Horse Feathers
With their fourth film on their march to cinematic immortality, The Marx Brothers were not only hitting their stride, but were now fully settled into their screen personas that they effortlessly could bring out whenever they were in front of a camera. Groucho and Harpo were already pretty well established with Groucho’s wisecracking style of subtle insults reflecting an almost disturbing level of self loathing (whether he actually felt that way in real life or just played his standard character like that is unknown) which he used to take out his cheeky bitterness on the nearest target and Harpo’s mute, redheaded (although he looked to be blonde on black and white film) maniac who could enter a room and effortlessly trash it while milking it for every last possible laugh and chuckle were personas that were already tried and true in the previous three movies but also honed to perfection here as well. Zeppo on the other hand had finally succeeded in putting himself over as the straight man of the group, young and handsome which enabled him to hold his own as the legitimate romantic leading man along with having the seamless ability to play off his brothers (and many times be the butt of their jokes) with his youth and good looks raising many an eyebrow as to how such a clean cut young man could ever associate with these lunatics (which in itself made him both funny and fascinating) with no less a future movie star at the time such as Cary Grant admitting later on in life that he was so impressed in Zeppo’s ability to combine light comedy with being a debonair leading man that he actually modeled his own early screen persona on that of Zeppo Marx. But the real Brother to hit his stride here would have to be Chico. Once dependent on his interactions with his own brothers in order to get laughs out of his faux Italian routine, Chico here finally shows how he can carry whole scenes by himself without any of his siblings around even as he still butchers the English language to hilarious effect but the other part of his basic character in that of the shady grifter who can never be trusted as he constantly looks for a way to separate unwary marks from their hard earned money all while turning up his nose at the prospect of honest work or ever even considering taking anything but the easy way out finally came into full bloom in this 1932 release which features as its primary setting a college campus where Groucho (allegedly a professor at the school) has just been named President and so of course he has a lot to say about the changes that he plans to make without really saying all that much at all. The most interesting development here is that instead of playing either Groucho’s sidekick or assistant in some way, now Zeppo has finally been cast as Groucho’s son (which is perhaps a natural development after all since many have said that while acting as Groucho’s understudy whenever he stepped in and slapped on the greasepaint and glasses that Zeppo could actually play a better Groucho than even Groucho could) that despite only an 11 year age difference between the two, actually works especially when Groucho in the “father” role gets to hilariously berate him. Zeppo is not only a student at the college but also quite the ladies’ man (much to his dad’s jealous chagrin) most notably carrying on an affair with the so called “college widow” (an oldschool derogatory term for a woman who would live near a college campus and carry on affairs with male students) as played by Thelma Todd (making her second and last appearance as the lead female in a Marx Brothers movie and holding her own very well along with being a welcome change from the older and more matronly Margaret Dumont) who by the end of the movie would wind up being courted by all four Brothers. Turns out that as College President, Groucho quickly realizes that when it comes to running a campus of higher learning, the game of football is far more important than any kind of actual education (duh) and since their team hasn’t even won a game in many years Groucho’s takes his son’s suggestion of going down to a local speakeasy (bar) where two known reputable players are said to hang out, but since those two have already been bought up by a rival school, Groucho winds up signing Chico and Harpo (who already has a day job as a dogcatcher) to be his “secret weapons” in the big game. Once the plot dynamics are set in place, the film then turns into a series of setpiece scenes which go in length at about 5 to 10 minutes each which not only furthers the story but also allows one or more of The Brothers to do their thing for the sole purpose of getting laughs. Naturally, Harpo remains the master of doing whole entire virtuoso routines all by himself with not a word spoken out of his mouth (even as the idea that the other characters around him can all actually speak out against him almost gives him an advantage that Chaplin never had, that of a silent movie clown adrift in a world of talking heads). Thelma Todd though remains the connecting element here as besides Zeppo and his (apparently sincere) romantic advancements, she receives singing lessons at the piano from Chico (with his peerless playing skills), is serenaded by Harpo on his harp (in another virtuoso bit) and then actually finds herself pursuing Groucho (on the pretense that she is trying to get the football team’s playbook / signals from him on behalf of the other side) only to be canoeing down a lake with him and becoming shocked that talking to him in a sexy, baby voice only brings out even more hostility in him, it seems partly because he sees right through this particular trick and maybe partly because of his aforementioned self loathing that seems to make him RESENT any attractive female who shows any sort of sincere interest in him. Anyhow, her efforts get her knocked into the water and when she asks him to throw her the lifesaver (preserver), it only stands to reason that Groucho has some lifesavers candy in his pocket and then callously throws them into the water while she struggles to stay afloat (unbeknownst to all, Todd really was unable to swim and almost drowned while shooting this scene). It all leads up to the “big game” (after a bungled attempt to actually kidnap the star players of the other team) and anyone that remembers The Naked Gun films’ extended closing setpieces showing Frank Drebin wreaking havoc at places such as a baseball game or The Oscars, here the sight of The Marx Brothers fucking shit up at a college football game should be more than enough to satisfy the most ardent comedy fan, with all 4 Brothers taking an active part in the game itself (even Groucho who takes the field still smoking his cigar) and getting bits like Chico not only calling audibles in his broken English but literally giving away the next play while doing so (or does he?) or Harpo running downfield behind Zeppo who’s carrying the ball all while throwing out a record number of banana peels over his shoulder so that the pursuing defenders can slip and fall instead of making the play (and when Zeppo while still running the ball makes the mistake of thanking Harpo for his efforts, Harpo responds by throwing a banana peel under Zeppo’s own feet bringing him down just short of the goal line). At only 68 minutes, the movie almost feels like the most economic of their cinematic efforts even as the pacing at the beginning is a little bit sluggish (starting things off with a musical number is generally NOT a good idea) but once all 4 of The Brothers are fully immersed in the storyline (about 15 minutes in) then the vignette style series of scenes that follow seem to flow along just fine with some bits (such as the classroom scene) being recycled from the vaudeville stage so that it might be “preserved for film” by finding its way into the movie and other bits (such as Groucho getting Chico and Harpo to sign a document and then realizing that said document isn’t legal because it needs a seal on it only for Harpo to pull a live seal out of nowhere and throw the animal onto the desk causing everybody to scatter) just being so laugh out loud outrageous that they deserve to be shown in any classroom that is teaching the dynamics of humor. In the end, these four guys continue the tradition of reinventing (or in the case of the sound movie era, defining) film comedy in ways that one only wishes that more of their influence could be felt today besides the usual suspects such as Mel Brooks and ZAZ since a sense of humor tinged with anarchy is usually the best kind…
8/10