Curly replaced Shemp and in 1933, they were signed by MGM. Moe, Shemp and Larry were part of the vaudeville team with Healy.
Here’s a look at three movie comedy teams from the 1930s:īert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey re-created their comedic Broadway roles for the 1929 film version of “Rio Rita” and became one of the most successful teams until Woolsey’s death in 1938.Īl, Jimmy and Harry were a vaudeville comedy-dancing team who starred in such films as “Life Begins in College” and “The Three Musketeers.” Kids have to keep discovering the Marx Brothers because anybody who has a feeling for rebellion or frustration with the system gets to see Groucho deal with it.”įor information on the Cinematheque showings go to for Barn,” go to TEXT OF INFOBOX
The more cerebral stuff got to me a bit later. Said Bader: “I remember seeing ‘Monkey Business’ for the first time and seeing Harpo interrupt the Punch and Judy puppet show for children and just roaring. Perleman writing material for Groucho, you get this really witty, clever stuff and the physical stuff.” “You had broad physical comedy with the Three Stooges and some funny dialogue and slapstick with the Ritz Brothers, but when you have George Kaufman and S.J. “The Marx Brothers had a seamless blending of genuine literary humor and broad physical comedy,” Stoliar said. He loaned them out to RKO to do ‘Room Service.’ ”īader and Stoliar fell in love with the brothers as youngsters. Mayer, who said, ‘How is the picture going?’ And Groucho said, ‘I don’t think it’s any business of yours.’ That pretty much was the end of the Marx Brothers.
“The story goes that Groucho was walking across the lot and he ran into Louis B. “Thalberg took them on as a pet project, and when he died they put a guy named Larry Weingarten on ‘Day at the Races,’ ” Bader said. But after Thalberg died in 1936, the Marx Brothers were in trouble because studio chief Louis B. “Thalberg was their champion,” Bader said. MGM “boy wonder” producer Irving Thalberg brought the Marx Brothers to the studio in 1935. You look at ‘Duck Soup’ and it’s 77 minutes long.” “But the Paramount films were so irreverent and haphazard and the pacing is incredibly quick. “I loved ‘Night at the Opera’ and ‘Day at the Races,’ ” Bader said. Bill Marx will also be appearing at the Cinematheque to sign his book, “Son of Harpo Speaks,” and introduce films Saturday. “The five Paramounts are the best, and it’s downhill after that,” said Bader, who will also be at the Egyptian on Friday and Saturday to sign books and introduce the films.
The Paramount vehicles also feature the youngest Marx, Zeppo, who usually played the romantic lead. The festival includes three films Groucho, Harpo and Chico made at MGM that made them superstars, including “A Night at the Opera,” and three of their early outrageous, rapid-fire comedies made at Paramount, including “Duck Soup” and 1929’s “The Cocoanuts,” based on their Broadway stage hit, which was the first film they made. The American Cinematheque retrospective, “A Night at the Opera: The Marx Brothers on the Big Screen,” which opens Thursday at the Egyptian and runs through Sunday, should appeal to both camps. Marx Brothers purists prefer to see the comedy team in the low-budget, wild-and-crazy comedies they made at Paramount such as the seminal 1933 political satire “Duck Soup.” Other fans who were raised on their bigger-budget MGM vehicles such as 1935’s “A Night at the Opera” believe the siblings were never funnier than when they were at the studio. There are two schools of thought (or laughter) when it comes to the Marx Brothers.