Topic: Marx Brothers - blind buy?

[falsealarms]

I bought the other Warner set for 23.99, so I've plunged full-fledged into Marxdom now. If 3 of the 7 films on there are good, then I'll be happy, especially with the horde of extras.

A Night at The Opera
A Day at The Races
A Night in Casablanca
Room Service
At the Circus
Go West
The Big Store

[xraffle]

I bought the other Warner set for 23.99, so I've plunged full-fledged into Marxdom now. If 3 of the 7 films on there are good, then I'll be happy, especially with the horde of extras.

A Night at The Opera
A Day at The Races
A Night in Casablanca
Room Service
At the Circus
Go West
The Big Store

Those films are their weak ones. The only really good one was "A Night At The Opera." The first hour of "A Day At The Races" was good, but the last hour was boring and padded out with musical numbers. The first half hour of "The Big Store" was good, but the rest was quite a drag. In "Go West" only the first 10 minutes was good. The other movies weren't all that great. "At The Circus" wasn't all that great. "A Night In Casablanca" had some good parts here and there, but overall, the movie was weak. "Room Service" was boring and I find myself falling asleep when watching that. I find that one to be the worst one out of the 7.

Unfortunately, when you bought the Paramount set, you bought the 5 best movies of the Marx Brothers. It's all downhill from there. Don't even get me started on "Love Happy." If you want to buy that one individually to complete your collection, feel free. But don't say I didn't warn you.

[locoboymakesgood]

I've always liked A Night in Casblanca, but I'll echo that this Warner box are the weaker ones in the bunch. Love Happy has to be one of the most unwatchable films ever - lucky WB was smart enough to not include it.. they didn't want people to suffer.

[falsealarms]

From what I've gathered, things didn't really slip until after A Day At The Races (Thalberg's death). And A Night in Casablanca was a rebound from the four before it.

For what it's worth, here's how they are graded on IMDB

Soup - 8.1/10
Opera - 8.0
Feathers - 7.7
Business - 7.6
Crackers - 7.6
Races - 7.6
Cocoanuts - 7.1
Casablanca - 7.0
Circus - 6.8
West - 6.7
Service - 6.6
Store - 6.4
Love Happy - 5.7

On pure plot, Big Store, Room Service, and A Day At The Races seem like the most intriguing but time will tell.

Anyone here dare to rank these films?

[Justin T]

I've always liked A Night in Casblanca, but I'll echo that this Warner box are the weaker ones in the bunch. Love Happy has to be one of the most unwatchable films ever - lucky WB was smart enough to not include it.. they didn't want people to suffer.

I've always liked A Night in Casablanca, its decent. Love Happy is just horrible, the worst Marx Brothers movie ever in my opinion,
which is sad since it was their last as a team.

Night at the Opera and Day at the Races are great, but after that X is right, things just go downhill. I havent watched Room Service
in ages but I remember some funny stuff in it, but not much else. Don't remember much from Circus or West which is very telling in
of itself. The beginning of The Big Store is great and there are some good moments but not enough to make it really good. Its decent
but no where near the level of Duck Soup or Night at the Opera.

Since I havent watched all the Zeppo era movies I wont rank em just yet.

[xraffle]

What I didn't like about "Love Happy" is that Groucho's part is really small. He's my favorite Marx Brother and only seeing him for a short time was depressing. The whole movie was focused on Harpo. If you're a big Harpo fan, chances are, you'll like the movie. But it's nice when all of them have equal parts. Besides, Harpo works well with Chico, which is why they're always partners in almost all the movies.

I read somewhere that the reason why Groucho's part was small was because he initially didn't want to be in the film, but they managed to persuade him to be a few scenes. I could be wrong, but that's what I heard from some people.

[falsealarms]

Groucho and Harpo stand out for me. Chico has his moments, but trails the other two. Zeppo did little for me.

[metaldams]

I read somewhere that the reason why Groucho's part was small was because he initially didn't want to be in the film, but they managed to persuade him to be a few scenes. I could be wrong, but that's what I heard from some people.

Groucho never even appears on screen with his brothers!  I do like LOVE HAPPY as a Harpo vehicle, and it does have Dom Dimaggio's sister-in-law in it.  ***

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA = ****1/2 Great movie, best MGM Marx film.

A DAY AT THE RACES = ***1/2 Some great scenes, but a bit bogged down in musicals and love scenes.  Runs way too long.  Irving Thalberg is missed.

ROOM SERVICE = **** Call me nuts, but I like this movie better than A DAY AT THE RACES.  Totally atypical Marx Brothers, they're really more just actors than themselves as the script wasn't for them, but a good screwball comedy nontheless.  The last really good Marx film IMO.

AT THE CIRCUS = *** Some good scenes, but "Two Blind Loves" gives me burning diahrrea.

