The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup)
by Joseph Santley, Leo McCarey, Norman Z. McLeod, Robert Florey, Victor Heerman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Lillian Roth, Zeppo MarxDirector: Joseph Santley, Leo McCarey, Norman Z. McLeod, Robert Florey, Victor Heerman
Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
Writer: Arthur Sheekman
Writer: Ben Hecht
Writer: Bert Kalmar
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Box set, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 403 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-09
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup)
Movie Review: A great set that collects five of the funniest movies ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
For my money, this is as great as comedy gets. The movies themselves are not always perfect, but the great Marx Brothers skits contained within the films are my favorite comic moments in the history of cinema. Two DVD sets now contain all of the Marx Brothers films, but of the two, this one is clearly the one to get if you can only get one. All of the films in this set feature the Brothers at the height of their art, while the other set contains films in which they have either started to show their age or have begun to run out of ideas. Not one of these five films, however, is weak from a comic point of view, though the technical difficulties afflicting THE COCOANUTS can be a tad off putting. Some have stated a preference for the second set because it contains so many more special features, but only one movie in that second set withstands comparison with these five (A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, though A DAY AT THE RACES was also a strong film). I personally rarely watch special features more than once, while I watch the films themselves over and over. This set includes:
THE COCOANUTS (1929)
This is a fascinating translation of the Marx Brothers Broadway smash on to film, made in New York during their final Broadway success, ANIMAL CRACKERS. The skits are outstanding despite the fact that they are clearly learning how to bring their comedy to the screen. They learned quickly. For instance, on stage Harpo always wore a red wig, but his red wig in this film makes him look like a brunette. In subsequent films he wore a blonde wig instead, shifting back to a red wig for public appearances. This is probably the oldest sound film that is still widely watched. The limitations the primitive sound technology placed on the film are significant. For instance, they did not yet have a way of coordinating an orchestra track with a film track, so they literally had to film the dance numbers with an orchestra just off to the side of the stage. Also, the microphones were not terribly advanced. The voices always sound terrible, while they discovered that paper near the microphone crackled so much that it distracted from the performers. Notice the map in the famous "Why a duck?" skit. The reason it is so limp is they soaked it in water before filming so it wouldn't make so much noise. They had most of these initial sound problems solved by the time they made their next film.
ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930)
If it weren't for THE COCOANUTS, this would be one of the oldest frequently watched film that exists. I will not argue that this is their best movie, but it is the one that contains more of my favorite skits. Unfortunately, the subplot about stolen paintings keeps interrupting the Brothers' chaos. One absolutely stupendous skit after another, from Captain Spaulding's alternately absurd and bawdy remarks to Harpo and Chico showing Margaret Rutherford another way to play bridge.
MONKEY BUSINESS (1931)
Another early sound classic. This is in many ways one of the Brothers' funniest films, and the first half of the film, which takes place on an ocean liner, is as good as they got. Unfortunately, the second half slacks off just a bit. Still great, but the first half contains the best bits. One of two films with Thelma Todd instead of Margaret Dumont.
HORSEFEATHERS (1932)
Another stellar comic classic, Groucho plays a college president who recruits a couple of ringers (Chico and Harpo) for the school football team. The tragic Thelma Todd (her death remains the most spectacular unsolved crime in Hollywood history) plays the college widow. Contains perhaps fewer classic skits than the other four films in this collection, but still funnier than just about anything else ever made that didn't feature the Marx Brothers.
DUCK SOUP (1933)
Easily the best script the Brothers ever worked with, the folks with the studio finally realized that the romances and subplots simply distracted from what made the Marx Brothers films so great: the Brothers themselves. Margaret Dumont returns after having been away for a couple of films, and while Thelma Todd was superb, absolutely nothing surpasses the comic and romantic (?) interplay between Groucho and Dumont. Leo McCarey is arguably the best director they worked with, and the one who best seemed to understand what they were all about. By any standards, this is one of the great comic films ever made. I actually prefer the skits in ANIMAL CRACKERS, but this is clearly the stronger film of the two.
Over the years I've seen literally thousands of films of all kinds of genres (my great claim to fame in life is that I once won the Silver Screen edition of Trivia Pursuit on one turn, the first time I played it). I can point to the precise moment I because a serious movie fan. When in college I accidentally stumbled into a room where they were setting up a project to show a movie, and when the lights went out MONKEY BUSINESS appeared on the screen. Perhaps I would have gone on to be a film buff anyway, but I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Marx Brothers. If anyone has a passion, as I do for classic movies, one has to start somewhere, and these five films were precisely the films that first engendered my love for great films and comedy.
More The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) reviews:
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Summary of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup)
INCLUDES: COCOANUTS ANIMAL CRACKERS MONKEY BUSINESS HORSE FEATHERSDUCK SOUPSimilar DVD Movies
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