Topic: The Big Store (1941) - The Marx Brothers

[metaldams]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033388/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4alHEsmG3uA

Watch the trailer in the link above.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1JKUmHMno

Watch the entire film on link above.  PC only, no mobile devices.



      THE BIG STORE would be the final MGM film for The Marx Brothers.  Actually, in the advertising for this film, The Marx Brothers advertised this as a farewell film, as you will see in the trailer above.   Their first farewell film, they will correctly state, as they would make two more farewell films after this one!  The next film won't be until five years later, and my understanding is that they needed to help Chico pay off some gambling debts.  The reasons for the farewell were diminishing box office returns, advancing age (they were in their fifties at this point), an uncomfortable relationship with Louis B. Mayer, tiring of their characters, and weary of a world at war....so I've read.  Anyway, they just felt it was time.

      Interestingly enough, the first final Marx Brothers film is not just a Marx Brothers film, as they share top billing with leading man Tony Martin.  Perhaps MGM figured a team with diminishing box office returns would benefit from sharing a bill with Martin, and the promise of a farewell would surely bring paying customers into the theater as well.  THE BIG STORE did gross more than the past couple of films, but only a minor profit.

      Now, onto the film itself.  Like I say, there's no such thing as a bad Marx Brothers film, and this one starts out real well only to fizzle out in the end.  The scene with Groucho and Harpo in their office with Margaret Dumont is a classic.  I love the way the office starts out as a bed by the wall and eggs cooking and coffee brewing on Groucho's desk.  When they see Dumont about to come in, they brilliantly have pulley devices to hide the breakfast inside the desk, get the bed inside the wall, and have the windows look less homey and more professional.  Reminds me of some gags from Buster Keaton's THE SCARECROW, and I would not be surprised if Keaton had his hand in this.  If not, the influence is truly there.  Harpo pulling out the back seat cushion of a parked car and pulling out every imaginable tool from such a tiny space besides the kitchen sink is also very Keatonian.

      Another part I love is the scene with Henry Armetta and his twelve kids.  Groucho taking one look at the family and asking Armetta if he has any other hobbies is an all-time favorite Groucho moment of mine.  The mechanical beds popping in and out of the walls with kids of several different nationalities getting lost is again, very Keatonian.  Say, I wonder if I should have saved this one for my Keaton discussion?  Anyway, it's a shame gags like this did not appear in Keaton's own talking MGM films!  They certainly would have suited him.

      The "Sing While You Sell" big musical number with Groucho lacks the wit of his other more famous numbers, but is still a lot of fun to watch with its big production, catchy tune, and Groucho's charisma.  However, Virginia O'Brien is the one who steals the number, as she does this wonderfully insane deadpan rockabilly singing thing that's better seen than described.  I love her little part there, she's fun.  Oh, and speaking of music, this is probably my favorite Harpo harp solo.  Now this one, Big Chief, could not have been done live, as there are several different instruments playing and different screens of Harpo playing different instruments.  Love the baroque sounding music interrupted by moments of swing.  Harpo taking a cello, playing it like an upright bass, then twirling it around is awesome.

      Ah, but it's not all roses.  Tony Martin is fine in his non romantic parts, but the part where's he's recording the record for his adoring fan is a bit sappy for my tastes.  Then there is the notorious "Tenement Symphony."  Oy vey!  I don't know what to think of it anymore, it might just transcend normal awfulness and live on a strangely charming planet that only the musical numbers of Muriel Landers in SWEET AND HOT also lives on.  Really over the top what the Hell am I watchingness.  The lyrics are weird, talking about Gershwin taking a G chord and diminishing it and making some bad pun about four flats (flats in music and a tenement, geddit?).  Martin's posture is almost a parody of masculinity, with his puffed out chest and arms opened wide, voice deep and operatic.  The children's choir in shadowed lighting...really, the slight break of Harpo and Chico jamming together is the only earthly moment of the whole deal.  Tony Martin lived a very long life, had a long and successful career, so God bless him, but he's just not in my wheelhouse.  My Tony Martin sang for Black Sabbath (Google it).

      The final slapstick chase scene is not to my liking.  If Keaton had something to do with that one, it's not one of his better moments, but it doesn't feel like Buster.  Just a lot of long shot graceless slapstick with things falling down and exaggerated cartoon gags.  I would be willing to bet there are stunt doubles in more than half the shots.  Certainly nowhere near the fun of the train sequence from GO WEST.

      Also want to throw in by this point Chico is a likeable presence on the screen, but is given very little good comedy.  It's like the writers had no idea what to do with him.

