Marx Brothers Collection - Monkey Business/Horse Feathers/Duck Soup [DVD]
(Universal Pictures UK - 2007-06-04)
3 Discs (204 minutes)
Region: 2 - Universal, suitable for all

Usually dispatched within 24 hours


Customer Reviews (Average 5.0 from 3) :
happy days
Rating:5
I saw the later, more polished, films in the cinema and these earlier ones are a delight as you watch their anarchic antics under poor direction. they are funnier than the later ones for that reason, since they have more freedom to push the boundaries back than later.

fantastic product wrong picture
Rating:5
Both Monkey Business and Duck Soup are excellent transfers. Horse Feathers is a little rough but passable. These are the three top M.B. films (all Paramount features). Do not expect Animal Crackers as this is the wrong picture of the box.

Full Marx, of course
Rating:5
This box set has to be one of the best bits of value around for classic cinema comedy, and it's nicely restored, with decent subtitles. However, it's still worth asking whether the Marx Brothers will survive as anything more than a historical curiosity. The high-power verbals between Chico and Groucho, the surreal flights of Groucho deflecting the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the anarchism of Harpo are all now over 70 years old, and though I love them (aged 60) I can't be certain anyone else will.

My partner is 30, and Turkish (pretty good English but lost on cultural references): his verdict, which I think will stand the test of time, is Good in Parts. What he picks up on the destructive quality - especially against authority as in the immigration scene in "Monkey Business" - he knows the value of danger to good comedy. What he despises is the cheap slapstick of falling over chairs, and the interminable links between the good bits.

He loves "Duck Soup", with its push into the kind of territory "Waiting for Godot" makes its own. But that one had a real director, Leo McCarey, which they never had anywhere else.

It's a curious fact about the Marx Brothers that they strictly alternated good and bad movies, for no obvious reason. Animal Crackers - bad; Monkey Business - good; Horse Feathers bad; Duck Soup - Good; A Day at the Races - bad; A Night at the Opera - good.

Me? I love the Marx Brothers and I hate them too. I hate them for being so lazy, careless and unprofessional. I hate them for valuing their talent so low. I hate them for coasting on their Yiddish schtick and never bothering to ask if they could do better. They didn't survive in Hollywood, and they didn't deserve to, though it's a bit of a mystery why they even lasted 10 years. (I exclude a Night in Casablanca, which is a bit of an afterthought, and better than it ought to be.)

These four movies, even the weaker ones, catch them at the top of their game, and if you ignore Zeppo and the musical sequences you can have a lot of fun and vicarious pleasure kicking hell out of all kinds of authority.


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