Monkey Business (1931) Review

What do you do when you’ve had two smash hit movies adapted from Broadway plays? In the Marx Brothers’ case, they headed West for their first Hollywood film. The result is a movie that is very different from the previous two while cranking the insanity to eleven on a scale of one to ten. A wafer thin plot usually sinks a movie, but the Marx Brothers manage to stay afloat in this truly madcap comedy set on an ocean liner.

A mere four years after the revolutionary The Jazz Singer ushered in sound for movies, Monkey Business showed just how important the new technology was for comedy. There is no way the Marx Brothers would have been a success on the silver screen without hearing the machine gun patter of Groucho, the puns of Chico, or the harp playing of Harpo. Zeppo was always going to be along for the ride and could have been mute.

 

The movie begins with a creative way to present the credits: they roll on screen pasted on barrels. If you look closely, you can see that the photos were cut out and varnished on. So why barrels?

I’m tempted to say, “Why not?”

But there is a reason for them…

After a brief glimpse of a passenger liner (from stock footage), the captain of the vessel is brought a note by his first officer, Gibson (Tom Kennedy). A note is nothing special, you say? It is when originating from a group of stowaways taunting the captain. The only clue of their being onboard before this was the crew hearing a group singing "Sweet Adeline” somewhere in the hold.

Cue four barrels of kippered herring singing the classic tune. As impressive as that sounds, it is soon revealed that they are occupied. What’s more fun than a barrel full of Marx Brother? Four of them of course.

Each has taken up residence in a barrel to elude the ship’s authorities. That doesn’t last long because the intrepid Gibson is on the case. Now if he weren’t blind as a bat even with the coke bottle glasses…

So begins the great chase that is the first hint that the movie will be nonstop mayhem instead of sporadic chaos like in their first two films. It’s great fun to watch four brothers run around and try to blend in with the passengers. Alright, it may be a bit inaccurate to describe it as blending in.

The closest thing to settling down for a breather is scenes such as when Groucho tries to teach Chico a history lesson about Columbus. As usual the puns fly from the pseudo Italian con artist, including one about a “strawberry shortcut” that elicits a withering comment from Groucho, “There’s my argument – restrict immigration.”

Harpo has moved up to second billing by this movie and gets a lot more screen time. Simple sight gags involving him deliberately causing trouble along with his signature chasing of blondes make his appearances always entertaining. One can’t help but wonder what odd thing the bewigged tramp is about to do when the focus shifts to him.

A big change is Zeppo gets to be as disreputable as his siblings. Not only is he a stowaway, he’s as much a con artist as the others. His pick up attempts with a cute gal to while on the run is superficially charming and has surprising results. While he doesn’t get as much screen time as the others, Zeppo gets to step into the leading man role instead of being the supporting straight man.

Still, it is mayhem we want to see in a Marx Brothers movie. An ever reliable source of chaos, Harpo crashes a Punch & Judy show staged for the children on board. This delights the kids and frustrates Gibson into committing acts of violence upon his prey. Clearly the influence of the hoary puppet show is affecting the first officer.

Ever see a pet dog or cat hide their head under something and think they are concealed? The scary thing is that it actually works for Harpo. Having made his escape, he and Chico masquerade as barbers. Suffice it to say they take one “snoop” too many from another officer’s prize mustache and can’t be trusted with anything sharp.

Then the plot arrives without warning. Yes, the movie has a plot. It is small and furry, like a frightened mouse that knows it has to dash out of a hole for food from time to time. It turns out the movie is a gangster film despite being set on an ocean liner. I guess it would make cement overshoes an easier threat, come to think of it.

Where was I? Oh yes, enter the gangsters. We are introduced to the oily and not too bright Alkie Briggs (Harry Woods) fighting with his unhappy wife Lucille (Thelma Todd) in their state room. Interrupting this scene of domestic bliss is Groucho posing as a tailor. He promptly hides in the closet.

Briggs goes off to do gangster stuff, leaving a hot to trot Lucille with the irreverent lunatic in the closet. The chemistry is instant, on screen as well as in the script, with Todd being the perfect accomplice to Groucho’s silliness. It’s a very different dynamic than the one with Margaret Dumont’s prissy upper class matron.

Their banter leads Lucille to question Groucho’s professed profession, “You’re pretty shy for a lawyer.” Unflappable, he replies that he’s a “shy-ster lawyer.” This of course leads to them dancing together.

Proving that a smart mouth can be disarming leads to Groucho and Zeppo being armed. Yes I know how that looks on paper pixels, but it is the truth. I swear on my neighbor’s second cousin’s best friend’s ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend’s mother’s grave.

Oh look a chess game!

Back to the plot, such as it is. Briggs has ambitions, you see, big ambitions to replace Big Joe Helton (Rockliffe Fellowes) as the big gang boss. It so happens that Helton is on the ship in an amazing coincidence. His daughter, Mary (Ruth Hall) is the gal Zeppo is romancing. Imagine that. Or look at the picture, it’s worth more than a thousand of my words. At least that’s what the art dealer told me when I had it appraised.

Helton finds himself short handed, so he interviews Chico and Harpo to see how tough they are. For plenty of money they will be “plenty tough.” An impressive display is put on and they get the job as body guards.

So one pair of brothers is working for Helton and the other pair for Briggs. This can’t end well. If it did, the movie would be over and you could stop reading this review. Watch for Zeppo’s concern on Groucho’s gat handling, once I noticed it I couldn’t stop noticing it. Gun safety matters, folks – no joke.