      A very strong first 75% of the film or so, but then it just kind of dies down.  If this is one of your lower tier films, however, you've got a pretty nice filmography.

7/10

[luke795]

Tony Martin was in a lot of the Ritz Brothers movies that were made at 20th Century Fox in the 1930s.  I really like the Chico and Harpo piano duet.  I also like the "Sing While You Sell" musical number. 

[Seamus]

I don't know what to think of it anymore, it might just transcend normal awfulness and live on a strangely charming planet that only the musical numbers of Muriel Landers in SWEET AND HOT also lives on. 

 

I'm not really qualified to comment on this one.  Finally got around to watching it three or four years ago, having been put off by the its not-so-hot reputation, and decided that it was too painful to ever merit a second viewing.  It didn't feel like a Marx Brothers movie, more like a bad musical extravaganza guest-starring the Marx Brothers.  This is the Marx Brothers' SWEET AND HOT (good call), and I suppose I might rewatch it at some point for the same reason that I might rewatch that Stooges short - as an act of perversion.

[metaldams]

Tony Martin was in a lot of the Ritz Brothers movies that were made at 20th Century Fox in the 1930s.  I really like the Chico and Harpo piano duet.  I also like the "Sing While You Sell" musical number.

I think it's awesome we have a resident Ritz Brothers expert.  Thanks Luke, I did not know that about Tony Martin.

[metaldams]

I'm not really qualified to comment on this one.  Finally got around to watching it three or four years ago, having been put off by the its not-so-hot reputation, and decided that it was too painful to ever merit a second viewing.  It didn't feel like a Marx Brothers movie, more like a bad musical extravaganza guest-starring the Marx Brothers.  This is the Marx Brothers' SWEET AND HOT (good call), and I suppose I might rewatch it at some point for the same reason that I might rewatch that Stooges short - as an act of perversion.

I would just call the "Tenement Symphony" scene on the level of SWEET AND HOT as far as bizarreness goes, but not the entire film.  There are some strong scenes here worth watching, in my opinion.  Now for me personally, I have not seen LOVE HAPPY in a very long time, and I will be busting out my VHS copy when I review it!  That's one I'm long overdue to watch again.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

There's just too damn much music in this one, but Groucho in Sing While You Sell is just amazing.  He performs like someone half his age.  And his crosstalk routine with Margaret Dumont is as good as any they ever did.  And yes, Tenement Symphony is just atrocious.  In his later years, Tony Martin modeled for a man's girdle in ads that ran in the back of magazines ( not sleazy magazines, either - mainstream stuff - I'm thinking it was mainly Parade Magazine, the Sunday newspaper supplement, where it ran for years ).  He didn't undress, he was pictured in a suit, the ad stressed that it was undetectable under your clothes.  My point being, he looks like he's wearing one here.
     Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan rock-a-bye mamma, did that act in quite a few movies, different songs of course.  By the time she sang Life Upon The Wicked Stage in the 1953 Show Boat, she had a much looser style and was quite graceful and lovely.  She also looks like she might qualify for the Tall Actresses thread.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Tony Martin, incidentally, just died a couple of years ago, in 2012.  He lived to be 98 and a half.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Anybody else notice that the little janitor in the chase scene is a part that could have been written as a cameo for Buster Keaton?  The actor even looks like him.  Since we've decided that it's possible that Buster was a gag man on this film, it's fun to imagine that he might have written it for himself, then for whatever reasons ended up not playing it.  Obviously, the part, which as it stands doesn't have a real good reason to be in there, would have been a hoot with Buster doing it.

[Bum]

Oddly enough, I have two Marx Brothers books which, in their negative reviews of THE BIG STORE, both make not-very-flattering references to the Stooges:

1968's "The Marx Brothers at the Movies" [by Paul Zimmerman and Paul Goldblatt], contains this passage regarding the scene with the ethnic children and the beds that disappear into the wall:

"....the humor belongs to the machines, not the Marxes. The Brothers are reduced to pushing the buttons, worthy task for the Three Stooges perhaps, but the Brothers are no stooges."

OUCH! And here's this from 1973's "Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo" [by Joe Adamson]:

"AT THE CIRCUS looks like situation comedy. GO WEST operates on an Abbott and Costello level. THE BIG STORE is as good as anything the Three Stooges ever did. AT THE CIRCUS is disappointing. GO WEST is uneven. THE BIG STORE is a mess."

DOUBLE OUCH!!! More proof that, even as recently as the '60's and early '70's, there was still not a lot of love for "Our Boys" from critics of so-called "serious comedy". It's still hard to believe!

