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The Marx Brothers At The Movies
Author: Paul D. Zimmerman
Each chapter covers details and behind the scenes stories of each of the films the team made, from The Coconuts to Love Happy. Very well done, with a good mix of pictures.
Zimmerman and Goldblatt begin with a brief 5-page history on how the Marx Brothers developed their varied talents. A lot of the information was gathered from Harpo's autobiography. They then dive into the films in chronological order. Detailed summaries with quotes are provided but also a little analysis on the part of the authors, some history behind the making of the films (here, they quote a lot from the Groucho Letters), and excerpts from reviews published when the films were first released. The authors are not sycophants, either. They tell it like it is. Though they are definitely Marx Brothers fans and are not too critical of the Brothers' performances, they do not let them completely off the hook. They admit, for example, that the Brothers did not fare well in a film plot not built around them (Room Service). Sometimes their criticism is brutal, but usually when it came to the scripts, romantic leads, or musical numbers. "Room Service" is described as "pretty close to living death," the romantic leads in "At The Circus" were "the most repulsively saccharine of all," and "The Big Store" was "a musical comedy without comedy." They are not just critical of the later films; they do not, for example, care for "Animal Crackers" which they believe drags and does not play against the plot or jettison it like "The Cocoanuts."
The authors also provide some insightful analysis. They explain, for example, that Groucho and Harpo in character worked well with strangers in the storyline whereas Chico needed to play off one of the brothers; however, Chico worked well with both brothers whereas Groucho and Harpo's characters rarely worked together. Also, Chico was the only character to which Groucho played straight man (pg. 55).
Finally, this book offers hundreds of excellent quality photos from all the films. Some of the photos are 2-pagers. The authors did favor Harpo a lot in these photos. Four of the 2-page photos are just of Harpo. Although their one-page conclusion on the brothers since "Love Happy" and the current state of comedy (1950s) is very outdated, this book is still a valuable addition to any Marx Brothers fan's library.
