A seminal scene from the rich body of films by the Marx Brothers. I showed this particular scene during a lecture on hospitality at the New Institute for Achitecture, Design and E-Culture in Rotterdam (Het Nieuwe Instituut).
Watched this movie again last night for the umpteenth time. This scene still has me crying with laughter 86 years later. One of the funniest moments in Hollywood history.
I’m 66. When I watch this I imagine myself age 17, long hair sitting in front of the TV with my otherwise “square” father and we are both howling with laughter. I sure miss those moments.
I was 11 when my dad got me into marx brothers. Duck Soup. We made it a competition to point out all the jokes. It was so difficult becasue we would be crying laughing and there wouldnt be time to pick them all. We always re watched every scene with Harpo in them. they were the best.
They ordered 37 eggs (28 hard boiled eggs, 2 fried eggs, 2 poached eggs, 2 scrambled eggs and 2 medium boiled eggs and 1 duck egg) if i am not mistaken
@@DantheToonMan, there's been nothing funnier than this scene anywhere, and the only other moments in comedy equally as funny would be countless other Marx bros scenes
Daniel McDonald .... I agree about the manicurist. And she has the best facial expressions during the whole time that she's there. I watch her, I don't watch anyone else. She's the only person in that room who reacts that the whole operation is ridiculous. And she did does it in a low-key way. Love the scene but love the manicurist more.
And to think that this scene was shot in one take without any rehearsals, after test audiences reacted negatively to the original scripted version. Just goes to show what kind of genious Marx Brothers were.
@ Miroslav Tomic. One of the surest indications of just how great The Marx Brothers were as comediens is that when you watch the film, "A Night At The Opera", you don't have to watch the famous "State Room " scene -- you can simply close your eyes and just listen to it and it is just as uproariously funny as it is watching it!
Michael Barlow that’s interesting, I never thought of just listening to the scene, I’ve always thought the scene’s success came from the visual of the expanding room combined with the dialogue.
The first time I saw this when I was a kid, I was laughing so hard I was crying! To this day, if I read off ANY kind of list, it always ends with “and two hard boiled eggs”. Few get the reference, and that suits me just fine :3
@@MovieswithKennyK, probably because that same comment has probably been said in over 100 other movies and shows since the Marx bros, and many times in real life, it's just not that original of a comment, even though it's hilarious in the way and in the timing Groucho says it
Young girl looking for her Aunt Minnie is an obvious tribute to Marx Brothers' mother Minnie Shomburg, whom they always credited as being the biggest influence in their lives and careers. Likewise, engineer and his assistant are tribute to Edward Gallagher and Al Shean, famous vaudeville double act from the 1920s. Al Shean was Minnie Shomburg's brother and, therefore Marx Brothers' uncle..
My grandfather was born in 1899 and told us about the Vaudeville act of Shean and Gallagher. My grandfather would always say, "Thank you Mr. Gallagher, you're welcome Mr. Shean." We thought it was pretty funny and we use to repeat it to others as kids and thought we were pretty smart knowing something about ancient Vaudeville. I know my grandfather never made it to NYC back in the day, so the acts must have travelled around the country. I never knew Shean was a relative of the Marx family either.
This version of the scene, which was not entirely how it was envisioned in the original script was improvised on the spot without rehearsing. The original scene was booed by the test audience so they decided to hastily re-shoot the scene. With no time to re-write the script, Marx Brothers simply demanded that cameras start rolling and keep on rolling as they improvise it. Known differences between original and this version are: 1. Groucho was supposed to be pushed out of the room without his pants on when it became full of people and would hastily try to put them on before Margaret Dumont came into the scene. 2. Characters played by Chico, Harpo and Allen Jones were not supposed to be outside of Groucho's trunk and would remain in it during the original scene. 3. "Hard boiled eggs" part was originally scripted for a different scene, but when they had to improvise more dialogue for the new scene, which was considerably longer than originally planned, Chico and Groucho simply used the dialogue at the beginning of this scene.
I saw a Bill Murray interview in 2018 when he was asked about the funniest scene ever put on film. Without hesitation, he mentioned the Marx Brothers Stateroom scene. I happen to agree. The bit was great not only for the concept, but it was set up so well that it played perfectly to the strengths on Groucho, Chico, and Harpo. You have to love the sharp one-liners from Groucho as each person come to the room. Chico is the perfect straight man justifying the zany Harpo with his own comebacks. Harpo is "literally" over the top with the nurses and later laying across the food platers. Great ensemble comedy.
I see two things here, that Seinfeld made use of. The overcrowded cabin becomes the overcrowded utility closet, when Elaine pretends it's her place, so she can get food delivered, and she is soon joined by the whole gang, in the tiny closet. The "would you like a manicure?" becomes an unwanted phone call "would you like to subscribe to......?" Instead of "No, come in", Jerry turns it around to "Yes!" and hangs up. Turned around, but same thinking. Love the Sein.
Minnie Marx once said to Julius (Groucho) “ Of all my children, I like you the least.” Hard to get happy after that. He was an insomniac who could only sleep in a warm bathtub. So giving her name credit as a character in this scene shows Groucho’s big heart. Unfortunately for him, he had to live in that overamped mind. Fortunately for us, he had that quick mind. The one, the only, Groucho.
Like so many Marx brothers films and scenes, when I’m feeling low I know I can stick this on the telly and they never fail to cheer me up! Thank you guys!
This scene was scripted a bit differently. Once the room was packed with too many people inside, Groucho would be pushed out without his pants on and would hastily try to put them on. However, after test audience reacted negatively to this version, new version of the scene was improvised on the spot without any rehearsals. The only other known difference between two versions was that characters played by Chico, Harpo and Allan Jones never left Groucho's case and remained inside it during the entire scene.
I'm trying to remember exactly how the story goes, but the person they tasked to write this movie got writers block and he became extremely stressed out. He stopped responding to the studios attempts at communicating, so they decided to drop in on him. They found his room empty but there were pieces of torn up paper tacked to the ceiling. When they pieced them together, it was this scene. And it became iconic. Pretty cool story. Al Boasberg was his name.
I remember that an episode of M*A*S*H paid partial homage to this scene (partial in the sense that it was only three people crowded in a room, or more specifically, a tent.) Hawkeye and B.J are bunkmates with Col. Potter when casualties fill up the entire 4077. As the three struggle with fitting the cots inside the tent. Hawkeye broke into Groucho voice (as he often did) and said, "Hello, Room Service. Send up a larger room."
I think I remember that they were going to cut this scene from the film. But they performed this bit onstage and it got the biggest laughs that they kept it in the film. Classic scene.
I laughed at this when I was a little kid, and again, just now, at 74. Good fun is ageless. Will it still be funny 50 years from now? Stick around, and find out.
