by lhb412 » Sat Dec 18, 2010 3:24 pm
Room Service
The Marx Brothers in an adaptation of a comedic stage play - thing is, it wasn't a play starring the brothers, so they end up playing characters not originating with them. Since Marx Brothers humor tends to stem from their comic personas the whole movie feels a bit off, like a movie starring the Marx Brothers but not a "Marx Brothers Movie." It's not a bad film, in fact it's rather good on it's own, but it ends up feeling like a weird little one-off.
A Day at the Races
I'm watching these Marx films (kind of) in reverse chronological order, and from this point on (the first seven films) it's all classics. This was the second of their two big budget MGM pictures and was the biggest box office smash of their careers - of which the brothers got a cut, as stipulated in their contracts (one of the reasons some at the studio resented them and put them in lower budget fare after this).
It all centers on horse racing and Groucho as a vet passing himself off as a doctor for people at a sanitarium, which in this film is a bit like a spa for sick people.