USA Today: Five Marx Brothers DVDs on May 4th

(Only three films are mentioned directly, it is believed the seven movies will be Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, A Night in Casablanca, The Big Store, At The Circus, Room Service, and Go West.)

Spend 'A Day' and 'A Night' with the Marx Brothers
By Andy Seiler, USA TODAY

The Marx Brothers are romping to DVD in fine style. The Marx Brothers Collection, a five-disc set, comes to DVD May 4 with seven films from the second half of the top comedy team's movie career, including their masterpiece A Night at the Opera.

"We wanted them out with an irresistible price ($59.92 for seven movies) so that people will buy the whole collection," says George Feltenstein, Warner Bros.' senior vice president for classic catalog. "We've got to get the new generation hooked on their timeless humor. This has been a high priority for a long time. There are new documentaries for A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, and we've loaded up every disc with classic cartoons and shorts from the same year as each movie. The last time the movies themselves looked this spiffy was probably when they first came out."

The three most highly regarded movies in the set, Opera (1935), Races (1937) and A Night in Casablanca (1946), also are being sold as individual DVDs.

Note to fans of the early Marx Brothers: Universal, which now owns the first five Marx Brothers movies (including the peerless Duck Soup), has no plans to release them on DVD.

 

Alright!!! I own the OOP DVD's...these will be the cherry!!! Thanks for the Great News Robert

Hopefully the OOP's will come back in print for all the fans that missed them...Years back Sam Goody had 'em for $6.99! I picked up a few, Although I paid more for the others, nearly $20.00...Still worth every penny!...and more. I got my Son into them...

 

I have the three DVD out OOP set from Universal that goes for $150 - $200 on ebay. From a selfish viewpoint, I am glad to hear Universal has no plans to re-release them in the near future as I plan top sell them on ebay soon.

 

It's about time! I'm tired of watching my VHS copies.

Also glad to hear they'll look "spiffy."

 

Steve, everybody knows the fifth Marx brother was Karl, but due to his politics, he could not appear in any of his brothers movies (box office poison). He did write the screenplays of their movies under various aliases due to his association with the Communist party.

 

Hey, what about Gummo?

 

Wasn't he the 4th Stooge

 

Where are the Paramount Movies???????

I must be the unluckiest (is that a word?) guy in town.

Favorite Comic Team - Marx Brothers (best work currently out of print and I didn't get the originals because I only got a DVD player within the last year.)

Favorite Band - Beatles (High Quality Reissues only appearing in my dreams)

Favorite 50's Artist - Buddy Holly (Where's that box set on CD? Come on, the vinyl came out 25 years ago!)

Favorite TV show - The Odd Couple (Where are the uncut episodes on DVD, folks? I want these, too.)

Plus, I waited 2 weeks to see Squeeze reunited on VH1 and it didn't happen! AAAGGHHH!!!!

Sorry, just had to get it all off mt chest.

Carry on!

 

I was lucky to pick all the Marx Bros. dvds that were available back in '99. DVDs were hot that year and the deals on the Net were tremendous so I bought as much as I could.

Strange that all these years later the Marx Bros. still haven't been given the SE treatment.

 

Me too! Just love that show...Hopefully they'll do season sets...With the flow of TV Shows being released...we should get lucky.

 

That was Gummo, and he got drafted, right?


Seriously--if that's possible with that outfit --this is great news, OPERA alone is worth every penny....unlike the Paramount films, this is lunacy, but refined and barely under control....by this point, they knew they were really, really good and the big budget of the films did them justice...but, it wasn't to last.


ED

 

There is a 4 disc Region 2 set that is freely available which includes

- Duck Soup
- Animal Crackers
- Horse Feathers
- Monkey Business

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=136267&p=57&c=&g=72

All the best - Andrew

 

See? What did I tell you?
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23569

Been out of the loop all weekend, good to see it's official.

 

"A Night in Casablanca" is highly regarded?

 

Only Groucho hated it.

 

Re: Re: USA Today: Five Marx Brothers DVDs on May 4th

Not that highly regarded, but it was the least available on video of all their films. It was the only one never released on laserdisc. Room Service & Love Happy were each released for very limited times, but ANIC NEVER came out. So, I guess, they figure they are more likely to sell individual copies of it than ,say, The Big Store.

 

A Night In Casablanca is highly underrated, in my book. I know Groucho hated it, but except for Opera and Races, I don't think he liked most of their films.

I only was able to get Duck Soup before the Paramount film DVD's disappeared, but I'll be sure to get these. Besides, a friend just got a DVD recorder, so I'll transfer those from VHS. Better than nothing!

Evan

 

A Night In Casablanca has an underseved bad reputation among their films. I'll easily rank it over At The Circus, Go West or The Big Store. Maybe even Room Service.

By the time it was made, Groucho was tired of the movies, and wanted to concentrate on his radio career. Remember, The Big Store was intended as the team's swan song. A Night In Casablanca was a classic case of "Chico needs money" rather than any real desire to revive the team's film career.

That said, there really are some funny moments in A Night In Casablanca. If you haven't seen it in a long time, or if you've never bothered because of it's reputation, give it a shot when it comes out. If nothing else, you'll hear "Who's Sorry Now" years before Connie Francis recorded her hit version.

Incidentally, that leaves Love Happy as the last Marx film never released on DVD (though the Paramounts are still maddeningly out of print). I'm not losing sleep over that one, though.

 

Some apparent cover artwork. Looks legit, a couple of them are up on Amazon.

Additionally, there's some talk on the web of Love Happy being released on DVD in June. Not a great film, but if you've got the rest, you still need it to complete the collection.

 

Looks great!

 

A Night at the Opera... A Day at the Races...

Boy, I think I know of a band that might have been great admirers of the Marx Brothers...

 

I also questioned the labeling of ANIC as a "classic".

They went downhill after Thalberg died halfway through "A Day At the Races" and MGM no longer really cared about them. Of course, when you're going downhill from the top of Everest, you've still got a lot of decent movies ahead of you.....