One of the Marx Brothers best!
Added 7/16/2009
My family loves the Marx Brothers. We did some research on the Marx Brothers family and then set out to watch every one of their movies. We have our absolute favorites that we had to purchase in order to watch again and again: Monkey Business, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races. If Harpo is your favorite character, like he is ours, then Monkey Business is a must to see! Harpo has quite a few unforgettable scenes in this film.
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Let's play monkey, you're the ape
Added 5/2/2008
That's the new and most recent, 1931, manual for how to immigrate illegally into the US via New York, Ellis Island, and then how to succeed in the gangster dominated society of New York City. Of you are a stowaway, better be four because they will never be able to find you all and one will always be able to make them run in one direction while the three others are either eating, or resting, or playing, or flirting, or whatever. Then of course you have to rotate the one or the two who are running and chasing the officials on the ship. Funny business indeed, monkey business for sure, but who is the monkey, who are the apes? Then the best strategy is to select two competing gangsters, who are here only to enjoy gambling and drinking, on the ship and manage to become their bodyguards. Two for one and the other two for the other one. You add to that a slight love affair of one of the four with the daughter of one of the two gangsters and you have it. It will only take some hullabaloo with the customs officers and the police to go through in a lot of noise, antics and floating or flying papers and stamps. Then use the rivalry of the two gangsters to get the daughter of one kidnapped by the other, then retrieve her from detention and manage to capture the kidnapping one and deliver him to the other and you are the kings of the night, full of money, good food, good champagne, in one word good cheer. We cannot exactly say this is a super-duper plot that deserves a medal, an Oscar or even a paragraph in a cinema encyclopedia. But you have to take into account the rest, that is to say the performance and antics of those four clowning siblings. They will manage to play some piano, some harp and also to play Punch and Judy with the captain and his acolytes. It is nothing but apish foolish clownish play but it is funny in the extreme rhythm and supreme variety hence absolute amazement it breeds, raises and inflates in your brains, plural absolutely needed because after a while you do not know any more on what brain of yours it is playing, left, right, middle, under, top, upper, heart-core or whatever. You are losing your ground and you start diving or sinking in their broth. And your sanity is getting loose. I hope you will not meet Chico or Harpo in a dark street tonight because you may feel a sudden need to run away. They are not really dangerous, they are just frighteningly de-structuring. And don't try to understand their language. From pun to pun, from innuendo to fuzzy innuendo, from play on words to more play on more words, you will be completely corrugated within fifteen minutes by their witty gibberish. Even if this film is definitely not politically correct, it sure is not in anyway hitting under the normal belt of morality. Yet it is a defense and illustration of illegal immigration from Europe, if possible rather what could we call it? Jewish, ethnic, Yiddish, who knows, but white nevertheless. In 1931, in the trough of the depression, still a couple of years before the New Deal, with no alcohol, except of course on transatlantic ships, and in the private celebrations of gangsters, life could only be funny if some apish monkeys cultivated some funny disturbance in the midst of the social capitalistic and teetotallistic mist, if not fog, if not plain good old London pea soup smog, of America.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
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enough to make me work myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty
Added 8/21/2007
Monkey Business has got to be one of the funniest Marx Brothers films I've seen yet. The movie moves along at a good pace; and the actors all turn in a fine performance. The actors' timing helps to enhance the quality of the gags and the jokes.
The action begins on a steamship headed to America from Europe. There are four stowaways on board--guess who! Yep--The Marx Brothers! Of course the captain and his crew discover them and the laughs ensue as the crew chases the brothers all over the ship, predictably without ever actually catching and cornering them although there are a few close calls.
In addition, there are gangster wars so intense they continue even during the voyage. Eventually Chico and Harpo work as bodyguards for Big Joe Helton (Rockliffe Fellowes); and Groucho and Zeppo work for Helton's enemy Alky Briggs (Harry Woods). The boundaries soon blur, however, with Zeppo and Helton's daughter Mary (Ruth Hall) falling in love while Groucho flirts with Briggs' wife Lucille (Thelma Todd).
It may well seem that I've given away the whole plot but rest assured that there's plenty more left unsaid here. Questions arise: How will the gangster war play out? Will the four brothers stay clean despite their recruitment by gangsters? What about Zeppo and Mary Helton, Joe Helton's daughter--will they remain a couple with all the trouble that keeps happening? No spoilers here, folks; you'll just have to watch the movie to find out.
The brilliant cinematography uses great camera angles in the numerous steamship scenes to make them even funnier; and look for some excellent choreography in the party scenes in the second half of the picture and the barn scenes later on as well. Great!
Overall, Monkey Business is a must-have for fans of The Marx Brothers. The four brothers work hard and it shows; I laughed harder than ever especially with Groucho's antics and his zesty one liners! I highly recommend Monkey Business for people who enjoy classic screwball comedies from the 1930s as well.
Enjoy!
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Marxes on the Rampage
Added 1/11/2006
The Marx Brothers' first Hollywood production survives as a masterpiece of cinematic anarchy. "Monkey Business" (1931) takes no prisoners - it's fast, furious and doesn't give a damn about convention. There are enough sight gags and nonsequiturs for a half-dozen comedies. Thelma Todd is a lively addition to the Marxian ensemble and compensates for the absence of Margaret Dumont. Memorable Groucho dialogue: "Don't forget that the stockholder of yesteryear is the stowaway of today."
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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"Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo."
