Film Review
The film that launched the Marx Brothers on their gloriously anarchic
film career was this adaptation of a popular stage play which they
performed in the mid-1920s, written by George S. Kaufman and with songs
provided by Irving Berlin. The Marxes had made one film prior to
this, a silent two-reeler entitled Humor Risk, but this is now lost,
believed to have been destroyed by Groucho Marx after an unsuccessful
preview.
The Cocoanuts
is where the brothers' career took off, making them an international
comedy sensation. Although they were unhappy with the film, it
proved to be an enormous success and audiences clamoured for more of
the same.
Not surprisingly, given the primitive recording technology of the time,
The Cocoanuts is the most
dated and visually uninteresting of the Marx Brothers' films. Yet
despite the static cameras, clumsy staging and poor sound quality, the
film is a delight, replete with the kind of hilarious Marx Brothers
routines which would have a generation of cinema audiences rolling in
the aisles. Admittedly the song and dance numbers sometimes feel
like an unwarranted distraction, but they add to the gaiety of the
piece and capture something of the exuberance of the twenties just
before the world economy went into a tailspin.
The production of
The Cocoanuts
proved to be something of a logistical and technical nightmare.
Chico's gambling habit was the thing that caused most of the
headaches. He would frequently go missing, leaving his brothers
to run around in a frantic attempt to find him at whichever racetrack
he had chosen to lose his shirt on. Another problem was the
inadequacy of the sound recording equipment, which would pick up and
amplify the tiniest unintended sound and make the dialogue
unintelligible. In particular, director Robert Florey could not
contain his laughter when he saw the Marx Brothers perform, with the
result that little could be heard above his enthusiastic guffaws
and the noise of the cameras.
The solution was to enclose the cameras and operators in soundproof
glass cubicles, within which Florey would direct using hand
signals. Any paper used on the set (such as Groucho's map) had to
be soaked in water so that the sound of its crinkling didn't drown out
the dialogue.
The Cocoanuts may not be the
slickest Marx Brothers film but it contains some of their funniest
material. Harpo literally gets to chew (and drink) the scenery,
in between honking his horn, strumming his harp and chasing after
pretty young things (with no hope whatever of catching them).
Meanwhile, Chico and Groucho get well and truly trussed up in the first
of their many miscommunication sketches. "Here is a viaduct..."
explains Groucho, to which Chico enquires "Why a duck?", ad nauseum,
leading to the memorable auction scene in which Chico, misunderstanding
what Groucho has asked of him, outbids everyone else, and himself.
Harpo may be the most sympathetic character and Groucho may get the
best lines (and at least half of those look suspiciously as if they
were improvised), but it is Chico who ultimately steals the show with
his amusing but absolutely flawless piano routine. Margaret
Dumont, often dubbed the fifth Marx Brother in their films, appears for
the first time as Groucho's love-interest and comedy punch-bag whilst
Zeppo, condemned to play the straight man, hardly gets a look
in. If side-splitting slapstick, zany wordplay and madcap comedy
hi-jinks are your thing, you will treasure every moment of this bumper
offering of first rate lunacy.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Robert Florey film:
Le Blanc et le noir (1931)
Film Synopsis
Mr Hammer is the owner of a Florida beach hotel who, thanks to the
housing slump, is having difficulty attracting customers. Staying
at the hotel is the wealthy widow Mrs Potter and her daughter
Polly. The latter is in love with Bob Adams, an aspiring young
architect who works as a clerk at the hotel, much to the disapproval of
Mrs Potter, who wants her offspring to marry the far more respectable
Harvey Yates. What Mrs Potter doesn't know is that Yates is a
high class crook who, with his accomplice Penelope, plans to steal her
priceless diamond necklace. When two down-and-outs named Chico
and Harpo arrive at the hotel, hoping to deprive the clientele of their
wallets and wristwatches, Penelope realises that they will be the
obvious suspects when Mrs Potter's jewels go missing...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.