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By PAUL BRENNER
Warner Home Video
has released an impressive five-disc, seven-film
collection of the last seven of eight Marx
Brothers features, mostly from their MGM years.
The DVDs seek to create the ambiance of a typical
night at the movies circa late '30s/early '40s
with supplementary cartoons and shorts from the
period of the feature film highlighted on the DVD,
along with original poster art from the film on
the DVD case. All and all, it is a fine stylistic
effort from Warner Home Video.
Unfortunately, most of the films in the collection
are not very good.
If anything, the Warner's Marx Brothers Collection
of the seven films -- "A Night at the Opera," "A
Day at the Races," "Room Service," "At the
Circus," "Go West," The Big Store," "A Night in
Casablanca" -- charts the Edward Gibbons version
of Groucho, Harpo, and Chico's film career: The
Decline and Fall of the Marx Brothers.
By contemporary critical standards of 2004, it is
generally acknowledged that the first group of
Marx Brothers films made at Paramount -- "The
Coconuts," "Animal Crackers," "Monkey Business,"
"Horse Feathers," "Duck Soup" -- are, by far, the
most sustained, most consistent, and most
successful of film comedies, not only by The Marx
Brothers, but by any film comic or comedy team.
It was different in 1933, when "Duck Soup" was
both a critical and commercial flop. The Marx
Brothers lost their Paramount contract and for a
while it appeared that the Marxes were washed up
in Hollywood. To their rescue came Irving
Thalberg, then 35-year-old production head of MGM
who convinced the Marxes that they could reduce
their jokes in half and get twice as many laughs
if the Marxes could be reigned into a formulaic
comic structure wherein the team would become
comic allies for musical comedy lovebirds.
Respecting Thalberg, the Marxes agreed to sign
with MGM
Thalberg demonstrated his commitment to the Marxes
by working heavily on script development. So
heavily in fact that Thalberg permitted the Marxes
to hit the theater circuit with the comedy scenes
written for their films, so the Marxes could gauge
and hone the laughs with live audiences. As a
result, the MGM films are most effective when seen
with an audience. (The Paramounts, on the other
hand, are one joke after another at a fever pace
and as such perform much better in the silence of
your lonely room.) Seen without a crowd on a
television monitor, the MGM films play much more
sluggishly than the Paramount films, because
pauses are deliberately included in the scenes to
allow for the laughs of the crowd to subside
before another joke begins.
Thalberg also felt that women did not like The
Marx Brothers and determined to soften the Marx
Brothers characters for MGM to appeal more to
women. Chico was no longer a phony Italian con man
but a real Italian whose friendship with one of
the young lovers sets the plot mechanics into
motion. Harpo, instead of being an otherworldly
satyr, became a cute, lovable imp (whose first
scenes usually featured Harpo being kicked and
whipped by the bad guy of the piece for an added
cache of audience sympathy). Groucho was no longer
a subversive force undermining the establishment,
but became, instead, a seedy poseur. All together,
they fought the good fight to reunite the lovers.
This is the kind of shallow comic formula that MGM
insisted upon. This theory had already killed
Buster Keaton's career at MGM It would later ruin
Laurel and Hardy's career at MGM And now it was
set to kill the Marx Brothers. But, amazingly, for
a brief time with Thalberg, it worked.
"A Night at the Opera" is, arguably with "Duck
Soup," the finest of the Marx Brothers films.
Boasting a script by George S. Kaufman and Morrie
Ryskind, the film is a showpiece for the Thalberg
formula and it works 100%. The lovers -- Alan
Jones, Kitty Carlisle -- are likeable, the musical
numbers are entertaining and not too long, and the
Marx Brothers' comedy scenes are the best of their
career -- the Groucho/Chico contract scene, the
stateroom scene, the destruction of the opera
climax. It doesn't matter that now the Marxes are
no longer anarchists (they do not want to see the
opera world destroyed, only held in limbo until
the lovers take their rightful places on the
stage), it all fits and it all works like a
perfect jewel. The DVD is a great improvement over
the old Criterion laser disc and Leonard Maltin
returns to rehash his old Criterion commentary.
Also included on the DVD is a fine documentary on
the Marxes, a clip of Groucho Marx on The Hy
Gardner Show from the early 1960s, Robert
Benchley's Oscar-winning short "How To Sleep," the
ridiculous short "Sunday Night at the Trocadero,"
and the re-release trailer.
