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Monkey Business (1931 film)

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Monkey Business with Harpo, Chico, Groucho and Zeppo Marx.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Z. McLeod
Written byS. J. Perelman
Will B. Johnstone
Produced byHerman J. Mankiewicz (uncredited)
StarringGroucho Marx
Harpo Marx
Chico Marx
Zeppo Marx
Thelma Todd
CinematographyArthur L. Todd
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
September 19, 1931
Running time
77 min
Country United States
LanguageEnglish

Monkey Business (1931) is the third of the Marx Brothers' movies and the first not to be an adaptation of one of their Broadway shows.

The film stars the four brothers: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx, and screen comedienne Thelma Todd. It is directed by Norman Z. McLeod with screenplay by S. J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone. The story takes place on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Plot

While stowing away on a ship to America, the boys get involuntarily pressed into service as toughs for a pair of feuding gangsters while trying desperately to evade the ship's crew. After arriving stateside, one of the gangsters kidnaps the other's daughter - and it's up to our unlikely heroes to save the day.[1]

Two famous scenes include all four brothers trying to sneak through a passenger checkpoint by pretending to be Maurice Chevalier (Harpo's turn is especially ingenious), and Harpo's outright wonderful attempt to hide from the authorities by posing as a puppet in a "Punch and Judy" children's show.[2]

Cast

Songs

Chico performs two songs, "Pizzicata Polka" by Leo Delibes, which then morphs into the song "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" written by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman, in his usual unique piano style. Harpo performs "I'm Daffy Over You." The most famous sequence from this film involves the four brothers attempting to get off the ship using a passport stolen from famous singer Maurice Chevalier. Each brother impersonates Chevalier (complete with straw hat) and sings "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" ("If the nightingales could sing like you ...") in turn. This poses a problem for Harpo, who never talks. Yet his rendition is nearly flawless. He is using a hidden phonograph playing a Chevalier record. When the turntable slows down and he has to rewind it, the ruse is uncovered.

Musical numbers

  • You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me
  • Pizzicata Polka
  • When I Take My Sugar to Tea
  • I'm Daffy Over You
  • Sweet Adeline
  • O Sole Mio

Sequel

According to TCM's Robert Osborne, a sequel was actually planned for this film that would continue the mafia theme; but during the planning stage, famous aviator Charles Lindbergh's son was kidnapped and killed by gangmembers. The writers quickly shifted gears and instead began basing the Brothers' next film slightly on the Marx Brothers' earlier stageshow Fun in Hi Skule, which would eventually evolve into their classic film Horse Feathers.

Reception and Impact

Monkey Business was a phenomenal success, and is, to this day, considered one of the Marx Brothers' greatest works (along with Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, and, to some degree, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races). The film was evidently based around two early routines the Marx Brothers did during their early days in vaudeville (Home Again and Mr. Green's Receptions), along with a story idea from one of Groucho's friends called The Seas Are Wet.

The concept of the Marx Brothers being stowaways on a ship would be recycled in their later MGM film A Night at the Opera. Also, Groucho's joke, "Sure I'm a doctor---where's the horse?" would serve as an integral element for their later MGM movie A Day at the Races. Also, the uproarious medical examination that Harpo and Chico give Madame Swempski would later be repeated in A Day at the Races.

Trivia

  • This film was banned in Ireland because censors feared it would encourage anarchic tendencies.
  • Upon alighting from the ship, the Marx Brothers' real life father ("Frenchie" Marx) is briefly seen in a cameo sitting on top of luggage on the pier as they wave to him.
  • Early in the movie, the brothers -- playing stowaways concealed in barrels -- harmonize unseen while performing the popular song Sweet Adeline. It is a matter of debate whether Harpo joins in with the singing; if so, it marks the only occasion his voice was ever heard on film. (Other than in At the Circus, in which he sneezes audibly, on camera.)
  • The first Marx Brothers film not to feature Margaret Dumont. It was felt she was not "sexy" enough for the part.
  • Except in the credits, the Brothers' characters have no names in this movie. They are referred to only as "the stowaways".[4]

References

  1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022158/plotsummary
  2. ^ http://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/m/marxbrothers_ssc.shtml
  3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022158/
  4. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022158/trivia

See also

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