To her credit, there’s little any actress could have done with that particular character. Some very weak writing, there, which is sadly typical with Spielberg and female roles.
Sarah Brightman. The second Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Webber. She can sing and dance, but she is hardly an actress.
Much as I enjoy Zeppo for being Zeppo, it’s really hard to make the case that he’s doing anything other than making it on the others’ coattails (something Zeppo agreed with himself. Also, remember – when he left, the other brothers didn’t see it as a loss – IIRC, Groucho’s comment was “We’re twice as good without him.”) The main reason why the others had no idea what to do with him was that there was nothing he could do particularly well.
Oh, he was pleasant, and nice, and he tried hard, but he really has no personality and no ability to tell a joke. In the “Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungdunga, and McCormack*” scene, he does have some very funny lines, but his delivery makes them flat and dull. He also has some good lines in “Monkey Business,” too, but he never makes them as funny as they could have been.
He was much too lightweight to be taken seriously as a romantic lead, his jokes come off as amateurish, his straight lines are “pushed” too much, and he gives the impression of some community theater actor who has suddenly wandered onto the set, and tried his best. It’s charming, but it’s not good.
Comparing him with Kenny Baker and the ilk is wrong, since Baker was intended to be a serious romantic lead, wheras Zeppo never was (IIRC, he made a few passes in “Monkey Business,” and was dating Connie Bailey in “Horse Feathers,” but that was played for laughs). I couldn’t imagine him being able to pull off a real romantic part; he’s much too wooden to be believeable.
It’s 100% certain he’d never be in films if it weren’t for his brothers. He probably wouldn’t even have been in the act if Minnie hadn’t drafted him into it when Gummo left in order to keep their billing as “The Four Marx Brothers.”
*I left out a Hungadunga in his honor.
I disagree. That movie was impossible to stop dead because it stopped dead before Allison Eastwood even got on screen.
She was horrible, but I’ve never seen a movie move so slow. Andy Warhol’s Sleep moves faster.
Actually it moved pretty quickly… away from the source material, that is. (The book is NOT a murder mystery, Clint! And Lady Chablis was wwaaaaaayy overused in the film version.)
I agree, and I usually like Clint Eastwood as a director but he really fell down on this one. It had all the Hollywood conventions that he usually avoids. maybe he was just saddled with a bad script but there was a potentially very good movie in there somewhere and he just didn’t find it that time.
Huh? Ricky Jay was one of Mamet’s wives?
No
68 posts and the name “Wayans” hasn’t appeared once?
When I was a kid I used to love the PBS show Meeting of the Minds. It was hosted by Steve Allen and featured a talk show format in which the guests could be anybody from history (Martin Luther, Thomas Paine, Genghis Kahn, Sun Yat Sen, etc.) and I remembered it as really intriguing, though like so many things that are intriquing at 10 it’s possible that at 38 it would seem cheesy as Gorgonzola in the sun.
Even then, though, I hated when one of the guests was a woman and it wasn’t misogyny but MisMrs.Allenogy. Every woman in history looked just like Steve’s wife Jayne Meadows Allen.
It was one thing when she was playing Rachel Jackson or Catherine the Great, but when the 57 year old Mrs. Allen was playing Marie Antoinette (executed at 38), Cleopatra (died in her 40s), or Helen of Troy it was just absolutely laughable. (This is a show I’d like to see revived, incidentally.)
How about Lorraine Gary stinking up every Jaws movie by virtue of being married to the President of MCA? OK, maybe she was OK in the first one, but after that…ugh.
Also, let’s not forget Clint’s unfortunate decision to cast Kyle Eastwood in Honkytonk Man.
One more: Linda Harrison’s role as Nova in the original Planet of the Apes. I remember watching it for the first time thinking, “All she has to do is stand there and not say a word, and she’s still terrible.” Then I found out she was Dick Zanuck’s wife and all was made clear.
Kim was funny as the bad singer in “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” and they had a funny line about her being the director’s sister.
Not from there, but I was stationed there when I was in the Navy, and stayed for a few years - 18 all told. We lived in Clay County the whole time.
There are a couple talented Wayans, but the vast majority of them are just riding Keenan’s coattails, or the coattails of his coattail riders. Plus, there’s so damn many of them! I think someone needs to set off a Wayans Bomb somewhere in Hollywood to get rid of the infestation.
Yep, that’s the one David DeLuise.
John Murray - Scrooged.
Actually, he only got the starring role in Moving Violations because of his brother. Not that his brother got him the job, but because they were able to promote is as “Starring Bill Murray’s Brother”
Holy crap. I am so tempted to put some political jokes…but I won’t sully the cafe society or bring down the onslaught that would ensue. As it is…
[Norm MacDonald]
That’s right. Frank Stallone.
[/Norm MacDonald]
Also, neither Joan nor Melissa Rivers should ever be in front of a camera ever again. Ever.
Anjelica Huston was GREAT in the Addams Family movies and The Grifters. Especially The Grifters. You must be watching some other Anjelica Huston.
Reality Chuck, we’re going to have to agree to disagree about Zeppo. But the detail and quality of your post indicates that you are a True Marx Fan, and as such, you are welcome to disagree with me about important things (like Zeppo, or the possibility that Room Service is underrated) any time.
She should have won some kind of award for being the Evil Stepmother in Ever After.