#Marx brothers collection dvd movie#
In 1934, the three Marx Brothers (Zeppo left the act to become their manager) found a new home at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a new patron in production chief and movie wunderkind Irving Thalberg. Because of his good looks and (relatively) stiff demeanor, Zeppo played the straight man or romantic lead in the early films, leaving Groucho, Chico and Harpo to mind the comedy store. Their early films for Paramount were ground-breaking exercises in comedy anarchy, with such films as "Monkey Business," "Animal Crackers," "Horse Feathers," and in this reviewer’s opinion, their magnum opus "Duck Soup." These films also featured a fourth Marx Brother, Zeppo. Consider every seminal movie comedy of the last seventy years and, six degrees of separation later, you’ll wind up at the Marx Brothers.Īlso, their output can be distinctly separated between the two studios that they called home. In many ways, what the Marx Brothers did for film comedy was give it the biggest shot in the arm. As the silent comics contorted their bodies, manipulated scenery and the film frame itself, the Marxes twisted language, dispatching puns, malapropisms, non sequiturs, and misplaced modifiers with unrelenting agility. In the Marx Brothers’ hands, er, mouths, words became props. For many early filmmakers, words meant dialogue, a means to forward the story without necessarily showing action. Simply put, what made The Marx Brothers the talkies’ first great comedians was their command of words. Where the Marx Brothers differed and ultimately excelled in the new age of sound cinema was their understanding of the stage microphone hovering over their heads. For Les Freres Marx, leader Groucho had his thick eyebrows and moustache, Chico with his pointy cap and Harpo with his golden curly hair, raggedy top hat and overcoat stuffed with enough gadgets that puts Batman’s utility belt to shame. The Little Tramp had his bowler and cane, Keaton had his Great Stone Face and Lloyd his spectacles. At first, the Marx Brothers seemed to follow the established pattern of the silent comics, drawing humor from physical appearance. Harold Lloyd made a few sound films, most notably "The Cat’s Paw" (1934) and "The Sins of Harold Diddlebock" (1947) directed by Preston Sturges, but never achieved the heights of "Safety Last" or "Girl Shy." The four Marx Brothers first hit movie screens in 1929 with Paramount’s "The Cocoanuts," basically a filmed version of their successful Broadway play, featuring songs and score by Irving Berlin. Buster Keaton quietly receded from the screen, reduced to a gag writer (remember this tidbit). The trouble was, the silent comics really didn’t know what to do with them.Ĭharlie Chaplin took thirteen years before making his first full-talking picture. Whereas silent comedy relied solely on the visual with sight gags, pratfalls, and physical shtick, sound brought a new element into the comedic mix: words. When films transitioned from the silents to the talkies, screen comedy underwent a pivotal transformation as well.
0 kommentar(er)
