Monkey Business (1931)

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

S.J. Perelman (screenplay) and
Will B. Johnstone (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 September 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

On a transatlantic crossing, the Marx brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Marx Brothers | Barn | Kidnapping | Party

Cast

Groucho Marx	...	Groucho
Harpo Marx	...	Harpo
Chico Marx	...	Chico
Zeppo Marx	...	Zeppo
Rockliffe Fellowes	...	J.J. 'Big Joe' Helton
Harry Woods	...	Alky Briggs
Thelma Todd	...	Lucille Briggs
Ruth Hall	...	Mary Helton
Tom Kennedy	...	First Mate Gibson

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Spain:T | Finland:S (1976) | USA:Unrated | USA:Approved (re-release)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Cameo: ['Sam Marx (II)' ]The Marx Brothers' father is sitting on the crates behind them after they're carried off the ship.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: While Groucho, Harpo, and Zeppo are playing the horns, and Chico is playing the piano, the horns seem small than they ought to be, and you can tell they're obviously fakes.

Quotes:

Gibson, First Mate: Sir, I have to report there are four stowaways in the forward hatch.
Captain Corcoran: Stowaways? How do you know there are four of them?
Gibson, First Mate: Why, they were singing "Sweet Adeline".

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Big Pond (1930)

Soundtrack:

When I Take My Sugar to Tea

Perhaps their most anarchic film. Not their best

Most Marx Brothers fans agree that their first five films, made for Paramount, were generally better than their remaining eight. Among their early films, however, "Monkey Business" is probably the one that is most rarely mentioned (OK, maybe it is mentioned more often than "The Cocoanuts"). There is a reason for that: although this may be the single most anarchic Marx outing, it is not one of their best. Anarchic also means disorganized, and this has its good and its bad points: there is almost no plot to get in the way of the comedy (good), but there is also a missed opportunity to go further with the idea of the Groucho-Zeppo and Harpo-Chico teams working for rival gangsters (bad). There are no musical numbers involving secondary characters (good), but there is a piano solo and a harp solo back-to-back in the last 15 minutes (bad structure). Seeing this film today, it is Harpo's physical comedy that seems the most timeless in my opinion. Sure, Groucho could deliver his lines incredibly fast and some of those lines were decades ahead of their time, but Harpo is the life of the film's most memorable bits, like the puppet show or his impersonation of Maurice Chevalier. He is like a visitor from another planet, where people are allowed to do all the things we want to do but can't. He's extraordinary. (**1/2)