The Marx Brothers were the original punks. The anti-heros. The rebels. My Heroes. Nobody can deliver a line with as much wit as Groucho. Nobody can act so dumb yet be so streetwise as Chico, and nobody can cause as much havoc as Harpo.
I remember back to primary school, when i was ... Read review
Here at long last is a verbal and visual feast fit for fans of Groucho, Chico, Harpo, ... more
Zeppo - and even Gummo! This fabulous five-DVD includes film clips, interviews, TV shows, and rare footage that span the careers of all five Marx Brothers. In addition to the pilot to Groucho's You Bet Your Life TV show, there's a rare TV sitcom Pilot starring Chico! Also included are seldom-heard radio shows from the thirties and forties, and legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow's Person-to-Person was never funnier than when he interviewed Groucho and Harpo right in their own homes.Plus a brand-new funny and fascinating documentary on the Marx Brothers that includes everything from classic movie scenes to rare radio clips and even Harpo's voice!
A Night At The OperaArts patron Mrs. Claypool intends to pay pompous opera star Lassparri ... more
$1,000 per performance. Hey, maybe that's why they call it grand opera!Grand comedy, too, as Groucho, Chico and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom and more with wall-to-wall gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs - all while skewering Lassparri's schemes and helping two young hopefuls (Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones) get a break. To save the opera, our heroes must first destroy it. And they must also gain ocean passage as stowaways, pull the wool (if not the beards) over he eyes of City Hall, shred legal mumbo-jumbo into a Sanity Clause, pester dowager Claypool (Margaret Dumont) and unleash so much glee that many say this is the best Marx brothers movie. Seeing is believing.A Day At The Races:The Marxes skewer medicine and bring home a racetrack winner in the hilarious A Day at the Races. In his favourite role, Groucho is Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush - MD, PhD, RFD, MC, PDQ, BYOB and none of the above - dispensing horse pills and quips with equal glee. Chico, Harpo and favourite foil Margaret Dumont join the fun of this thoroughly thoroughbred comedy. Enjoy tootsie-frootsie ice cream, Dumont's medical exam, Harpo's pretty-girl pantomime sketch, wallpaper wackiness and wall-to-wall hilarity the Marx way.A Night In Casablanca:Groucho, Chico, Harpo... uh-oh! It's the Nazis vs. the nutsies when the legendary Marx Brothers foil Axis criminals during A Night In Casablanca. As the manager of a hotel swirling in intrigue, Groucho is up to his fake moustache in joyful if unfulfilled lechery. Chico - heywatzamatter - becomes Groucho's bodyguard by self-decree. Harpo, pantomime's clown prince, says more in whistles and gestures than most comics say in pages of dialogue. The Big Store:The brothers go east in The Big Store, becoming detectives-cum-bodyguards for a department store. Crime is afoot in the store or, if in the Fabrics Department, by the yard. Still, our sleuths don't have a clue except in laughing matters. Chico and Harpo share a piano keyboard, beds disappear into walls, roller skates provide in-store mobility Groucho warbles Sing While You Sell. Sold!At The CircusThe 3-ring circus that is Groucho, Chico and Harpo provide big-top bedlam At The Circus. Groucho and Chico work a badge skit, Chico and Harpo scour a strongman's bedroom for evidence, Groucho extols Lydia the Tattooed Lady and logic, like the orchestra at the film's antic conclusion, is cut adrift and out to sea. You can learn a lot from Lydia.Go West:The Marxmen Go West to where the sun always shines, the fun never sets and where they outwit a land grabber. Highlights include the $1 scam, the stagecoach ride, Chico and Harpo bellying up to the bar and the train-chase finale.A Day At The RacesAt The CircusGo WestThe Big StoreA Night In Casablanca
ANIMAL CRACKERS: Animal Crackers is a classic of screen history and as uproariously funny ... more
today as it was 60 years ago. This film introduced Croucho's African lecture (one morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas, I don't know.) and the card game which Harpo and Chico play with the wealthy society woman Mrs Rittenhouse.MONKEY BUSINESS: Harpo, Chico, Croucho and Zeppo, head for high seas hilarity in this classic film comedy. While hiding from the authorities on a luxury liner the quartet of stowaways become bodyguards to rival gangsters, with the usual hilarious results and naturally no woman can resist a shipboard romance with the wily, quick-witted Croucho.HORSE FEATHERS: The quintessential Marx Brothers comedy. Croucho, Harpo, Chico and yes Zeppo, are at their manic peak in this uproariously anarchic parody of college life. As the fun loving president of Huxley College Croucho tries to keep the student body in line with hilarious results! Horse Feathers contains some of the greatest sequences in move comedy history.DUCK SOUP: A pointed political satire, Duck Soup is the Marx Brothers' funniest and most insane film. The film contains many of the Brothers most famous sequences including a final battle episode that has been copied by everyone from Woody Allen to Mad Magazine.
