DVD: HORSE FEATHERS (Norman Z Mcleod, 1932)

This time The Marx Brothers gatecrash college life and it's football team.

Groucho is Huxley College's new president who is asked by son Zeppo (in real life eleven years younger!) to buy two star players for the college football team but after a crook buys the players for the opposition, Groucho mistakenly signs up iceman Chico and dog-catcher Harpo!

It culminates in a chaotic football match via the apartment of the mobster's girlfriend (the wonderful Thelma Todd).

The plot is negligable as it is, in essence, a series of set-pieces that had been road-tested onstage as far back as 1910 in FUN IN HI SKULE.

But what set-pieces... Groucho trying to get into a speakeasy with the password 'swordfish', the Brothers descending on Todd's apartment in pure door-slamming farce style (sadly, this scene is ruined by jarring jump-cuts) and Groucho teaching an anatomy class.

Shelf or charity shop?  A keeper for the fact it is pure Marx,  With the plot frequently taking a backseat, it's easy to sit back and enjoy the anarchic madness of the brothers let loose.  I told you all about the tragic Thelma Todd in the blog for MONKEY BUSINESS and here she appeared with the lads for the last time.  As well as the usual running gag of the vast array of items that Harpo pulls out of his coat pockets, this time there is also the delight of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby's EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU running through the film sung at different times by Groucho, Zeppo and Chico - and of course Harpo has a harp rendition.  It was of course the song that gave Woody Allen the title for his 1996 musical, and there is an outlandish dance routine for Groucho and the faculty professors at the start of the film with one of his most-remembered songs "I'm Against It"

As Chico starts playing his obligatory piano number, Groucho turns to the audience and says "I've got to stay here, but there's no reason why you folks shouldn't go out into the lobby until this thing blows over."

Groucho: Baravelli, you've got the brain of a four-year old boy, and I bet he was glad to get rid of it.