DVD/150: MONKEY BUSINESS (Norman Z McLeod, 1931)

The Marx Brothers' third film was box office gold for Paramount and, while certain set pieces were based on stage sketches, MONKEY BUSINESS was their first written directly for the screen and filmed in Hollywood.

Four stowaways on an Atlantic liner are discovered and run amok evading capture - and that's the first 75% of the film!  There is a dull sub-plot about returning racketeer Helton being threatened by his rival Briggs, so Helton hires Chico and Harpo as bodyguards while Briggs hires Groucho and Zeppo: not that the brothers are bothered - Groucho is more interested in Briggs' bored wife Lucille...

Once back, Helton's daughter is kidnapped by Briggs so it's the Marx Brothers to the rescue!

Chico plays a piano and mangles the English language, Harpo plays a harp and chases women, Groucho has inexhaustable one-liners and is pure charisma while Zeppo gets to be the romantic juve.

Shelf or charity shop?  Although not as uprorious as it might once have been, there is still enough dizzying wordplay and great sight-gags to make it an entertaining watch.  By now the brothers' rapport was seamless and to watch them in full flight is still wonderful.  A particular highlight is where Harpo gatecrashes a Punch & Judy show to escape an officer and becomes a character in the show: a surrealist touch being that there appears to be no puppeteer.  There is also the wonderful set piece where the stowaways each attempt to disembark pretending to be Maurice Chevalier.  No Margaret Dumont this time but Groucho has an excellent partnership with Thelma Todd, perfect as the hard-as-nails Lucille who is a solid foil for Groucho to literally dance around.  She registers well as another sexy wife in the next Marx film HORSE FEATHERS but three years later, in one of Hollywood's most puzzling cases, was found dead in her car in a garage.  Allegedly locked out of their shared apartment by her lover and business partner, it is surmised that she got into the car and turned the motor on to keep warm.  However the whispers of either foul play by her partner or the mob have haunted the case; a sad end for this talented actress.

Groucho: I wish to announce that a buffet supper will be served in the next room in five minutes. In order to get you in that room quickly, Mrs. Schmalhausen will sing a soprano solo in this room.

Groucho: That's what I always say: love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.