Financial Times: The Marx brothers on film: souped-up comedy

[silentfilm]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/79d9cd22-89f7 ... abdc0.html

The Marx brothers on film: souped-up comedy

[Daniel Eagan]

That is one bad article. Writer Danny Leigh apparently works from the principle that nothing at all exists other than what he himself has seen.

[Michael O'Regan]

I'm not entirely sure I'd label the mirror scene as their "signature moment".

Do they even have a "signature moment"? There are so many beauties.

[Donald Binks]

Their signature moment? Why, there are so many wonderful scenes in Marx Bros. pictures.

What about Groucho in the box with Margaret Dumont in "A Night at the Opera" with Chico and Harpo in the orchestra pit as the orchestral overture segues into "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Mad and wonderful.

What about that other scene (forget the picture) where the orchestra floats away on the ocean?

One could go on and on....

[radiotelefonia]

To say that DUCK SOUP was a critical failure, is ignorance. I managed to read original publications of the time and all of the reviews were very positive.

[Gumlegs]

I'm not entirely sure I'd label the mirror scene as their "signature moment".

Do they even have a "signature moment"? There are so many beauties.

If it's a "signature moment" they were forging Chaplin's, as written in"The Floorwalker."

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

I'm not entirely sure I'd label the mirror scene as their "signature moment".

I'm sure I would not call it that. The mirror bit stands out in the Marxes' work because it was unique, completely unlike their usual routines. The only time it was repeated, significantly, was by Harpo alone, on TV with Lucy. Maybe it was a signature moment for him, but not for the Marxes as a team. I'd call the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera their signature moment, no contest. It's funny, it involves the three key members of the team, it's both visual and verbal, and everybody's seen it. (And for what it's worth, they also made a halfhearted attempt to re-do it in Go West.) I wouldn't call it my favorite Marx moment, personally, but -- to use that overworked word -- it's the "iconic" one.