Always been a fan of the Marx Brothers, and like a poster above, my father got me in to them.
In the "old days" (1960s) before we had 400 TV channels and YouTube and so on films were only shown "now and again" on TV so a Marx Brothers film on TV was a real treat.
I remember one year in the 1960s BBC2 had a "Marx Brothers" season over the Christmas period where they showed many of their films and this was my first "proper" introduction to them.
The quality of their films is very variable (Groucho said they only ever had one director who was good at directing comedy) and I am not sure the film studios always knew how to handle them.
You need to remember that the Marx Brothers had a hugely successful career on stage before they ever made a film (that may have been where they were at their best, ad-libbing and playing up to the audience).
Their first "proper" film is The Cocoanuts in 1929 but by then Grouch was already 39 years old (born 1890), Harpo was 41 (born 1888) and Chico was 42 (born 1887).
By the time they released A Night in Casablanca in 1946 (their last "proper" film) Groucho was 56, Harpo 58 and Chico 59 and by then they were all getting a bit tired.
I love Groucho, his way with words is wonderful. I like it when Groucho is trying to "make love" to Margaret Dumont, it is hilarious. In one film she tells him her husband is dead, and she says (over dramatically) "I held him in my arms and kissed him" and Groucho says "So it was murder".
He then says "Will you marry me?, Did your husband leave you any money?. Answer the second question first".
Groucho was a very intelligent man and was "well read". He wrote letters all his life to many famous people, and many have been collected in a book, called Groucho's Letters. The original letters are held in the Smithsonian Library I think which is not bad for a man whose family came over to America and could not even speak English when they first arrived.
I remember one letter from the 1950s I think it was where he writes to the head of some American car company who have just announced a new car. Of course the adverts for this new car talk about all the chrome, and this feature and that feature.
Groucho writes and asks why they don't highlight the SAFETY aspects of the car and concentrate on making the car safer. I found that a amazing thing for a person to write in the 1950s, when few people cared about car safety.
Great man, great team, and I think they would be a huge hit today with that "zany" comedy.
