Film Review
The Marx Brothers are at their manic peak in this hilarious send-up of
college life, one of their most popular and entertaining films.
Buoyed up by the success of their previous films for Paramount (which
had all been based on their stage plays) and free of the
restraints that would later be imposed on them after
their move to MGM, the Marxes are at their most inventive and
uninhibited, never letting convention, logic or good taste get in the
way of a good joke. How they managed to evade ending up in a lunatic
asylum is one of the great unsolved mysteries of Hollywood.
The humour ranges from innocent slapstick to the downright
risqué, with several madcap excursions into surrealism along the
way. Whether it's the relentlessly funny banter between Groucho
and Chico (their password sequence is pure genius), or Harpo's
constantly surprising visual jokes, the humour never flags for a second
and there is hardly a gag that misfires (although you may have to watch
the film two or three times to catch all of them).
Horse Feathers is an absolute
delight - fast, witty and the most brilliantly observed satire of
college life ever. In no other film do the Marx brothers
work together so well, sparring off each other with an unerring precision that
not even a Swiss clock could match. Even Zeppo, the oft-neglected
spare rib of the team, gets to shine as the juvenile lead, offering a
glimpse of what might have been if he had pursued a solo career as a
straight actor.
An anarchic tour de force,
Horse
Feathers is a film that had audiences rolling in the aisles when
it was first released and it is still just as funny today - a
super-duper tsunami-sized barrage of the funniest jokes you will ever
find outside a
Monty Python
sketch. If ever there was a film that proves beyond any doubt
that comedy is the noblest of the arts, this maelstrom of inspired madness is it.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
When he takes over the position of dean of Huxley College, Professor
Quincy Wagstaff decides that academic success is distinctly
démodé and declares that the college should work on
enhancing its sporting prowess. His son Frank divides his
time between courting the college widow and scoring points on the
football pitch; Wagstaff approves of the latter, but sanctions the
former, mainly because he himself has taken a liking to the widow in
question. To ensure that Huxley College wins a football game
against the rival Darwin College, Wagstaff recruits speakeasy iceman
Baravelli and speak-not-at-all dogcatcher Pinky to kidnap two players
in the opposing team. Inevitably, things do not go according to
plan...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.