When you think of the classic comedies of the 1930s, it’s hard not to recall the painted-on moustache and cigar smoke of Groucho Marx, the malapropism-ladened Italian accent of Chico Marx, the pantomime harp-playing clown Harpo Marx or the bumbling straight man as characterised by Zeppo Marx. They were The Marx Brothers and together they produced some of the most memorable, joke-filled, hysterical movies and comedy moments ever filmed. This family of brothers, whose impressive body of work includes Duck Soup, Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers, A Night At The Opera and A Night In Casablanca, performed with each other for five decades. There was never a comic troupe quite like The Marx Brothers, although their antics inspired countless comedians including: The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and even Cheech & Chong. However, The Marx Brothers were not a product of Hollywood at all. For 20 years before they set foot on a movie soundstage, they struggled on the vaudeville circuit, playing in every town and whistle-stop in the United States and Canada. Their mother Minnie Marx was part of the act, was their manager and was often their producer. There was even a fifth brother, Gummo, who dropped out of the act before fame finally struck. Finally, after years of struggling, The Marx Brothers arrived when I’ll Say She Is became the surprise Broadway hit of 1924. Suddenly they were on a hot streak. They quickly followed it with The Cocoanuts, which ran from October 1925 to November 1927, and then Animal Crackers in October 1928. In 1929, when motion pictures with sound were suddenly all the rage and set to revolutionise the film business, studios were scrambling to find actors who could not only act, but who could sing and talk as well. They looked to Broadway and so The Marx Brothers made The Cocoanuts in 1929. It was the first of 13 full-length feature films they made in a 20-year span. The rest, as they say, is history. Thanks to video, and now DVDs, the films of The Marx Brothers are still very much alive and accessible to modern audiences. Hopefully this book will inspire you to investigate the classic comedy work of The Marx Brothers, or perhaps discover a forgotten classic or two that you have never had the opportunity to see before.
*The DVD is not included with the digital version of this book.