Added 9/28/2005
The first Marx Brothers movie filmed directly for the screen, it's their first great picture. They are a bunch of stowaways on an ocean liner who get mixed up with racketeers along the way. Fast and furiously funny for the most part, though the last 20 minutes, after they get off the ship (after the hilarious scene where they all try to immitate Maurice Chevalier) are a let down. It was their first movie in which rather than being merely wiseacres and insulting punsters they were truly anarchic: Harpo totally disrupts the passport proceedings, stamping everything in sight and then throwing the papers in the air. From this point on they would not be just verbally wild and funny guys, but their humor would take on a Freudian aspect as well. Definitely worth a watch.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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One of the Marx Brothers best!
Added 7/16/2009
My family loves the Marx Brothers. We did some research on the Marx Brothers family and then set out to watch every one of their movies. We have our absolute favorites that we had to purchase in order to watch again and again: Monkey Business, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races. If Harpo is your favorite character, like he is ours, then Monkey Business is a must to see! Harpo has quite a few unforgettable scenes in this film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Let's play monkey, you're the ape
Added 5/2/2008
That's the new and most recent, 1931, manual for how to immigrate illegally into the US via New York, Ellis Island, and then how to succeed in the gangster dominated society of New York City. Of you are a stowaway, better be four because they will never be able to find you all and one will always be able to make them run in one direction while the three others are either eating, or resting, or playing, or flirting, or whatever. Then of course you have to rotate the one or the two who are running and chasing the officials on the ship. Funny business indeed, monkey business for sure, but who is the monkey, who are the apes? Then the best strategy is to select two competing gangsters, who are here only to enjoy gambling and drinking, on the ship and manage to become their bodyguards. Two for one and the other two for the other one. You add to that a slight love affair of one of the four with the daughter of one of the two gangsters and you have it. It will only take some hullabaloo with the customs officers and the police to go through in a lot of noise, antics and floating or flying papers and stamps. Then use the rivalry of the two gangsters to get the daughter of one kidnapped by the other, then retrieve her from detention and manage to capture the kidnapping one and deliver him to the other and you are the kings of the night, full of money, good food, good champagne, in one word good cheer. We cannot exactly say this is a super-duper plot that deserves a medal, an Oscar or even a paragraph in a cinema encyclopedia. But you have to take into account the rest, that is to say the performance and antics of those four clowning siblings. They will manage to play some piano, some harp and also to play Punch and Judy with the captain and his acolytes. It is nothing but apish foolish clownish play but it is funny in the extreme rhythm and supreme variety hence absolute amazement it breeds, raises and inflates in your brains, plural absolutely needed because after a while you do not know any more on what brain of yours it is playing, left, right, middle, under, top, upper, heart-core or whatever. You are losing your ground and you start diving or sinking in their broth. And your sanity is getting loose. I hope you will not meet Chico or Harpo in a dark street tonight because you may feel a sudden need to run away. They are not really dangerous, they are just frighteningly de-structuring. And don't try to understand their language. From pun to pun, from innuendo to fuzzy innuendo, from play on words to more play on more words, you will be completely corrugated within fifteen minutes by their witty gibberish. Even if this film is definitely not politically correct, it sure is not in anyway hitting under the normal belt of morality. Yet it is a defense and illustration of illegal immigration from Europe, if possible rather what could we call it? Jewish, ethnic, Yiddish, who knows, but white nevertheless. In 1931, in the trough of the depression, still a couple of years before the New Deal, with no alcohol, except of course on transatlantic ships, and in the private celebrations of gangsters, life could only be funny if some apish monkeys cultivated some funny disturbance in the midst of the social capitalistic and teetotallistic mist, if not fog, if not plain good old London pea soup smog, of America.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
enough to make me work myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty
Added 8/21/2007
Monkey Business has got to be one of the funniest Marx Brothers films I've seen yet. The movie moves along at a good pace; and the actors all turn in a fine performance. The actors' timing helps to enhance the quality of the gags and the jokes.
The action begins on a steamship headed to America from Europe. There are four stowaways on board--guess who! Yep--The Marx Brothers! Of course the captain and his crew discover them and the laughs ensue as the crew chases the brothers all over the ship, predictably without ever actually catching and cornering them although there are a few close calls.
In addition, there are gangster wars so intense they continue even during the voyage. Eventually Chico and Harpo work as bodyguards for Big Joe Helton (Rockliffe Fellowes); and Groucho and Zeppo work for Helton's enemy Alky Briggs (Harry Woods). The boundaries soon blur, however, with Zeppo and Helton's daughter Mary (Ruth Hall) falling in love while Groucho flirts with Briggs' wife Lucille (Thelma Todd).
It may well seem that I've given away the whole plot but rest assured that there's plenty more left unsaid here. Questions arise: How will the gangster war play out? Will the four brothers stay clean despite their recruitment by gangsters? What about Zeppo and Mary Helton, Joe Helton's daughter--will they remain a couple with all the trouble that keeps happening? No spoilers here, folks; you'll just have to watch the movie to find out.
The brilliant cinematography uses great camera angles in the numerous steamship scenes to make them even funnier; and look for some excellent choreography in the party scenes in the second half of the picture and the barn scenes later on as well. Great!
Overall, Monkey Business is a must-have for fans of The Marx Brothers. The four brothers work hard and it shows; I laughed harder than ever especially with Groucho's antics and his zesty one liners! I highly recommend Monkey Business for people who enjoy classic screwball comedies from the 1930s as well.
Enjoy!
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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