[metaldams]

Oddly enough, I have two Marx Brothers books which, in their negative reviews of THE BIG STORE, both make not-very-flattering references to the Stooges:

1968's "The Marx Brothers at the Movies" [by Paul Zimmerman and Paul Goldblatt], contains this passage regarding the scene with the ethnic children and the beds that disappear into the wall:

"....the humor belongs to the machines, not the Marxes. The Brothers are reduced to pushing the buttons, worthy task for the Three Stooges perhaps, but the Brothers are no stooges."

OUCH! And here's this from 1973's "Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo" [by Joe Adamson]:

"AT THE CIRCUS looks like situation comedy. GO WEST operates on an Abbott and Costello level. THE BIG STORE is as good as anything the Three Stooges ever did. AT THE CIRCUS is disappointing. GO WEST is uneven. THE BIG STORE is a mess."

DOUBLE OUCH!!! More proof that, even as recently as the '60's and early '70's, there was still not a lot of love for "Our Boys" from critics of so-called "serious comedy". It's still hard to believe!

      I know I've told this story before, but it bears repeating, I had a film professor who called The Three Stooges "universally hated."  This was a little over ten years ago.

      I also mentioned that James Neibaur in his THE FALL OF BUSTER KEATON book, not only unusually mentions The Three Stooges in a Keaton book, but favorably reviews Curly's taking the stand routine in DISORDER IN THE COURT vs. Keaton's version in SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK.  This was in 2010, so I do think The Three Stooges get slightly more respect these days.  I think this is now because the generation who grew up watching The Three Stooges on television are more elder statesmen than they were in the 60's and 70's.  All that previous generation saw was a bunch of guys who made quickie two reelers.

      Look, even I admit The Three Stooges came along later than most other great film slapstick comedians, so I can understand them not being the critic's number one, but they also have unique characters and a chemistry that have made people laugh for generations.  Still, critics knocking The Stooges just rolls off my shoulders these days.  It has zero effect on my enjoyment and my ability to discuss this stuff with you guys.

      I will say, minus the Three a Stooges dig, the critique about the machines in THE BIG STORE is valid, as I stated these gags feel more Keaton than Marx Brothers.  Still great stuff either way.

[metaldams]

Anybody else notice that the little janitor in the chase scene is a part that could have been written as a cameo for Buster Keaton?  The actor even looks like him.  Since we've decided that it's possible that Buster was a gag man on this film, it's fun to imagine that he might have written it for himself, then for whatever reasons ended up not playing it.  Obviously, the part, which as it stands doesn't have a real good reason to be in there, would have been a hoot with Buster doing it.

Fun to imagine, but no way Louis B. Mayer would allow Keaton in a Marx Brothers film.  He was a strict gag man at this point, and MGM kept gag men as gag men and actors as actors.  Kind of what hurt Keaton's MGM's ten years earlier, because at that time, Keaton was only allowed to be an actor, and his films required he be much more.

[metaldams]

     Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan rock-a-bye mamma, did that act in quite a few movies, different songs of course.  By the time she sang Life Upon The Wicked Stage in the 1953 Show Boat, she had a much looser style and was quite graceful and lovely.  She also looks like she might qualify for the Tall Actresses thread.

Yeah, I was reading up on that, and I may check out a film on TCM one of these days if I know she's in it.  As far as the last sentence, believe me my friend, I notice these things.   

[Seamus]

There's just too damn much music in this one, but Groucho in Sing While You Sell is just amazing.  He performs like someone half his age. 

Groucho's talent for song and dance numbers seems to get overlooked, but watching his later TV performances on the Marx Brothers TV Collection really drove home how great he was at that kind of thing.  Just last night I watched his "Dr. Hackenbush" performance from The Hollywood Palace (1964), and even at that age he made it look so effortless.

[Larrys#1]

The office scene with Groucho and Harpo is hilarious and probably, the only part of the movie where I laughed. After that, this film takes a big dive. The Marx Bros’ screen time diminishes, the musical numbers become excessive, and the romantic subplot arises. And the musical numbers in the film bugs me in particular because they are long and very very frequent. It’s like every other scene is a musical number and it becomes very bothersome.

I do want to bring up another positive thing in this film…. I do tend to bitch and moan about the solo instrument bits, especially Harpo, but Harpo gives one of his finest harp performances. It was so upbeat and full of life. It’s hard to explain, but I found this harp performance, in particular, very breathtaking.

In short, a couple of good things occur in this film (the office scene and Harpo’s amazing harp performance), but the film overall is littered with musical numbers and non-Marx Bros scenes.