GO WEST =  **1/2 Possibly their weakest effort.  Great for the first 10 minutes, atricious after that.  I know Keaton worked on the train finale, but that kind of thing is done better by the master himself, not by (great) studio comedians in a studio setting.

THE BIG STORE  **1/2 = *** Saved by some scenes with Margaret Dumont and Groucho asking Henry Armetta, after finding out he has 12 children, "Got any other hobbies?"

A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA = ***1/2 Best Marx movie in a while, though the boys are older.

[falsealarms]

Thanks for the input. Interesting input from people who know their films better than I do. If anyone else here has something to add, by all means.

[moglia]

From what I've gathered, things didn't really slip until after A Day At The Races (Thalberg's death). And A Night in Casablanca was a rebound from the four before it.

For what it's worth, here's how they are graded on IMDB

Soup - 8.1/10
Opera - 8.0
Feathers - 7.7
Business - 7.6
Crackers - 7.6
Races - 7.6
Cocoanuts - 7.1
Casablanca - 7.0
Circus - 6.8
West - 6.7
Service - 6.6
Store - 6.4
Love Happy - 5.7

On pure plot, Big Store, Room Service, and A Day At The Races seem like the most intriguing but time will tell.

Anyone here dare to rank these films?

I've been a fan of Marx's almost as long as the Stooges. Here's my ranking:

Horse Feathers 9.5/10 (a bunch of classic bits in this one + My favorite Groucho song; I'm Against It. The Life Savers candy bit may seem worn out, but it was the first time it was ever done)

Duck Soup - 9.4 /10 (many say it's their best, I can't argue, but I've a soft spot for Horse Feathers)

Opera - 9.0 (if it didn't have the musical numbers it would be an even stronger movie IMHO. Groucho's stateroom 'nuff said)

Cocoanuts - 8.0 (Whyaduck?, I Want My Shirt is a gem. Music by Irving Berlin. Raw and somewhat unpolished, an underrated movie)

Monkey Business - 7.9

Animal Crackers - 7.9 (Hooray For Capt Spaulding)

A Day At The Races - 7.2

A Night in Casablanca - 6.9 (so-so , but easily their best effort of the 1940's)

Big Store - 6.5

Go West - 6.2 overall - 8.0 for the first 10 minutes, 5.5 after that

Room Service - 5.2 (claustrophobic, not really written for them, a few laughs, and a young Lucille Ball)

At The Circus - 3.5 (I loathe this movie, not even Lydia The Tattooed Lady can help this dog out)

Love Happy - No Rating, because to me it's not a Marx Brothers Movie, worth a watch to see Marilyn Monroe's screen debut in the short Groucho scenes.

DM

[falsealarms]

I liked HF the first time I saw it, but it was better the second time. Somehow I never saw that life savers gag done before I saw it in HF this week.

[xraffle]

Here are my ratings:

Duck Soup - 10/10 (perfect from start to finish, not a minute wasted.)
Horse Feathers 9/10
Monkey Business - 8.7/10
Animal Crackers - 8.6/10
A Night At The Opera - 8.5/10
The Cocoanuts -8/10
A Day At The Races -8/10
A Night in Casablanca - 7/10
Big Store - 6.5/10
At The Circus - 5.5/10
Go West - 4.5/10
Room Service - 4/10
Love Happy - 2/10

[metaldams]

What the heck, throw in my little Paramount Marx opinions as well.

THE COCOANUTS **** Fascinating early talkie, warts and all, with some great scenes.  I'll never look at a viaduct the same.

ANIMAL CRACKERS **** Pretty much same opinion as above.

MONKEY BUSINESS ****1/2 Don't know why, but I never cared for the barn finale, hence the half point deduction.  Love the rest.

HORSE FEATHERS ***** Think the football theme influenced THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS?  A perfect film, short and sweet.  A DAY AT THE RACES could learn from this for its brevity.

DUCK SOUP *****  Classic.  Short and sweet again, what else can be said that hasn't been said?

[BeAStooge]

July 7, THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957) was added to the Warner Archive listings.

Other than one showing on TCM a few years ago to cap off a 24-hr Marx Brothers festival, STORY has been out of circulation for decades, and has never been on home video.

[falsealarms]

Goes to show how good of a deal those Warner and Paramount sets were.

19.99 for 1 movie
or
23/24.99 for 5 or 7 movies (plus extras).

[locoboymakesgood]

Goes to show how good of a deal those Warner and Paramount sets were.

19.99 for 1 movie
or
23/24.99 for 5 or 7 movies (plus extras).

This is much, much different. The Warner Archive collection can't be bought in stores and are a burn-on-demand service. I'm not saying that justifies the prices, but that's a set pricepoint for most titles in the Archive. Not the same as the boxsets that were mass-produced and sold in retail stores. You won't find The Story of Mankind at Best Buy or Walmart.

