symphony".

 

The movie has no real plot, it's just four strange guys who stow away on an ocean liner causing havoc for no good reason. The gangster business was thrown in likely because it was a popular topic at the time.

 

But, that’s what makes it so great!!! It’s a full-length film with only anarchy holding it together!

I’d trade every post-Night At The Opera film of theirs for one more scene like their assault on the custom’s room in Monkey Business!

 

Causing havoc was Paramount Harpo's raison d'etre. MGM Harpo's raison d'etre was usually helping a damsel in distress. The second is more human but the first is funnier.

 

The Paramounts are by far my favorite, but for some reason, this is one of my favorite Marx Brothers scenes of all time. The running gag is predictable, but I think it's the timing that makes it for me. Hilarious!

 

From "An Evening With Groucho":
"Speaking of vaudeville, there used to be a critic in Chicago, when we played there, by the name of Percy Hammond. This is about thirty years ago, I guess. He was on the Chicago Tribune, and he reviewed our act. We did a big act, and we had about twenty-five people on there, and he reviewed the act, and the next morning this was the review. He said "The Marx Brothers and their various relatives ran around the stage for almost an hour, yesterday afternoon. Why I'll never understand."

To me, that's the Marx Brothers!

 

Harpo and Chico searching the strong man's room in AT THE CIRCUS came close.

 

There are some great scenes in this film, it's what's in between them that almost spoil it. Stand Up and Take a Bow is the worst song in their canon...

 

Louie B. Mayer hated them. If Thalberg hadn't died, we might all have different opinions on the MGM period.

 

Yup

 

The best scene in the entire film.

 

It's "STEP Up and Take a Bow".
Actually, I find "Two Blind Loves" from the same film much worse!

 

And to think, people feel the Tenement Symphony is bad (well, I mean it is, but...)!

 

I think they are all wonderful, but I'm no movie expert, I just like what I watch.
If! anything, I think the later contributions were below par from all those mentioned:
Love Happy, and maybe A night in Casablanca, Copacabana....
I still think they were the greatest comedian/entertainers period.

 

I know "Tenement Symphoy" is a bit corny, but I confess to liking it a lot. I'll sing it at the drop of a hat! Believe it or not, it apparently was a moderate hit!
I also like the other Tony Martin song in "The Big Store", "If It's You". It also was a hit at the time, and was recorded by Vaughn Monroe, Dinah Shore and Artie Shaw, who co-wrote it.

 

It’s a good thing the Marx’s didn’t sing either of those songs!

 

I'm not certain if I agree with that. The Marxes style was fast becoming passe by the end of the '30s. Even if Thalberg had been there, I think whatever they did under him may have been similar and only marginally better than what we got in those last three MGM films.

 

I don’t think so. Firstly, Thalberg had already successfully transitioned them to a more mainstream style. Had he lived, Day At The Races would have been edited way better, and would have been more focused on comedy, with less ballet & sideplot.

Secondly, there would have been better writers assigned to the later pictures.

And, I disagree with the idea that their style was becoming passé. The fondly-remembered moments from all the later pictures are the ones that revert to, or have some semblance of their earlier, anarchic style.

The watchful eye of Thalberg is the reason that Opera works so well, and his absence is the reason the later films are so weak.