Bittersweet Farewell
Our second film; Love Happy.
Something obviously happened to the Brothers between A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. It was another three years before this movie was released, and not only did the brothers look older, they weren't interacting with each other as much anymore. Groucho in particular keeps his distance from the whole proceedings, appearing only five or six times in an hour-and-a-half long movie. If it wasn't for a few little sections here and there, I'd be hard pressed to call this a Marx Brothers movie at all.
To start with, the movie spends a lot of time focusing on a theater troupe that's putting on a play (called Love Happy, hence the movie's title). It's full of the usual tropes--they're broke and banking on the show to make them money, what numbers we see don't really seem to connect up in any way, a relationship between the director and one of the actresses--and while there's nothing wrong with that, it just gives the movie a different tone than previous films. Sure, there were musical elements in the others, and even one or two involving a show, but this feels different. I think the problem is that the play doesn't service the gags. None of the Brothers disrupt the show, nor does the show really lead to any comic situations. It's just a thin setup for the real humor element driving the story, and thus feels out of place while simultaneously taking up the most time.
The main plot revolves around a stolen diamond necklace, which (naturally) ropes the Brothers into it. Groucho plays a private eye who has supposedly been trailing the diamonds for years, but other than a little involvement at the end, his actions are limited to voice-overs explaining the situation and providing some editorial commentary (at least it lets him break the fourth wall a bit). This leaves us with Chico and Harpo to carry the humor, and although they do a decent job, it never really rises to prior levels of zaniness. It doesn't help that the movie's values seem a bit skewed. Sure, the troupe can be poor and desperate for a hit, but having someone actually take their sets and have the director give a defeated speech that they're ruined seems really grim, even if it does turn out all right. Meanwhile, the entire way Harpo gets his hands on the necklace seems not so much out of character as it does really inappropriate. Harpo was always a scoundrel who stole anything that wasn't nailed down, and when it was just for him, or for his fellow crooks, it was fine. But Groucho's narration and a small scene a little later in the movie suggests that the only way these actors are getting food is because Harpo is stealing it for them. They're all accomplices to his crime, and it just feels wrong to be dragging innocents into the crime. The fact that the movie treats this as no big deal is what causes this disconnect. Some sort of acknowledgement of the problem might have made this more tolerable.
The other problem is just how flimsy the plot feels at times, especially as we get close to the end. After being the primary focus for three-quarters of the film, the musical side is just dropped without any resolution. Groucho finally enters the action despite having been left in a very difficult position when we last saw him. And even though it's all building up for the normal "bad guys are punished, good guys head off into the sunset" ending, it just...stops. The final scene raises a few questions and never answers them. It's not even trying to be ambiguous, since they're clearly going for the cute/humorous ending. Instead, I'm just left baffled.
That's not to say there aren't some good bits. Harpo's chase through the neon signs is certainly creative, although the effects haven't aged that well. There's a return of the charades bit from A Night in Casablanca, which is welcome even if it's just one of many little things that make the movie feel like it's trying to remind us of better Marx Brothers films. And for film buffs, there's a small cameo by a young Marilyn Monroe, who hasn't fully become the blonde bombshell yet. No, for that she'd have to wait until she acted alongside a certain cigarette-smoking critic...
Some people manage to end their career with a film that either ties in perfectly with their body of work or allows them to go out with a bang. The Marx Brothers, unfortunately, ended on a note that only showed how tired they were getting. It's no wonder that most people try to forget this movie exists. For comedy legends who had so much impact on the world of humor, they deserved so much better than this.
CAT ALERT: A cat who is either a very well-liked stray or someone's pet helps move the plot forward by eating out of the sardine can that holds the diamonds. Its taken to the vet to see if it ate the necklace, but other than some x-rays, we never see the cat again. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure nothing sinister happened to it.
This is the last official Marx Brothers movie. There were movies starring the Brothers separately, but they never did a movie together after this. But while the Marx Brothers retrospective is officially over, there's going to be one more film to close out this little jaunt, one I'm sure the Brothers would have approved of.
