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Marx Brothers Filmography
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Marx Brothers: Hollywood
The Marx brothers' stage shows became popular just as Hollywood was making the change to "talkies". The brothers struck a contract with Paramount and embarked on their career in movies. Gummo left the group before their jump to film; Zeppo would replace him for the Paramount pictures. Their first two films were adaptations of Broadway shows: The Cocoanuts
(1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). Both were written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Their third film, Monkey Business
(1931), was their first that was not based on a stage production. Horse Feathers (1932), in which the brothers satirized the American College system, was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of Time Magazine. It included a running gag from their films where Harpo revealed having nearly everything in his coat. At various points in
Horse Feathers Harpo pulls out of his coat: a wooden mallet, a coiled rope, a tie, a poster of a woman in her underwear, a cup of hot coffee, and a candle burning at both ends.
The last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933), directed by Leo McCarey, is now considered by many the finest: it's the only Marx Brothers film on the American Film Institute's "100 years...100 Movies" list. In 1933, however, the public was not receptive to a satire of dictators and war, and it did not do well at the box office. Its controversial themes also led to the brothers being fired by the studio. Additionally, Zeppo, tired of having to play the straight romantic lead, announced he would do no more films after
Duck Soup.
The three remaining brothers moved to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and, following the suggestion of producer Irving Thalberg, decided to alter the formula of subsequent films. In the rest of their movies, their comedy would be interwoven with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers. Only the first five films represent what is considered their genius in its pure form. The first movie that the brothers shot with Thalberg, was A Night at the Opera
(1935), a witty satire of the world of opera music, where the brothers helped two young singers in love. The film was a great success, followed two years later by A Day at the Races (1937), where the brothers caused mayhem at a racecourse. However, during shooting in 1936, Thalberg died suddenly, and his without him, the brothers didn't have an advocate at MGM .
After a short experience at RKO (Room Service
, 1938), the Marx Brothers made three fairly good pictures before leaving MGM, At the Circus
(1939), Go West
(1940) and The Big Store
(1941). To face up Chico's gambling debts, the Marx Brothers shot another two pictures together, A Night in Casablanca
(1946) and Love Happy (1949), both of them produced by United Artists. Then they worked together, but in some different scenes, in a bad picture, The Story of Mankind
(1957). This was followed by a tv special, The Incredible Jewel Robbery in 1959.
Chico and Harpo went on to make, sometimes together, some theatrical appearances, and Groucho begun a career as a radio and tv entertainer (from 1947 to the mid-1960s, he was the host of the funny quiz show You Bet Your Life
). He was also an author, his writings include the autobiographical Groucho and Me (1959) (Da Capo Press, 1995, ISBN 0306806665) and Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1964) (Da Capo Press, 2002, ISBN 0306811049).
The 1957 TV talk show
Tonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, may supply the only public footage in which all five brothers appeared. On January 16, 1977, The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
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