Marx Brothers – Monkey Business

If I had to rank Marx Brothers movies…this would come in at around 3 or maybe 4. In other words, it’s a great movie. They have 7 movies I would recommend to anyone. This movie was their third movie. The first two were Broadway hit plays. This one is when they left Broadway but some of the same writers wrote for them. They did not try this out in front of audiences.

The brothers were in vaudeville from the early 1900s to 1924 when they finally made it to Broadway in a play called “She Say’s It Is”. Broadway audiences had never seen anything like them. They literally tore up the stage by being so energetic. The brothers’ names were Julius (Groucho), Adolph (Harpo), Leonard (Chick-o), and Herbert (Zeppo). They had another brother who was not in the act Milton (Gummo) but acted at times as their agent.

Groucho was always in a power position in the plays and movies. Harpo and Chico would be there to take him down a few notches. Zeppo would be the straight man. Harpo, of course, would play the harp in a musical part, Chico would play the piano and Groucho would sometimes play the guitar…but the comedy is what everyone came to see.  They made five movies for Paramount: Coconuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. These movies were anarchist chaos. After 1933 they signed a deal with MGM and their movies were tamed down to have more of a storyline… two of them were great but never matched the wildness of the Paramount movies

Monkey Business is them loose on a ship as stowaways. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, and the screenplay was written by S.J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman, who adapted the Marx Brothers’ comedy style to a film format. This movie was not tested in front of audiences like their first two were. It’s them hiding from the ship’s crew and getting involved with gangsters. The Marx Brothers movies are the only movies that I would not worry about the storyline…let them go and do their thing.

One of the most iconic scenes involves the brothers attempting to pass through immigration by impersonating Maurice Chevalier, using a stolen passport, and singing “You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me.”That song was a huge hit back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The movie was a smash hit with the critics and audiences in 1931.

Below I have the full movie and a fun clip of Groucho’s insults.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

34 thoughts on “Marx Brothers – Monkey Business”

      2. I don’t know them as well from that movie onward….they started to change and go down a little. Their first 7 movies though were way above average.

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      1. I’ve never been able to pick a favorite Beatle, but in their solo careers I only really like John and George’s music, so you can put me down as a Marxist-Lennonist.

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  8. I recall first seeing ’em on the TV (I think ‘Horse Feathers’) when I was probably 10 or 11. Still at that pre growth spurt time, when you are wide open to so many comedic influences. Suddenly my old faves the 3 Stooges looked like second bananas.

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