Something obviously happened to the Brothers between A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. It was another three years before this movie was released, and not only did the brothers look older, they weren't interacting with each other as much anymore. Groucho in particular keeps his distance from the whole proceedings, appearing only five or six times in an hour-and-a-half long movie. If it wasn't for a few little sections here and there, I'd be hard pressed to call this a Marx Brothers movie at all.
To start with, the movie spends a lot of time focusing on a theater troupe that's putting on a play (called Love Happy, hence the movie's title). It's full of the usual tropes--they're broke and banking on the show to make them money, what numbers we see don't really seem to connect up in any way, a relationship between the director and one of the actresses--and while there's nothing wrong with that, it just gives the movie a different tone than previous films. Sure, there were musical elements in the others, and even one or two involving a show, but this feels different. I think the problem is that the play doesn't service the gags. None of the Brothers disrupt the show, nor does the show really lead to any comic situations. It's just a thin setup for the real humor element driving the story, and thus feels out of place while simultaneously taking up the most time.
The main plot revolves around a stolen diamond necklace, which (naturally) ropes the Brothers into it. Groucho plays a private eye who has supposedly been trailing the diamonds for years, but other than a little involvement at the end, his actions are limited to voice-overs explaining the situation and providing some editorial commentary (at least it lets him break the fourth wall a bit). This leaves us with Chico and Harpo to carry the humor, and although they do a decent job, it never really rises to prior levels of zaniness. It doesn't help that the movie's values seem a bit skewed. Sure, the troupe can be poor and desperate for a hit, but having someone actually take their sets and have the director give a defeated speech that they're ruined seems really grim, even if it does turn out all right. Meanwhile, the entire way Harpo gets his hands on the necklace seems not so much out of character as it does really inappropriate. Harpo was always a scoundrel who stole anything that wasn't nailed down, and when it was just for him, or for his fellow crooks, it was fine. But Groucho's narration and a small scene a little later in the movie suggests that the only way these actors are getting food is because Harpo is stealing it for them. They're all accomplices to his crime, and it just feels wrong to be dragging innocents into the crime. The fact that the movie treats this as no big deal is what causes this disconnect. Some sort of acknowledgement of the problem might have made this more tolerable.
The other problem is just how flimsy the plot feels at times, especially as we get close to the end. After being the primary focus for three-quarters of the film, the musical side is just dropped without any resolution. Groucho finally enters the action despite having been left in a very difficult position when we last saw him. And even though it's all building up for the normal "bad guys are punished, good guys head off into the sunset" ending, it just...stops. The final scene raises a few questions and never answers them. It's not even trying to be ambiguous, since they're clearly going for the cute/humorous ending. Instead, I'm just left baffled.
That's not to say there aren't some good bits. Harpo's chase through the neon signs is certainly creative, although the effects haven't aged that well. There's a return of the charades bit from A Night in Casablanca, which is welcome even if it's just one of many little things that make the movie feel like it's trying to remind us of better Marx Brothers films. And for film buffs, there's a small cameo by a young Marilyn Monroe, who hasn't fully become the blonde bombshell yet. No, for that she'd have to wait until she acted alongside a certain cigarette-smoking critic...
Some people manage to end their career with a film that either ties in perfectly with their body of work or allows them to go out with a bang. The Marx Brothers, unfortunately, ended on a note that only showed how tired they were getting. It's no wonder that most people try to forget this movie exists. For comedy legends who had so much impact on the world of humor, they deserved so much better than this.
CAT ALERT: A cat who is either a very well-liked stray or someone's pet helps move the plot forward by eating out of the sardine can that holds the diamonds. Its taken to the vet to see if it ate the necklace, but other than some x-rays, we never see the cat again. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure nothing sinister happened to it.
This is the last official Marx Brothers movie. There were movies starring the Brothers separately, but they never did a movie together after this. But while the Marx Brothers retrospective is officially over, there's going to be one more film to close out this little jaunt, one I'm sure the Brothers would have approved of.