Somewhere in-between all the skirt chasing Harpo manages to befriend a frog. How a frog ended up on an ocean liner I do not know. I also don’t want to know. Frankly, I’m more interested in the girls he’s chasing. Talk about fast women…

Groucho has his own agenda. Part of it involves making an offer to Helton that he can refuse. It would be 51 years before anyone understood the correct way to phrase that, so he really can’t be blamed for it.

It is rather different to see Zeppo get to romance the girl this time out. He comes off as earnest rather than charismatic, but Ruth Hall isn’t exactly a scene stealer either. From what I read at IMDb, she claimed he was pursuing her off screen as well.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read that. Chico was the one who chased the girls according to everything I’ve read over the years.

Possibly the best extended gag of the movie involves a stolen passport, multiple impersonations, and a cameo by someone who isn’t even in the movie. That is an amazing feat to pull off if you think about it.

It is one thing to successfully stowaway on a boat and another to get through customs to get off the ship. Will the boys set foot on American soil? What about the gangsters? And where did the miniscule plot go?

Here plot… Here plot, plot, plot…

Thoughts

At 77 minutes long, Monkey Business seems even shorter due to the nonstop gags and jokes. Only toward the end does the pace let up briefly. Still, it is very entertaining with many a laugh to be had. Something that struck me while watching it was that it felt like a motion picture rather than a filmed stage play like many early movies.

Unlike The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, this film is not a musical. The closest it gets to that is the singing in the barrels and a short number near the end. So all that padding involved in staging songs is absent, thereby making for a leaner (and crazier) movie. By this point the comedy team was well established and audiences were coming to see the lunacy, not the musical numbers.

And oh what lunacy is there to be seen. The best of it occurs in any scene where Thelma Todd and Groucho are together. Todd was an ex-beauty queen turned actress and here she exhibited an unusual wackiness that fit perfectly with the Marxian humor. Watching her light up the screen makes her tragic end at the age of 29 all the more saddening. Ruled a suicide, it was more likely a murder by real life gangsters in an ironic twist.

The movie is filled with a lot of innuendo but most kids won’t get any of it. Harpo’s antics will keep them amused just like the audience at the Punch & Judy show. Adults will enjoy the wit and absurd humor, so it will entertain most ages despite being unrated.

I recommend Monkey Business to Marx Brothers fans, slapstick aficionados, and classic movie buffs. After all, a barrel full of Marx Brothers is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Someone once wrote something like that, I believe.

Technical

My DVD of Monkey Business is from The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection six disc box set put out by Universal, which has their first five films made at Paramount and a documentaries DVD.

The box set is a high quality issue, being of the cardboard “book” format. It unfolds with three movies on each side, each on a clear plastic mount. The center contains a permanently attached full color booklet with information about the films and other goodies.

Being an old black and white movie, the presented ratio is 1.33:1 or 4:3. The picture quality is quite good and noticeably better than the previous two films in the collection. Specks and scratches are here and there, but not annoyingly so. Contrast and sharpness is very good to my surprise.

Audio is clear which is a necessity to hear all the puns flying by. English and Spanish tracks are available in Dolby Digital Monaural. Subtitles for those languages and French can be chosen.

No extras are included on the disc.

 

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

After the failure of all four brothers to pose a Maurice Chevalier, things looked dire for the stowaways. A case of mistaken identity and a swiped pair of sunglasses save the day. But would you trust a doctor who looked like that?

Now that is a classic scene from a gangster movie portraying Briggs’ plotting dastardly doings. The stilted dialogue, the crowded small apartment, the saxophone… wait, saxophone?! That’s supposed to be on the soundtrack, not in the scene!

Oh yeah, that doesn’t happen until the 1940s. Never mind…

If you are going to crash a debut ball, this is the way to do it. First, arrive in style in on an expensive town car. Second, use a floral display for camouflage. Third, get thrown out.

After failing in hitting on another married woman, Groucho lures Lucille with the siren call of the tom cat. It actually works, which shows just how messed up the hot to trot Mrs. Briggs is. She’s on the prowl too, but after more bad dancing another couple arrives to interrupt things.

Actually, they are playing the adultery game too much to Groucho’s interest.

Step four of crashing a party involves a bicycle and chasing a pretty blonde in track pants.

Very near the end of the movie, we get to see Chico play piano in his flashy style. This is the first dedicated musical number in the film!

The fifth step in successfully crashing a ritzy party involves terrifying the harpist and replacing her.

Step six – there is no step six.

Step seven is supposed to involve profit, but I didn’t see any and neither did Harpo.

Then the plot rears its head again and we have Mary kidnapped by the saxophone player and buddy. Nobody knows where they went except Groucho, which leads to a picnic in the barn where the girl is being held captive in the loft. As Chico says, “It is better to have loft and lost.” Makes perfect sense to me, but I don’t feel well at the moment.

That looks unsanitary to me. Unfortunately for them, the boys catch a break when they corner the hood. It makes perfect sense if you see the movie, even if it doesn’t in English. I still don’t trust them with anything sharp.

The end fight takes up at least five minutes and is as messy as a real one. Zeppo gets to prove that he can take a punch and land haymakers. Yes folks, that’s where all the hay came from. Groucho does a credible job as a color commentator while not lending a hand.

The happy ending seen a mile away. Zeppo vanquishes Briggs, gets the girl, the mobster future father-in-law’s approval, and to stand in hay. What more can a hero want?