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By PAUL BRENNER
"Say the secret woid and win
a hundred dollars. It's a common word. Something
that's found in the home." Aside from Nixon's "I'm
not a crook" and Eisenhower's warning about the
military industrial complex, this is probably the
most famous quote from the 1950s. Most
importantly, it came from the mouth of Groucho
Marx as he presided over an ersatz game show
entitled "You Bet Your Life," which lasted for a
phenomenal run of 528 episodes from 1947 to 1961.
Most of the later "You Bet Your Life" shows were
repackaged for syndication and the earlier
programs laid to rest. At least until now. And
it's time to rejoice for they are gloriously
betted back to life in a wonderfully packaged
three-disc set of eighteen episodes by The Shout!
Factory and NBC Home Video called "You Bet Your
Life: The Lost Episodes."
The program became a great third act for Groucho
Marx, as the legendary comedian approached
seventy. In 1947, it looked like Marx's career was
winding down as he eked out guest appearances on
radio shows and appeared in B movies. But Marx was
an incendiary force on those radio shows,
deconstructing the gags, the star, and himself in
the fallout. After seeing Groucho Marx's
appearance with Bob Hope on a radio show, producer
John Guedel sought a vehicle to harness Groucho on
radio. "You Bet Your Life" was the result -- a
successful scheme to mine Marx's rapier wit into a
game show format. The game show was a mere pretext
for Groucho; the asking of idiot questions for
paltry sums (although that changed over the years
to counteract Groucho's tendency to feel sorry for
the contestants and prod them into saying the
right answers to win the money). The structure was
as rigid as kabuki -- contestants had to first
past through the wringer of getting grilled and
humiliated by Groucho and finding themselves doing
Chico Marx dialogue to Groucho's Groucho before
they could get to the simple and simpler questions
(a stock question if contestants lost all their
money was Groucho asking them "Who's buried in
Grant's tomb?").
Groucho's remarks, observations, and wisecracks
are continually hilarious and haven't aged one bit
in over fifty years. Marx can hold his own against
pompous asses, beauty contest winners, children --
even celebrities. The collection offers a taste of
the array of stars that popped up on "You Bet Your
Life" for a lark. Included in the collection are
Lord Buckley ("the Professor of Hip" to whom
Groucho remarks, "You look like a very wealthy and
successful confidence man"), Olympic gold medalist
Bob Matias, and Ernie Kovacs (who spends his time
sucking on his cigar and ogling a good looking
dish). The funniest moment in the collection is
Groucho's banter with Ramiro Gonzalez-Gonzalez,
who is so knee-slapping funny with Groucho
(Groucho refers to him at one point as "a Mexican
Jerry Lewis") that he managed to carve out a
two-bit Hollywood career based upon his appearance
on the show.
The extras include outtakes on selected episodes,
the original commercials, stag reels, a
behind-the-scenes promotional short from 1952, the
Walgreen Show with Bob Hope from 1947 that led to
Marx's game show gig, Groucho's radio audition of
the show from 1947, and a Season's Greeting from
1950.
You'd be a fool to pass this collection up. Run
out to the store right now -- and remember, tell
'em Groucho sent you. |