"A Day At the Races" sees the Marx Brothers
continuing at the top of their game, with more
brilliantly hilarious set pieces -- Groucho's
entrance into a sanitarium he was hired to
administer, the Chico/Groucho Tootsie-Frootsie Ice
Crème scene, the mad, insane examination scene
with perennial Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont
being given a medical exam by Groucho, Harpo, and
Chico. Unfortunately, Thalberg died a month into
production of the film and his absence is sorely
felt. "A Day at the Races" balloons into pomposity
with unwieldy ("On Blue Venetian Waters") and
racist ("Who Dat Man?") production numbers. As a
clue that the times they are a-changin, the Marx
Brothers end up strutting through a production
number called "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm." Just
three years earlier, they mocked the same kind of
thing in "Duck Soup" with "All God's Chillun Got
Guns." But that was then and this was now. It also
didn't help matters with the Marxes that Groucho
chosen to insult MGM czar Louis B. Mayer during
the filming of "A Day at the Races" while Thalberg
was still alive. Now with Thalberg dead, the
Marxes had no protection from the vindictive
Mayer. But in spite of it all and impending career
doom, "A Day at the Races" stands as The Marx
Brothers' last great film. The DVD features
commentary by Glenn Mitchell, another pleasant
Marx Brothers documentary, Robert Benchley's "A
Night at the Movies," three MGM cartoons, an audio
outtake, and the theatrical trailer.
Disc 3 is the first of two double-feature discs
with "Room Service" and "At the Circus." "Room
Service" saw the Marxes retreat to RKO for a film
adaptation of a Broadway success. The film is
enjoyable and respectable. But the Marx Brothers
shouldn't be respectable. If anything, the film
brought the Marx Brothers down to street level and
for the first time The Marx Brothers appear like
just another wild comedy team (albeit Wheeler and
Woolsey on acid). The film also features two
shorts and the theatrical trailer. On Side B is
"At the Circus," The Marx Brothers' return to MGM
Here is Mayer's revenge. The Marx Brothers don't
even show up until the annoying Kenny Baker (whose
voice hasn't yet changed) plot settles in. When
the Marxes do appear, it doesn't make much
difference. Groucho's performance, particularly,
is noticeably desperate and caffeinated with
Groucho speaking in a high-pitch as if trying to
outdo Kenny Baker. "At the Circus" is a complete
come down, although there is something
aesthetically pleasing about Harpo riding an
ostrich. Included are two more shorts and the
theatrical trailer.
Disc 4, the next double-feature disc, is the final
nail in the coffin. "Go West" is a slight
improvement over "At the Circus" but it is a
meeting of the failing and the failed. Hired as a
gag writer for the film for a paltry sum was none
other than Buster Keaton (a walking death victim
of the MGM comedy factory), who sadly pillages his
own eons-greater film "The General" for the climax
of "Go West." As if that wasn't enough of an
insult, even the title of "Go West" was lifted
from another of Keaton's older, greater films.
Enough to drive someone to drink! The film
includes a short, the theatrical trailer, and a
MGM radio promo for the film. Side B contains the
final MGM film, "The Big Store." The film is
forced and sad, although it is fun to watch
Groucho trying to piss off Tony Martin ("So you
think I'm pretty good, eh?"). Included are two
shorts and the theatrical trailer.
"The Big Store" was advertised as The Marx
Brothers' first farewell film, as if anyone,
including The Marx Brothers, even cared at that
point. But five years later, The Marx Brothers
were back again with an independently produced
film directed by Warner Brothers veteran Archie
Mayo. "A Night in Casablanca" (the contents of
Disc Five) is somewhat a return to form, with
Groucho no longer tainted with seediness and going
full circle, playing a hotel manager, the
profession of his character in The Marx Brothers'
first film "The Coconuts." But Harpo looks haggard
and ill and the climax of the film is a complete
horror (the stunt doubles resemble The Ritz
Brothers more than The Marx Brothers and the chase
scene doesn't make any sense). The special
features include a Bugs Bunny cartoon and a Joe
McDoakes short entitled "So You Think You're a
Nervous Wreck?"
So, it is great to have the Marxes back on DVD and
the Warner presentation is admirable. But The Marx
Brothers Collection is a set is for Marx Brothers
completists only. As Sinatra might say, "the best
is yet to come" when Paramount re-releases the
first five Marx Brothers films. |