[falsealarms]

A Night at the Opera was great. I liked it considerably more than any of the five from the Silver Screen Collection and it brought the Marx Brothers to a new level for me. Opera had so many great scenes:

- Groucho being kicked down the stairs
- The contract scene
- The crowded room scene
- The moving beds scene
- The scene where they sit down to eat and Harpo fools around with everything on the table
- The scene where Harpo is dangling off the boat on a rope
- The speech scene at city hall
- The opening dinner scene
- Take Me Out to the Ballgame
- Everyone swinging from the ropes back stage at the end - the last 15-20 had non-stop action.

Very little in this movie didn't work. And there was at least one Stooge connection - Gino Corrado briefly appears.

[metaldams]

Very little in this movie didn't work. And there was at least one Stooge connection - Gino Corrado briefly appears.

He was also the only actor to appear in both CITIZEN KANE and CASABLANCA.  I've read he was in INTOLERANCE as well.  Quite the resume.

[archiezappa]

Ah, yes.  Gino Corrado.  He was probably my favorite foil for the Three Stooges.  His appearance in "Micro-Phonies" was hilarious.  I wish he had been in more Stooges shorts.  I really enjoyed the story of what happened to him.  The article was written by Bill Cappello.  And it's on his website, among other Stooges related articles.

[xraffle]

Wow! I must be jinxed. I received my replacement copy today from Amazon and this time it came in a box. However, those plastic thingies that hold the discs are different and removing the discs were very difficult. I hate this case. The first one I got was much better. I don't know why Universal isn't consistent with the case of this set. So, I'm just going to screw it. I'll take the partially crushed copy I have and send back the replacement I just got. So much for that.

[falsealarms]

The box for the Paramount set is pretty lousy. It's big and clunky and not put together well. The booklet being bound to the box was especially dumb. The Warner set is fabulous with a big box that houses the movies each in their own keepcase. I hate those fold out boxes.

[xraffle]

Yeah, I like the packaging for stooge sets much better. Also, the bonus disc only has 3 interviews on it, each of which are only 5 minutes. That's only about 15 minutes of content all dedicated to one disc. They could have easily put that in one of the movie discs. This whole set is messed up.

[archiezappa]

I definitely agree that the packaging for the Warner set was far superior to the Paramount set.  Those digipaks just don't hold up.  In the case of this set, it's almost too large to fit on the shelf with my other DVD's.  Kinda like it was made to sit in a display case all by itself or something. 

The bonus disc idea was a good one, except they didn't include very much bonus material.  This could have easily been a 5 disc set, including what little bonus material was included.  I understand that they had access to way more material than was included.  They could have put "The Great Jewel Robbery" on there, since it's in their vaults.  Or, how's about a couple episodes of "You Bet Your Life?"  Or their scene from "The House That Shadows Built?"  There was so much material that they could have used for the bonus disc, but they just didn't.  Ah, well... 

[falsealarms]

A couple of more observations -

A DAY AT THE RACES - Not as good as A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, but a very solid film that rates among their best. The year (1937) and the horse racing scenes at the end reminded me of PLAYING THE PONIES. The scenes at the track from this movie were were zanier than the ones from PLAYING THE PONIES. The downside to this film was about 15-20 minutes were wasted on a few horrendous musical numbers. I don't want to sound too harsh on the musical numbers -- some of them work -- but most don't and they don't hold up poorly 70 years later.

ROOM SERVICE - Better than I expected it to be based on reviews, but a couple notches below their best stuff. Lucille Ball and Harpo were underused and I got the sense this film had a small budget since most of it took place in a single room. Besides Ball (THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS), Stanley Blystone briefly appears at the end as a cop.

[xraffle]

The downside to this film was about 15-20 minutes were wasted on a few horrendous musical numbers. I don't want to sound too harsh on the musical numbers -- some of them work -- but most don't and they don't hold up poorly 70 years later.

You're not harsh at all. The MGM musical numbers weren't very good. The Paramount ones were much better. Who cannot like I'm Against It, Hooray For Captain Spaulding, and Just Wait 'Till I Get Through With It? But none of the MGM musical numbers interest me, not even Cosi Cosa.

I really thought "A Day At The Races" would've been better if they removed the musical numbers. The movie is almost two hours, so cutting it down to 90 minutes would've done it a lot of good.

I'm glad you like "Room Service." For some reason, the movie didn't make me laugh much.

BTW, "Duck Soup" and "Room Service" are the only two movies of The Marx Brothers where Harpo and Chico don't play their instruments.

I really don't plan on getting this Warner set as I don't find these movies all that great. I don't mind having only the Paramount movies in my collection. For some reason, I can't get myself to watch some of the movies like "At The Circus" or "Go West" again. I only saw those a couple of times and that's enough for me.