# Marx Brothers 101 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210 "2010-08-14T02:58:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/21 "2010-08-15T02:31:38Z")
[My general comments on the Marx Brothers Films](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/marxes.htm). I think their most underrated film is **A Night in Casablanca**. Also, **Room Service** is really not bad, though it suffers from being a movie with the Marx Brothers in it instead of a Marx Brothers movie. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/22 "2010-08-15T03:41:17Z")
Aw, I saw A Night in Casablanca and liked it fine, and since I heard it was terrible, I was assuming that the worst for the Marx Brothers wasn’t that bad. Still, it seems like none of the scenes in the movie are as famous as Groucho’s letters to the Warner Brothers lawyers about the title, which are hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/23 "2010-08-15T06:04:35Z")
Ah, Lydia! To this day, I can’t meet a woman named Lydia and not think about that song. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen too often! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/24 "2010-08-15T06:22:00Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > > [@samclem](#): > > > > …and two more hard-boiled eggs. > > And a duck egg. > Groucho wrote quite a few books. > > You can buy them all, in a little shop, out by the viaduct. Most of them are funny, but _Das Kapital_ kind of drags. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/25 "2010-08-15T06:29:39Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > Aw, I saw A Night in Casablanca and liked it fine, and since I heard it was terrible, I was assuming that the worst for the Marx Brothers wasn’t that bad. Nah, A Night in Casablanca is the best of their last five or six movies. The handful before it, like The Big Store, are very skippable. Especially if you haven’t seen all the Warner stuff. Almost all of their best movies were for Warner Brothers. A Night at the Opera is the only one of their post-Warner movies that cracks the top five in my opinion. The top few for me are Duck Soup, Night at the Opera, Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, and Animal Crackers. The best parts of A Day at the Races are very good but the ending just makes me cringe. I don’t know where to start with a favorite line. Maybe “Marriage was good enough for your grandfather, but who wants to marry your grandfather? Nobody. Not even your grandmother.” Or any of his insults to Margaret Dumont at the beginning of Duck Soup, ending with “…if you can’t leave in a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that’s too soon you can leave in a minute and a huff.” ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/26 "2010-08-15T06:41:15Z")
“You see that man eating spaghetti? No? Well you see the spaghetti, don’t you?” ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/27 "2010-08-15T06:47:45Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > > [@cricetus](#): > > > > Aw, I saw A Night in Casablanca and liked it fine, and since I heard it was terrible, I was assuming that the worst for the Marx Brothers wasn’t that bad. > > Nah, A Night in Casablanca is the best of their last five or six movies. The handful before it, like The Big Store, are very skippable. Especially if you haven’t seen all the Warner stuff. Almost all of their best movies were for Warner Brothers. A Night at the Opera is the only one of their post-Warner movies that cracks the top five in my opinion. The top few for me are Duck Soup, Night at the Opera, Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, and Animal Crackers. The best parts of A Day at the Races are very good but the ending just makes me cringe. Nitpick: the Marx Brothers were at Paramount–not Warner Brothers–before they moved to MGM for **A Night at the Opera**. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/28 "2010-08-15T18:48:27Z")
I shot an elephant in my pajamas… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/29 "2010-08-15T20:39:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Especially if you haven’t seen all the Warner stuff. Almost all of their best movies were for Warner Brothers. A Night at the Opera is the only one of their post-Warner movies that cracks the top five in my opinion. Paramount. Sometime after Thalberg died, they jumped to MGM. They never worked for Warners. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/30 "2010-08-15T21:12:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > Especially if you haven’t seen all the Warner stuff. Almost all of their best movies were for Warner Brothers. A Night at the Opera is the only one of their post-Warner movies that cracks the top five in my opinion. > > Paramount. Sometime after Thalberg died, they jumped to MGM. They never worked for Warners. Thalberg _was_ at MGM and made their first two MGM movies, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/31 "2010-08-15T21:40:17Z")
> [@The\_Shroud](#): > > Don’t overlook my favorite Marx Brothers movie, _Horse Feathers_. Hilarious as always, and unlike _A Night at the Opera_, [the music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVj0gaTSMPc) is good enough not to bring the movie to a dead stop. _Horse Feathers_ is my favorite too. Swordfish! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/32 "2010-08-15T21:45:32Z")
:smack: ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/33 "2010-08-16T00:23:40Z")
“Who are you?” “I’m fine, thanks. Who are you?” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/34 "2010-08-16T02:05:40Z")
Production companies: **The Coconuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup** : Paramount **Night at the Opera, Day at the Races, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store** : MGM \*\*Room Service: \*\* RKO **A Night in Casablanca, Love Happy:** United Artists ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/35 "2010-08-16T02:53:52Z")
Watched _Night at the Opera_ and _A Day a the Races_ today. Thought the lauded stateroom scene in Opera was amusing but not the funniest scene ever or even the funniest scene in the movie. My favorite line was “I’d give you my seat, but I’m sitting here.” Cringed a bit at the blackface scene in Races but otherwise both were quite enjoyable (overall I thought the big musical number at the end (with Harpo on flute) was too joyous to be offensive, as some people find it.) They felt more conventional and less manic than Duck Soup and Animal Crackers but excellent all the same. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/36 "2010-08-16T13:26:56Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > Cringed a bit at the blackface scene in Races . . . I don’t think it was a blackface scene, it was real African-American performers. Acting a bit like minstrel-show clowns, I grant you. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/37 "2010-08-16T13:50:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > [@cricetus](#): > > > > Cringed a bit at the blackface scene in Races . . . > > I don’t think it was a blackface scene, it was real African-American performers. Acting a bit like minstrel-show clowns, I grant you. The Brothers do put axle grease on their faces as a disguise at the end of the dance sequence. (Harpo only does half his face.) It’s a very stereotyped depiction of black people and it reflects the time the movie was made. On the other hand these people can really dance, and it sounds like some of the musicians played with Duke Ellington, so in that sense they showed off some major talent. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/38 "2010-08-16T13:53:57Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > Watched _Night at the Opera_ and _A Day a the Races_ today. Thought the lauded stateroom scene in Opera was amusing but not the funniest scene ever or even the funniest scene in the movie. Yes, it’s like a gag that would just as easily have fit into a Buster Keaton movie, if Mayer & Thalberg hadn’t destroyed his career and reduced him to a piece-work gag writer. The stateroom scene is more sad than funny when viewed as a fragment of what MGM kept from us. I feel the same way about Marx/Paramount & Our Gang/Hal Roach vs their MGM incarnations. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/39 "2010-08-16T14:07:51Z")
The stateroom scene is too verbal to work for Keaton (“And a hard boiled egg.” \ “Make that two hard boiled eggs”). But I agree it’s not as funny as people make it out to be. I can think of a dozen Marx Brothers scenes that work better. Also, the payoff – when the door is opened – is poorly staged. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210/40 "2010-08-16T16:36:32Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > “Either this man is dead, or my watch stopped.” > > Stolen by the writers of M_A_S\*H (television). \* > > Edit: \*although, to be fair, Hawkeye was impersonating Groucho at the time A lot of Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce is basically lifted from Groucho Marx, IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marx-brothers-101/550210.md?page=3)