My choice for the best Fun-Stupid movie of 1929-30 is a pretty easy one: the first Marx Brothers movie ever and one of their best, The Cocoanuts.For the "Why A Duck" routine alone it would be a must-see.
As good as it is, it's hard to imagine now the impact it had on audiences of the day. This being a very early sound picture, it's safe to say no one had ever seen (or heard) such a display of verbal wit on the big screen before. The resulting movie was a tremendous hit, one of the biggest of the Marx Brothers' career.
The story, as if it matters, revolves around an incompetent hotel owner and a crooked land deal, but in fact, the plot is just an excuse for Groucho Marx to torment Margaret Dumont and for Chico and Harpo to torment Groucho. Throw in some songs and a romance between two people you couldn't care less about, and you've pretty much described the plot of every Marx Brothers movie ever made.
But as Roger Ebert often points out, you don't judge a movie based on what it's about but on how it goes about it. And the Marx Brothers go about it here as well as they ever went about anything in their career.
I have to admit, this represents an evolution of my opinion of The Cocoanuts. Being a rather conventional person, I had always subscribed to the conventional wisdom that the Marx Brothers started well but steadily improved and peaked somewhere around 1933-35 with Duck Soup and A Night At The Opera. I had always thought of The Cocoanuts, being the first Marx Brothers movie, as essential for a devoted fan such as myself, but a bit too saddled with plot and minor characters to recommend to the first timer or casual fan.
But in working on this blog, I've now re-watched the movie two or three times, and I have to say, I've now come around to the notion that The Cocoanuts is up there with Animal Crackers, Duck Soup and A Night At The Opera. Because they first performed most of this on stage (only the scenes where Harpo eats a phone and a flower were new), the comedy is the most polished of the entire Marx Brothers' oeuvre. Yes, there's too much plot and too many non-Marx Brothers moments, but when it's good, it really is great.
Question: While researching the Marx Brothers, I read the following statement at a website called "The Golden Age of Hollywood": "Zeppo, the youngest brother was considered the funniest offscreen but played a bland, juvenile straight man onscreen." It's not an unheard of phenomenon—for example I am brilliantly witty on the printed page, as you well know, but mind-numbingly dull in person—and it's possible that while Zeppo was undisputedly bland on screen, he was a hoot off it. Does anybody know? I encourage those readers who have read more about the Marx Brothers than I evidently have to leave a comment confirming or denying the assertion that Zeppo was "the funniest offscreen."
