I'm just watching an old Marx Brothers film - "Duck Soup". My dad got me into them when I was young.
Very dated at times but also very anarchic. You can see where Young Ones, Bottom, Vic & Bob and even some Monty Python got their ideas.
They can be a bit annoying at times when they put in opera type songs but Chico's a unique piano player and Harpo's harp is great.
Always worth catching although I don't remember seeing them on TV for years but box sets are available quite cheap.
I'm a huge fan of the Marx Brothers too. Some of the dialogue in their films is just classic.
They did make some less than brilliant films later in their career and I'm not a fan of all the opera either but that box set is excellent especially Animal Crackers which is my favourite film of theirs.
Love the Marx Brothers, classic stuff. Duck Soup is one of my ultimate favourite comedy films - never gets old.
Must admit to have not having seen any. Spotted a couple of the films on relatively recently (Film4 or something I think), but alas I didn't manage to catch them. 
They're on FILM4 in the afternoon every once in a while, it's a good way to lead into making dinner, hehe.
Quote: David Chapman @ April 2, 2007, 8:34 PMI'm just watching an old Marx Brothers film - "Duck Soup". My dad got me into them when I was young.
Harpo Marx's excellent autobiography 'Harpo Speaks' is something worth reading. Here's the Amazon link: See Amazon product listing
A great Marx brothers' story (maybe apocryphal) was the charity function where Harpo delivered a boring long-winded speech after which Groucho stood up and simply said "And that's why we don't let him speak in our films."
Ha ha, very good. 
And apparently Harpo was a really nice bloke.
I watched Duck Soup on FILM4 a few months ago, loved Groucho but thought the others were just annoying.
Yes, Groucho is unarguably the best one. But the others serve a purpose too! (Now and then.)
Marx brothers = comedy gold. Pretty much everything they did was brilliant. The mirror scene in Duck Soup was genius, especially for the time. It can be hard to remember that these films are from the 1930s. I'm not a fan of the opera parts, but those parts are for that time and wouldn't be in the films if they were made today. Overall, their films still stand the test of time and are some of the finest examples of comedy ever made.
Duck Soup's the best. Horse feathers is cringe-worthy.The Marx brothers were apparently better on stage before older brother Karl left to write books.
Ha ha !!!
(I was looking puzzled for a minute and thought - well I knew about Zeppo ...sad really!)
There is a documentary on Groucho Marx today on Radio 4 today.
It is part of Great Lives, and is being broadcast at 16:30 today. It will be repeated at 23:00 on Friday as well.