I love Groucho's sense of timing. His throw-away line, "I was blind for 3 days", is priceless. And his constant looks over at Chico really add to the hilarity.
... and the amazing thing is that most of the dialogue from Groucho was "unscripted and sheer ad-lib", according to the various directors of the Marx Bros. films.
@@DonVideoGuy007 I remember watching a show about the Marx Brothers once and it the host told the following story. The Marx Brothers rarely followed the script. While filming one of their movies, the script writer grabbed the director and said, "Wait a minute! I think I heard one of my lines." Ad-lib was the trademark of the Marx Brothers.
These guys were pros - and like Daniel says above, still LOL hilarious. By the time they made their first movie, they had honed their act and their personas on the live stage - you can kind of pick up on that once you know they were on the stage for years before The Cocoanuts was made.
Oh absolutely!! This whole scene is hilarious, and yes unfortunately there were time when business negotiations went exactly as this. Just mind boggling!!!
I worked for various corporations in their Real Estate dept for 40+ years. And every time I read a contract, if I was negotiating across the table with the leasing co., I'd read down to the bottom of the contact first. When asked why I was reading there first I'd say I'm looking for the "Sanity Clause"! Very few ever got the joke. Those that did, well let's just say the negotiations went much easier as we were of one mind. 😁
am sure that what the Marx Bros. were referring to in the "..blind for 3 days ' comment, was the fact that 'home-made' booze, or bath-tub Gin was readily available 'proverbially' on nearly every street corner and was usually of such poor hygienic quality that many a soul got deathly sick from drinking it.
I've always loved Chico's response to Groucho's question "Don't you know what duplicates are?" "Sure, there's five kids up in Canada!" He references the rare quintuplets (Dionne) born the year before, 1934. Two are still alive.
I'm an insane Marx brothers junkie who owns every film, and has been a fan since the early 1970s, However despite all this, I did not know that little factoid. So a huge thanks from me.
@@manningbartlett522 The Dionne Quintuplets were a very early example of news hysteria, basically. The media was constantly checking up on them and what they were doing, and they even had something that was basically a human zoo dedicated to showing them off, despite the fact that they were pretty much totally normal outside of looking identical. At the time, the thought was that it was an "uplifting" story and the Depression was still ongoing, so they would rather write about some beautiful little girls than thousands of people losing jobs or dying of starvation. Then the fad passed, and it turned out that the Quintuplets had been taken from their parents and treated like circus attractions to make money, and most of them ended up feeling traumatized by the whole experience. Real mess, that one.
@@misterbadguy7325 Interestingly, it was the Ontario government who made the Quints a ward of the state after their father attempted to put them on display at the Chicago World's Fair. Then the government promptly put the Quints on display! There was never any admission charge to Quintland--where they were housed and put on display--but the area reaped millions in tourism dollars.
Cop to Groucho: Do you live here by yourself? Groucho: Yes. Cop: So why is your table set for four? Explain that to me. Groucho: Well, my alarm clock is set for eight. Explain that to me.
Henderson: You live here all alone? Otis B. Driftwood: Yes, just me and my memories. I'm practically a hermit. Henderson: Oh, a hermit... I notice the table's set for four. Driftwood: That's nothing, my alarm clock is set for eight. That doesn't prove a thing.
One take ! No director would dare to run a scene this long nowadays. One of the greatest scenes in cinema comedy. Seen it dozens of times but still I laugh. Genius comedy !
Johnny Cardinale Totally agree. He was by far my favourite brother. He was what made the movies great I think. When I was a kid I had a hamster named after him.
What do you mean, “clean?” They tore up paper and left it lying all over the floor. That’s littering, ya know. And if they stayed any longer they’d be loitering.
"Your word's good enough for me! Now then, is my word good enough for you?" "I should say not!" "Well, that takes out two more clauses." The first Marx Brothers film I ever saw. This scene had me rolling.
The (forgotten) master joke writers had an important part in helping the comedy team be as memorable as remembered! I always thought the scriptwriters were where the storyline and verbal gags came from. Finally, The Dick Van Dyke Show highlighted how important they were in his 1961-66 tv series!
@@rickkinki4624 I know there was some ad-libbing, but most of the original dialogue was tightly scripted for the gags and jokes. I just did not want people to forget a film starts with the scriptwriters and frequently before any actors were hired to say the lines!
@@freeguy77 I can't argue with a thing you say! One of the great comedies of all time, "Blazing Saddles," had comic geniuses such as Richard Pryor to write the script.
First time l saw this movie,and got to this part, grown men were screaming and howling with laughter. We were all crying.!! Sadly most have passed on. Thanks for the wonderful memories.😂😂😂😂
One of my favorite Marx Bros routines. I own all of their Hollywood movies. They practiced these scenes a million times. They were so good at, it came off better every time they did it. To their audience, it looked so natural. Pure genius in comedy.