5.5/10

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

     Metal, Buster did do a number of character parts around this time at MGM, in major productions with headliners like Judy Garland and Alice Faye.  But you're right, what I'm imagining would have been more in the nature of an in-joke than anything else.  I think in those terms sometimes, as you know:  how much better Fred Kelsey would have been as the detective in Pop Goes The Easel, how good Cy Schindell would have been as Shemp's replacement had he not died too young, and just watch the chase in The Big Store ( God, even that title is way too bland ) picturing Buster as the janitor.  It's like that actor is just Buster's stand-in.
     BTW, I bought Moe Howard and the Three Stooges when it first came out in - what? - '74, '75, whenever, and Leonard Maltlin's book on Movie Comedy Teams came out a couple of years earlier, I think.  Before that, there was nothing.  Nothing.  Larry's book came out earlier,  I guess, and was bought by maybe three people.  Never mind critical appreciation, you couldn't even find biographical information.  It wasn't until Moe's book that I found out their name was Horwitz.  Any highbrow who dissed the stooges was unchallenged.  Never mind that the act was making millions at that very time, live and in syndication.  Compare that to something I read lately, I forget where, which called the Three Stooges the most successful act in the entire history of Show Business.  That's more like it, and given the act's longevity and success in all the various media, it may very well be true.

[hiramhorwitz]

   
      I also mentioned that James Neibaur in his THE FALL OF BUSTER KEATON book, not only unusually mentions The Three Stooges in a Keaton book, but favorably reviews Curly's taking the stand routine in DISORDER IN THE COURT vs. Keaton's version in SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK.  This was in 2010, so I do think The Three Stooges get slightly more respect these days.  I think this is now because the generation who grew up watching The Three Stooges on television are more elder statesmen than they were in the 60's and 70's.  All that previous generation saw was a bunch of guys who made quickie two reelers.

     

Fun fact:  James Neibaur was one of the first writers contributing to The Three Stooges Journal, having penned articles starting in Issue 4, published in Spring of 1976.  As you no doubt know, the most recent edition of the Journal is Issue 152, published in Winter of 2014.

[metaldams]

Fun fact:  James Neibaur was one of the first writers contributing to The Three Stooges Journal, having penned articles starting in Issue 4, published in Spring of 1976.  As you no doubt know, the most recent edition of the Journal is Issue 152, published in Winter of 2014.

That's great, and I guess I'm not surprised.  A lot more Stooges comments than normal in a Keaton book, I got a feeling he's a fan, and again, I think he was one of the ones who grew up with The Stooges on television.  Same with Leonard Maltin in his comedy teams book, he was really young when he did that book, roughly the same generation.  I think the generation or two before never had the same appreciation for the Stooges, as again, to them, the Stooges were simply making 2 reelers in the form's dying days.  I think the TV impact was lost to them, yet the TV impact moves forward to even me, somebody born in the late 70's.

[Dr. Mabuse]

"The Big Store" was intended to be the Marxes' cinematic farewell. After seeing the finished product, it's understandable that Groucho, Harpo and Chico would reconsider and bow out on a stronger note with "A Night in Casablanca." Though "The Big Store" finds the brothers in good form, it suffers from a weak script and some bad musical numbers. Groucho has some great moments as detective Wolf J. Flywheel and his final pairing with Margaret Dumont is memorable. In addition, Harpo and Chico perform their only piano duet. Unfortunately, MGM saddles the Marxes with Tony Martin and his awful "Tenement Symphony" — not to mention a silly climactic chase that belongs in an Abbott and Costello movie. It's a shame that "The Big Store" wasn't more consistent in tone. At least it's better than "At the Circus."

6/10

[Allen Champion]

THE BIG STORE is not as bad as Leonard Maltin makes it out to be, but its still not a great Marx.    The writers seemed to understand Groucho's character better than Irving Brecher (Nat Perrin worked on DUCK SOUP), who seemed to confuse Groucho with Bob Hope.  (Check out the "You certainly have good eyesight" nonsense in GO WEST and you'll see what I mean.)    Chico has little to do, but I love all the musical numbers, the Chico-Harpo duet (which became a staple of their act on TV and in Las Vegas),and I even kinda like Tenement Symphony.  If you can't have Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle in your Marxmovie, Tony Martin and Virginia Grey are fine substitutes--worlds better than Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, John Carroll, or Diana Lewis.  (I do like Diana Lewis in Keaton's  GRAND SLAM OPERA, though).  THE BIG STORE also benefits from Douglas Dumbrille as the villain, not seen in a Marxmovie since RACES.  The film also has an overall spirit of comic insanity missing since DUCK SOUP.   But I will admit, the climax is pretty sloppy, not half as good as the train ride in GO WEST, even if none of the gags rely on the personalities of the Marxes.   Like WEST, STORE is  Mediocre Marx.