A quick note for my memory because it's late and I'm tired and I'm all giggled out. I've always found the Marx Brothers to be horribly overrated- Groucho is hilarious but Harpo's cute goofball act irritated me and Chico always struck me as superfluous. Admittedly, I'd only seen bits of their movies but they didn't leave me wanting more.
Tonight during the semi-serious musical interlude scene, after Chico's gleeful piano recital, with Harpo sat at the, ahem, harp I suddenly got it. Without my consent and by some devious and insidious double-dealing I realised that I had been and was being entertained. Somewhere, somehow I must have had preconceptions of the Marx Brothers holding me back and they had been shattered. It's funny but that's human nature, no doubt some offhand comment at an impressionable age left its indelible mark upon me- like the scar from a childhood tree-climbing mishap- and I'd had my guard up all of this time. ¡Sono un idiota!
Like all great comedy films, this is cleverly paced-out- a breathlessly funny scene like the Groucho/Chico contract negotiation ("That's what they call a sanity clause." "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus!") being followed by a the liner boarding scene and Allen Jones and Kitty Carlisle's rendition of the song 'Alone'. It also features some great second-string performances from Margaret Dumont and Sig Ruman.
The gags come in all forms from slapstick to the very subtle, both verbally and visually, some side-splitting and some excruciating but all funny in their own way. I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it. 6/10.
A quick note for my memory because it's late and I'm tired and I'm all giggled out. I've always found the Marx Brothers to be horribly overrated- Groucho is hilarious but Harpo's cute goofball act irritated me and Chico always struck me as superfluous. Admittedly, I'd only seen bits of their movies but they didn't leave me wanting more.
Tonight during the semi-serious musical interlude scene, after Chico's gleeful piano recital, with Harpo sat at the, ahem, harp I suddenly got it. Without my consent and by some devious and insidious double-dealing I realised that I had been and was being entertained. Somewhere, somehow I must have had preconceptions of the Marx Brothers holding me back and they had been shattered. It's funny but that's human nature, no doubt some offhand comment at an impressionable age left its indelible mark upon me- like the scar from a childhood tree-climbing mishap- and I'd had my guard up all of this time. ¡Sono un idiota!
Like all great comedy films, this is cleverly paced-out- a breathlessly funny scene like the Groucho/Chico contract negotiation ("That's what they call a sanity clause." "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus!") being followed by a the liner boarding scene and Allen Jones and Kitty Carlisle's rendition of the song 'Alone'. It also features some great second-string performances from Margaret Dumont and Sig Ruman.
The gags come in all forms from slapstick to the very subtle, both verbally and visually, some side-splitting and some excruciating but all funny in their own way. I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it. 6/10.