Their first 2 movies from Paramount, "The Cocoanuts" (1929), and "Animal Crackers" (1930) were from their Broadway routines, so they had plenty of practice in those movies before! Those two were filmed in NYC's Astoria section, before the Marx Brothers moved to Hollywood.
Although i knew about them I've just now looked into, and discovered how insanely funny they are and their comedy holds up today. I cant stop laughing at how brilliant this is.
My entire childhood revolved around these incredible and amazing brothers. No wonder l have so many problems..... Well it doesn't really matter, l guess it's irrelephant
I love the Marx brothers. I grew up watching there movies. Even today they are more funny then some comedians that are alive today. I never get bored of watching there movies.
Hysterical! Just like someone mentioned, it's like Brexit negotiations. Ironically, it was actually Chico who settled the brothers' contracts with RKO Radio as well as the movie producers.
The marx brothers were so far ahead of their time, it is quite amazing, and too think, their first movie was nearly 90 years ago, and this movie is over 80 years. Forget todays, so called altunative comedians, these lot were doing that stuff back then!
This is a classic and one of the funniest scenes put to film. It's been said that the films the Marx Brothers did were using something like 8 pages of script. All they did was use a lot of their Vaudville routines and ad lib.
Marx Brothers were the best. You watch their movies and their routines. You know the dialogue by heart and it's still hilarious. No profanity,no blood and no foul.
My Kids Complained ARRGGHH dad Black and White- But after 10mins they could not stop laughing. You've forgotten the SCENE when the policeman comes to the Apartment and the Bros Keep moving the beds from room to room. Policeman thinks he is going mad .
Here is another one I will make notation to you. I work with young people in their 20s. Now they're so used to rap and the bullcrap. So here in philly they play on 98.1 street corner sundays. Guess what one of the guys loves to hear it. Isn't that something? He goes to me and says Hey steve when do they play the 1920s??? I am like what??? ctfu.
@@The_Vincening Time passes and surviving quints aren't national news. And Groucho was blind for three days because of bad [wood] alcohol during prohibition.
@@The_VinceningMost people don't remember the Dionne Quintuplets. It was about 70 years ago and it's mostly remembered now as a) an early example of news media focusing more on fluff than news, b) child abuse, and c) that thing South Park referenced.
@@misterbadguy7325 The Qunits--or at least their stories--are still well known in Canada after all these years. My maternal grandmother was a student nurse in Toronto at the time. For a time she was responsible for packaging bottles of iced breast milk to send by train to the Quints in northern Ontario.
I always thought that I was weird for liking the Marx Bros when I was like 13 years old..back in 83...now I know Im not the only weird one after reading these comments...lol
I first saw this as a kid, in the '60s. When G suddenly realizes that C can't read, and says, "...Can you HEAR?" That's when I fell on the floor. The sanity clause line was just icing.
The Marx Brothers were some of the greatest ad libbers. Old Marx Bros. scripts have segments like "Harpo does business with a mop" and in the film, Harpo is doing several minutes of hilarious comedy with one prop, a mop. The writers just knew the Brothers could just "be funny" on cue. Amazing!
Their parents were performers and they were literally bred into performing and grew up together to be four person comedy act. Three funnymen and straight man who unfortunately wasn't so keen on performing so it was reduced into three funnymen. They were absolute masters of their craft and brilliant improvisers which makes them even better.
The Great thing about the Marx brothers was that while other comedy teams(theThree stooges,Abbott and Costello,Laurel and Hardy,etc.)were the saps,fall guys,rubes,whatever,the Marx brothers,reversed the process and made every one else the butts of their humor and the victims of their gags!! (poor Margaret Dumont)
SenileImbecile - That's an urban legend. Ms. Dumont understood the humor just fine, but she made it a point to never break character because she was a veteran stage actress and took her role as a 'straight lady' seriously. In fact, Groucho once referred to her as 'practically the fifth Marx brother'.
I love how this holds up, like what, almost a hundred years later? Gotta be one of the best movies ever made. Even the love story that's basically just a vehicle for the humor beats any tired rom-com b.s. we get nowadays. Love conquers all if you've got crazy anarchic hijinx and wordplay. "Well your word's good enough for me [tear]. Now is my word good enough for you? [I should say not!] Well, that takes out two more clauses!" My god, that is art.
My dad was Groucho funny. He once told me a joke, meandering along, with the subject being Rary, until I got impatient and yelled "What's the punchline!?!" He said "Well, it's a long road to tip a Rary."
Darn millennials who probably get offended by stuff like this. They probably need to sign a contract with a sanity clause, even if there ain't no Sanity Claus.
I grew up watching this, and as I grew up nearly all co.edians have used their humour in some way. My dad circa 1945 this and the goon show,so of course monty python and ones I can't recall the names. Brings back old memories of my dad smiling like id never seen and Laugjing. Memories
I loved Kitty Carlisle and Allen Jones in this. They both sang exceptionally well, especially when they sang 'Alone' to each other at the dock before the vessel departed =)
