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The later films, specifically after the commercial peak A Night At The Opera, saw the Marx Brothers’ anarchy become diluted by the studio system. The brilliant humour writer SJ Perelman contributed to two of their funniest films, Animal Crackers and Monkey Business. However, they feature some of their finest scripts, and the closest on-screen realisation of pure Marx humour. The direction often belies the films’ theatrical origins and the infancy of cinema technique.
#Marx brothers swordfish series#
Their early films upcycled jokes, routines and plots from their stage shows and the long-lost radio series Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel. In other words, their mission is that of many great comedians – rebelling against stuffy elitist attitudes, injecting a healthy dose of anarchy into well-ordered institutions, championing the cause of the underdog (and true love), and refusing to take anything too seriously. In many of their films, they usually play underclass freeloaders attempting to break into elite circles – the art world, property, politics, academia – on a mission to affront strait-laced snobs and their lackeys, pulling the rug from under high society by mocking its traditions and exposing its snobbery. The Marx brothers’ appeal was their attitude and their latitude – Épater la bourgeoisie. I was brought up on Marx Brothers films and, although their films are inevitably dated, made when cinema was in its infancy, it is amazing just how much of their dialogue and how many of their routines still mindboggle, impress and amuse almost a century later. In cinema terms, the Marx Brothers are comedy originals – although by the time of their first film, they were stage veterans – as their entrance in film coincided with the beginning of talking pictures. MONKEYNUTCRACKERDUCKFEATHERS, a video essay about the films by David Cairns❉ An appreciation of the quickfire comedy and anarchic spirit of the Marx Brothers.Īfter Karl and before Howard, there was Groucho and his brothers.Sibling Revelry, an introduction to the Marx Brothers by critic David Cairns.Three excerpts from NBC’s The Today Show featuring interviews with Harpo Marx, Groucho Marx and Bill Marx.The Marx Brothers: Hollywood’s Kings of Chaos, a feature-length documentary containing interviews with Leonard Maltin, Dick Cavett and others.Commentary on Duck Soup by Bader and film critic Leonard Maltin.Commentary on Horse Feathers by film critic FX Feeney.Commentary on Monkey Business by Marx Brothers historian Robert S Bader and Bill Marx, son of Harpo Marx.Commentary on Animal Crackers by film historian Jeffrey Vance.Commentary on The Cocoanuts by film scholar Anthony Slide.Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of all five features, each scanned and restored in 4K from original film elements by Universal.Plots are unimportant – it’s the gags, set-pieces and one-liners that matter: “Why a duck?”, “Hello, I Must Be Going”, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”, “That’s the bunk!”, Horse Feathers’ “Swordfish” scene and classic mirror sequence in Duck Soup. The Paramount era represents the Marx Brothers at their absolute finest, retaining all of the energy and controlled chaos of their stage shows. They made five films in five years, all of which are collected here: The Cocoanuts (1929), Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and one of the greatest comedies of all time, Duck Soup (1933). With the advent of the ‘talkies’, the Brothers signed to Paramount Pictures and brought their stage act to cinema audiences. Starting out in vaudeville, they conquered Broadway and the big screen in their own inimitable style, at once innovative, irreverent, anarchic, physical, musical, ludicrous and hilarious. The Marx Brothers – Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo – are one of the cornerstones of American comedy.