Pro tip, if you meet someone named Lydia, it's not absolutely necessary to sing her that song
― Brad C., Tuesday, 30 August 2016 12:08 (eight years ago) link
Another recommendation for Harpo Speaks. There's also a 80s biog of SJ Perelman with good behind the scenes gossip on the movies - the rest of it ymmv depending on how much you care about Perelman.
Choosing between them is essentially pointless but, I guess, Groucho is clearly the best onscreen (better timing than Chico, for sure) and Harpo wrote the best book about them after their careers were over (and seemed like the nicest brother, if that's important).
Not sure why Groucho kept repeating that line about Dumont not getting the jokes - he even mentions it in during the lifetime achievement award speech he have at the Oscars in the seventies. It seems flagrantly unlikely to be true.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 12:56 (eight years ago) link
http://www.marxbrothers.nu/book17b.JPG
fwiw this was my source for the Dumont story. didn't know it was some Groucho thing, wouldn't put it past the writers to run with that.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 13:17 (eight years ago) link
It's a widely told story. The bio I read of the Marx brothers included dumonts refutation of it. But anyway, it's like picking your favourite part of the circulatory system: it doesn't work without them all.
― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 13:22 (eight years ago) link
Plus you can see Dumont corpsing occasionally in certain scenes (bridge routine in Animal Crackers if memory serves)
― 8 Whisps (Myonga VΓΆn Bontee), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 13:30 (eight years ago) link
β Brad C., Tuesday, August 30, 2016 7:08 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol I know someone who heard that waaaay too much because lydia was her stripper name and she is tattooed
― mh π, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 14:58 (eight years ago) link
There are definitely some really abrupt cuts where Margaret Dumont was completely losing it but they loved the take. She has a really knowing smirk a few times when playing against Groucho where she was trying to hold back laughter.
― mh π, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:00 (eight years ago) link
https://sistercelluloid.com/2015/08/14/heres-to-margaret-dumont-who-always-got-the-joke/
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:48 (eight years ago) link
^^ article gets it
― mh π, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
Chico
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 16:15 (eight years ago) link
Had no idea Harpo's wig was pink!?
β piscesx, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 11:25 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Colour doesn't convey in b+w unless it's blood red apparently.
I keep seeing pictures of Harpo where he looks a lot like Rotten era John Lydon. He didn't invent punk did he?
Seems to be one of those characters that was Punk way before the fact like Bugs Bunny or somebody.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 16:47 (eight years ago) link
Pink seems to be one of the colors they used in b/w films to get a certain kind of white. The set in Passion of Joan of Arc was apparently pink as well.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 16:50 (eight years ago) link
One story around Zeppo was that he'd occasionally sub as Groucho on stage and the audience wouldn't know the difference.
― dinnerboat, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
Didn't he sub for all of them? I thought that was his thing, he was their understudy on Broadway, so he could do any of their parts (but didn't have a real part of his own)
― Sharia Laws and Lambchop (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 17:50 (eight years ago) link
btw the fans are losing their shit over the new cut of Animal Crackers that has maybe a minute of long-lost footage
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
I know Duck Soup was, according to a number of writers, underappreciated in its time. When did that reappraisal happen? I've always wondered if it was while the family was around and what they thought about that.
― mh π, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:25 (eight years ago) link
obviously i know harpo didn't stay in character off-camera but i still always slightly double-take that he was the one who was a roundtable regular at the algonquin (apparently its spitefulness always slightly saddened him)
― mark s, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
Duck Soup was most unappreciated bcz it was a box-office flop and led to Paramount dropping the Marxes.
Groucho praised it in his dotage, repeatedly, saying "it turned out to be a satire on war" and that he attributed this to Leo McCarey.
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
Voted Dumont but if pressed on actual brothers I would go for the Harpster.
One of my father's lamest dad jokes was to say "As the great Harpo Marx once said..." and then remain silent.
― plenty offish (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
Harp would be #1 in any act that didn't contain Groucho.
I think the most likely truth re Dumont is that she didn't like/get SOME of the jokes, but Groucho spun this into a taller tale.
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 19:49 (eight years ago) link
Harpo was on the stage for almost 20 years before their first film, i seem to recall his theatrical wig being described as red.
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
stealing this dad joek thx
― Ξα½ΟΞΉΟ, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:22 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, that's a good one. Voted Chico, btw.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:25 (eight years ago) link
really you should have one of those horns with a rubber bulb under your coat and go "wah-waaaaah" to complete the effect
― mh π, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:45 (eight years ago) link
Chico's piano bit in "Animal Crackers" is one of favourite things ever.
"I can't think of the finish"."That's strange, I can't think of anything else".
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:48 (eight years ago) link
If only Harpo had been in Silent Movie.
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:50 (eight years ago) link
What's that story about Groucho telling Richard Pryor not to be like Jerry Lewis on the Mike Douglas show again?
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:51 (eight years ago) link
that's the story, but it was after a Merv Griffin show that the conversation occurred, i believe at a party at Bobby Darin's house circa 1966. (in the Nesteroff book)
i'm nor surprised that Groucho didn't like Lewis's crudity, he has a streak of prudishness that comes through in the '60s and '70s ("I took off my clothes in front of the mirror and saved myself the cost of a ticket to Hair")
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:58 (eight years ago) link
Ah, I flipped a coin that had Mike's face on one side and Merv on the other.
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:59 (eight years ago) link
musta been in yr pocket with a 35-cent subway token
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:00 (eight years ago) link
Correct, complete with the Y-shaped hole in it
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:08 (eight years ago) link
For a time in vaudeville all the brothers performed using ethnic accents. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used as Chico Marx to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the next oldest, donned a curly red wig and became "Patsy Brannigan", a stereotypical Irish character. His discomfort speaking on stage led to his uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius Marx's character from "Fun In Hi Skule" was an ethnic German, so Julius played him with a German accent.
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:18 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZyhosgpS48
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:41 (eight years ago) link
i have tried doing that sweeping key thing, it is tough if you are not a piano player! the keys are heavy and there's a whole proper form to it. yet Chico's just playing this thing like a stick of button.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:42 (eight years ago) link
butter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkCiRSDPIzk I like his playing in 'Night at the Opera' better.
― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:46 (eight years ago) link
http://www.animated-gifs.eu/category_leisure/leisure-cinema-marx-brothers/0018.gif
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 23:56 (eight years ago) link
https://media.giphy.com/media/jLaez64RHqIBq/giphy.gif
the chico marx piano-technique explainer pages never explain how he plays the piano with an apple
― mark s, Wednesday, 31 August 2016 13:13 (eight years ago) link
somebody hadda go there
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/08/31/what_the_marx_brothers_duck_soup_can_teach_us_about_trump.html
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 September 2016 18:24 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 11 September 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
The Marx Bros were an ensemble. It defeats the purpose to elevate one as the "best". Obviously, Groucho's shtick was more separable as a solo act than the others' characters were, but that speaks more to the nature of his chosen character than to its superiority over the rest.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Sunday, 11 September 2016 04:17 (eight years ago) link
Apparently Gummo was the naturally funny one, just didn't come over on stage.
― Mark G, Sunday, 11 September 2016 09:00 (eight years ago) link
I thought Zeppo was the funny one?
― Bottlerockey (Tom D.), Sunday, 11 September 2016 10:29 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 12 September 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link