Groucho made several radio appearances during the 1940s and starred in You Bet Your Life, which ran from 1947 to 1961 on NBC radio and television.But when the evil owner of the circus steals the money needed to pay off the mortgage, it falls upon the strongman’s assistant Punchy ( Harpo Marx), circus hand Antonio Pirelli ( Chico Marx) and Antonio’s shyster lawyer friend, J. Chico fronted a big band, the Chico Marx Orchestra. Both pictures were released by United Artists.įrom the 1940s onward Chico and Harpo appeared separately and together in nightclubs and casinos. Four years later, however, Chico persuaded his brothers to make two additional films, A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), to alleviate his severe gambling debts. Prior to the release of The Big Store the team announced they were retiring from the screen. Despite the Thalberg films’ success, the brothers left MGM in 1937 Thalberg had died suddenly during filming of A Day at the Races, leaving the Marxes without an advocate at the studio.Īfter a short experience at RKO (Room Service, 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films: At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940) and The Big Store (1941). Two years later, A Day at the Races (1937), was an even bigger hit, in which the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race. The Stateroom scene developed with participation of Buster Keaton and became one of the most famous comedy scenes of all time. There is a famous scene in the film where an absurd number of people crowd into a tiny stateroom on a ship. So in the MGM films, the brothers were recast as more helpful characters, saving their comic attacks for the villains.
Thalberg, however, felt that this made the brothers unsympathetic, particularly to female filmgoers. In their Paramount films, the brothers’ characters were much more anarchic: they attacked anybody who was so unfortunate to cross their paths whether they deserved it or not, albeit comically. At the suggestion of Thalberg, the film marked a change of direction in the brothers’ career. It was a satire on the world of opera, where the brothers help two young singers in love by throwing a production of “Il Trovatore” into chaos. “ Is it my imagination, or is it getting crowded in here?” Groucho MarxĪ Night at the Opera(1935) was the first film made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring the Marx Brothers, and featuring Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Margaret Dumont, Sig Ruman, and Walter Woolf King. They signed, now billed as “Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Marx Bros.” At a bridge game with Chico, Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. Their last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933), directed by the highly regarded Leo McCarey, is the highest rated of the five Marx Brothers films on the American Film Institute’s list.Īfter expiration of the Paramount contract Zeppo left the act to become an agent. Horse Feathers (1932), was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of Time.
#Pictures of the marx brothers movie#
Their third feature-length film, Monkey Business (1931), was their first movie not based on a stage production. Their first two released films were adaptations of the Broadway shows The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). They signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and embarked on their film career at Paramount studios. The Marx Brothers’ stage shows became popular just as motion pictures were evolving to “talkies”. They satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for their improvisational comedy in free-form scenarios. They both left performing to run a large theatrical agency, through which they represented their brothers as well as others at times.īy the 1920s, the Marx Brothers had become one of America’s favorite theatrical acts, with their sharp and bizarre sense of humor.
Gummo was not in any of the movies Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight (non-comedic) roles.
Harpo and Chico “more or less retired” after 1949, while Groucho began a second career and became a well-known television host. Each developed a highly distinctive stage persona. The core of the act was the three elder brothers: Chico, Harpo, and Groucho. The group are almost universally known today by their stage names: Chico (Leonard Marx 1887–1961), Harpo (Arthur Marx, born Adolph Marx 1888–1964), Groucho (Julius Henry Marx 1890–1977), Gummo (Milton Marx 1893–1977), and Zeppo(Herbert Manfred Marx 1901 –1979). The Marx Brothers were a family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx w/ cast in the stateroom scene from “A Night at the Opera” (1935)
0 kommentar(er)