A fantastic collection of timeless works from the Marx Brothers. Featuring: 1. Animal ... more
Crackers (1930) 2. Monkey Business (1931) 3. Horse Feathers (1932) 4. Duck Soup (1933) 5. A Girl In Every Port (1952) 6. The Cocoanuts (1929) 7. Room Service (1938) 8. Love Happy (1949)
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Contains the titles: Duck Soup: captures some of the Marx Brothers' zaniest routines and ... more
funniest quips creating a laugh-out-loud spectacle of politics gone haywire. Backed by wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale Groucho becomes the leader of Freedonia quickly frustrating his cabinet and offending the aggressive neighboring country to the point of war. Chico and Harpo sent by the rival country spy on Groucho and try to steal his battle plans but when war does come loyalties become muddled all around. Animal Crackers: Often considered their best this second Marx Brothers movie revolves around a stolen painting and the sprawling estate of a wealthy dowager who soon finds Chico Zeppo Harpo and especially Groucho turning her life upsidedown. Groucho croons his famous "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and delivers many of his most famous quips in this film based on a play by George S. Kaufman. Horse Feathers: The Marx Brothers parody college life in this gag-filled fast-paced comedy. The fast-talking new president of Huxley College needs to scrounge up some top-flight ringers for his football team but ends up with a bootlegger and a mute dog catcher instead. More laughs than most comedies (and smart laughs at that) this script coscripted by satirist SJ Perelman is humour at its most clever. Monkey Business: The madcap Marx Brothers stowaway on a luxury cruise ship in this fast-paced laugh-filled farce. While they manage to elude capture by the ship's captain and crew by staging impromptu puppet shows and hiding in herring barrels getting off the boat is another matter. Before long they're all impersonating Maurice Chevalier in order to disembark and begin their new careers as mob bodyguards.
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Production Year: 1956 - Comedy - Director: Joshua Logan - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Betty Field, Hope Lange, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O'Connell, Casey Adams, Hans Conried, Robert Bray
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Production Year: 1947 - Comedy - Director: Henry Koster - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: James Gleason, Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lanchester, Sara Haden, Regis Toomey, Cary Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Advantages: Wisecracks, chaos and laughter Disadvantages: A little too dated for some people
The Marx Brothers were the original punks. The anti-heros. The rebels. My Heroes. Nobody can deliver a line with as much wit as Groucho. Nobody can act so dumb yet be so streetwise as Chico, and nobody can cause as much havoc as Harpo.
I remember back to primary school, when i was aged 10. We were told to name our heroes. My friend lifted his hand and called out Bart Simpson. Some other kid said the Thundercats, and someone else said ... ...was thinking of only one, the master, Groucho Marx.
I was introduced at a young age to the Marx Brothers through films such as Love Happy, Monkey Business, Day At The Races and Horse Feathers. I've never been quite able to shrug off their influence on me. They were the outsiders, they were the underdogs. I know I can be who I want to be, because being different is better.
Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Groucho were the Marx ... more
The Marx Brothers were the original punks. The anti-heros. The rebels. My Heroes. Nobody can deliver a line with as much wit as Groucho. Nobody can act so dumb yet be so streetwise as Chico, and nobody can cause as much havoc as Harpo.
I remember back to primary school, when i was aged 10. We were told to name our heroes. My friend lifted his hand and called out Bart Simpson. Some other kid said the Thundercats, and someone else said Jesus. A bit shy, I didn't call out anything. But in my head, I was thinking of only one, the master, Groucho Marx.
I was introduced at a young age to the Marx Brothers through films such as Love Happy, Monkey Business, Day At The Races and Horse Feathers. I've never been quite able to shrug off their influence on me. They were the outsiders, they were the underdogs. I know I can be who I want to be, because being different is better.
Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Groucho were the Marx Brothers (Gummo, a fifth brother, pulled out early on). Of the four, Zeppo was always the straight man, and ultimately fell into the shadows, finally leaving the act. So we are left with three.
The Marx Brothers started life poor. They were the sons of Jewish immigrants, growing up on the bustling streets of Manhatten, trying their hand at anything for a bit of cash. Their mother, Minnie Marx, urged each of them onto the vaudeville stage when they were still young, and gradually, after a variation of stints and solo performances, the brothers joined together...and the rest is history...albiet one of complete chaos, tomfoolary and wisecracks.
A Night At The Opera (1935) was the first film made after Zeppo left the act. It doesn't suffer, in fact it is one of the funniest films they made! What I like about it is the way, as in all of their films, the brothers go to all costs to defy authority and rules, they just don't care who they offend, or what order they disturb. They were rebels with a cause - to entertain a generation of immigrants who, like the brothers themselves, were struggling to adjust to the strange New World they had found themselves in. The Marx Brothers were a beacon of hope to those people, as were the generation of comedians that grew up with them - the likes of Jack Benny, Sid Caesar and Milton Berle. In their films, as in real life, they were reacting against the new set of rules they were presented with.
All three brothers are at their very best in this film. Groucho, such an inspiration to me, plays the part of Otis B. Driftwood, the businessman with an eye for a quick scheme to make some money. Harpo and Chico are two stowaways who sneak wannabee singer Riccardo (played by Allan Jones) onto a ship bound for New York, trying to reunite him with his sweetheart and make him a star at the Opera company they are (or had been) working for. Scheming as ever, Chico convinces Groucho to take Riccardo on as his client, saying he is the best singer in the world. As usual, the three find themselves together and in a bit of a pickle at every turn. As they get to New York their mission is to upstage the opening night of the opera, and to convince everyone of Riccardo's star quality.
Margaret Dumont (Mrs. Claypool) is as much a part of Marx Brothers film history as Chico's italian accent. Yet again she plays Groucho's love interest and yet again she plays a rich widow, and is (yet again) the butt of Groucho's endless supply of wisecracks.
Admittedly, Night At The Opera is not as familiar to me as some of their other films. I would say that a good introdution to the Marx Brothers would be Monkey Business (1929). But I can't deny that A Night At the Opera is probably the Marx Brothers at their best.
Groucho Marx - Otis B. Driftwood Chico Marx - Fiorello Harpo Marx - Tomasso Kitty Carlisle - Rosa Castaldi Allan Jones - Ricardo Baroni Walter Woolf King - Rodolfo Lassparri Sig Ruman - Herman Gottlieb Margaret Dumont - Mrs. Claypool
A celebration of the brothers Marx: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo. Using film clips and archive interviews, this is one humungous portrait of those comedy clowns of the thirties.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
Passport International; Pinnacle Vision
Release date
13/06/2005
No of Discs
5
Catalogue No
DVD 5570
Barcode
0025493557091
Languages
Main Language
English
DVD Description
A celebration of the brothers Marx: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo. Using film clips and archive interviews, this is one humungous portrait of those comedy clowns of the thirties.
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