The Cocoanuts Film Review

At the beginning of this film the hotel staff gathers around Groucho. The Bellboy “We haven’t been paid in two weeks. We want our wages”. Groucho “Wages? Do you want to be wage slaves? Answer me that.” “Of course not”. Groucho “Well what makes wage slaves? Wages. I want you to be free. There is nothing like Liberty except Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post”. And the satisfied bellboys and bell girls break into a musical number.

When sound came to the movies, so did the Marx Brothers. They were made for each other. Groucho with his rapid fire head spinning cracks, puns and insults, Chico with his made-up Italian accent mangling the English language like a garbage disposal and even the mute Harpo used sound to wonderful comic effect. There was nothing like them before or since. Their style of humor is unique and as American as goulash. Right out of vaudeville to Broadway and to Hollywood. It took them years to develop their act. Brought up as first generation Americans born to Jewish immigrants living in New York City, they were pushed by their stage struck mother Minnie to get into show business. Some of her relatives had and she loved it. There were five brothers – Zeppo and Gummo as well – who all at some point got on the stage but it was the main three who stuck to it. They began as a singing group and were not going anywhere. Then one night Groucho seeing how poorly they were doing threw in a few digs insulting the audience and their town. The audience laughed and continued to laugh. The Brothers decided comedy was what they did best.

They started in 1905 with Groucho and then the others joining him and over the next few decades evolved their style and took on distinct personas. Groucho with his painted on moustache and eye-brows, his stoop and almost always present cigar, Chico decided to be Italian – back then ethnic comedy was very popular and other actors took on personas as Swedes or Germans even though they weren’t. Clearly a no go today. Harpo decided to be a mime and use anything within reach to make comedy. Eventually they brought their act to Broadway and had specific plays written for them with their input and room for loads of improvisation. No one knew what was going to happen on any given night. Cocoanuts was a big hit in 1925 and written by George Kaufmann who became one of the great humorists on Broadway and in Hollywood. The music was written by Irving Berlin who did ok himself. When Paramount offered them a deal, they were on Broadway with Animal Crackers, their next film. They worked at the film studio during the day and raced to do their show at night.

The Marx Brothers were to make thirteen films of differing quality. Everybody has favorites but for me three of those are classics (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races), four are quite good (the first four – Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers) and then from 1938 starting with Room Service all of their films had wonderfully amusing scenes but were uneven and never lived up to the chaotic brilliance of their earlier work. Groucho agreed with that assessment. After Thalberg at MGM died, he felt that the scripts got worse and the films were sub-standard and he constantly talked of quitting the movies. At least this is how I remember the films. I haven’t watched these films in a decade or two and want to re-watch most of them. A question I have, does the Marx Brothers comedy hold up 70-years after their last one, Love Happy? Does it feel relevant today? Is it just too wildly different from what goes for comedy today to make sense for audiences? Is it still funny to a younger crowd?

Because their films take you to such a place of total irreverence for everything around them. Anarchy, chaos, confusion with these odd time-outs for Harpo to play the harp or Chico the piano or just a musical number. There is usually a romance in there of two young love birds for them to help by hook or by crook – usually crook. When the three of them are together in a scene it can be sublime – their perfect timing, verbally and physically – but can also bring on a sensory overload. Some of their humor is of the time. For example, in the quote above when Groucho says give me Liberty or Colliers or the Saturday Evening Post, he is making a pun because there was a Liberty Magazine – all three now defunct. The central premise may be unfamiliar to many. The play and the film centers around the land grab and quick buck artists in Florida selling swamp land to Northerners. Back in 1929 Florida was still undeveloped and it became a joke like selling someone the Brooklyn Bridge. Though I guess that phrase is out of date as well. I am carbon dating myself like the fossil I am.

Humor changes over time more so I think than any film genre. Noir, crime, drama, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, action and adventure are as easy to appreciate now as it was 100 years ago. Not so humor. Who thinks the Ritz Brothers are funny anymore or Ma and Pa Kettle or TV shows like Father Knows Best? Most of the comedy acts from the 30’s and 40’s are long forgotten. Wally Brown and Art Carney anyone? Wheeler and Woolsey? But some seem eternal. Laurel and Hardy. Chaplin and Keaton. But all those other clowns of the Silent Era? There were so many. Nearly all forgotten. I like to think that the Marx Brothers are eternal but I see so many Letterbox reviewers who rate them fairly lowly. A lot of criticism seems directed at comedy that has become politically incorrect – the treatment of women especially poor Margaret Dumont who was the target of many of Groucho’s jibes and insults is now looked on as cruel (in real life they were the best of friends) or the stereotyping of minorities which is nearly impossible to avoid in the old films. Not to mention their constant inappropriate chasing of women. Literally chasing. One of my favorite scenes in this one is when Chico and Harpo realize that every time they ring the bell at the front desk another bell girl arrives, they keep ringing and then go chasing after them as the girls scatter like bees. Is that funny any more?

I wanted to start with their first film – their introduction to the world. It is limited by the crude technology of the day regarding sound and keeps a stage play stage bound. But between the comedy set pieces and the musical numbers, there is a plot tucked within. Not much of one but it is there. Groucho owns a hotel with very few paying guests and is trying to unload real estate. The front desk man Bob (Oscar Shaw) is in love with Polly (Mary Eaton) who is the daughter of the wealthy Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont). Of course, Mrs. Potter forbids her daughter from marrying this man with no prospects. A middle-aged lothario (Cyril Ring) wants to marry Polly for her mother’s money. He conspires with the femme fatale (Kay Francis) to steal a diamond necklace belonging to Mrs. Potter and Bob gets blamed and jailed for it. Our boys have to get them all out of this jam. And that is about it.

Well except for the many wonderful comedy set pieces big and small that very much display their theatrical petticoats. All of them are very static and stagey. But some brilliant comedy of various styles is happening between those walls, bouncing off one another, intruding on one another, flashing by so quickly that you know you missed a joke in there. There is the hotel lobby number in which Chico and Harpo come in together and turn everything to chaos with Chico double talking and Harpo pickpocketing anything he can – sometimes with his teeth – or eating anything including a phone. Next is the perfectly timed double-room set piece with the audience able to see two rooms next to each other at the same time with all three of them coming and going through various doors and rolling under beds with Kay Francis looking on as if a hurricane hit her. You can easily see how this would work on the stage. Then there is the auction. Groucho to Chico “You know what an auction is don’t you?’. “Sure, I came from Italy across it”. “Ok, you have to go across the viaduct”, “But why a duck. Why not a chicken?”. The film basically sets in place what is to come in all their films – their characters never really change, Groucho’s relationship with Dumont. Mrs. Potter, “I don't think you'd love me if I were poor”. Groucho “I might, but I'd keep my mouth shut.” Many of Harpo’s trademarks are here right off the bat, the leg in the other person’s arm, standing behind someone with his pocket wide open and bringing out the kitchen sink from his coat. And Harpo and Chico both doing a musical number. Harpo could play almost any instrument and Chico was a fine if self-taught pianist. Zeppo is there but they give him practically nothing to do.

Having numerous musical numbers pop up out of the blue feels a little awkward now – and even though they are from Irving Berlin they are not anything you will go home whistling. A decent Busby Berkeley (before Berkeley) geometrical dance number and a good imitation of Gilbert & Sullivan number. The songs were shot live, not pre-recorded. But be grateful. They dropped half the musical numbers from the play. Berlin was not thrilled with some of their choices. When the Marx Brothers saw the film, they hated it and offered to buy it. Paramount refused. It was a big hit.