Start Your March With The Marx Brothers At The Music Box

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 23, 2015 7:15PM

Before the Marx Brothers, comedy in film followed a defined blueprint of set-up and punchline. Starting with 1929’s The Cocoanuts, Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo brought tightly rehearsed vaudeville skits imbued with a zany, anarchist spirit to the screen just as the sound era in film was taking off. Each Marx brother had a defined personality. Groucho was the wisecracking, greasepaint mustache-wearing social climber leeching of the largesse of well-heeled Margaret Dumont; Chico—with his thick fake Italian accent—was the con man with amazing talents on the piano; Zeppo was the wooden straight man who could break out in song at a moment’s notice; and Harpo, well, he was a silent superhero: the manifestation of id.

The Marx Brothers' Paramount films (especially Duck Soup) are more popular with film historians and classic film fans but suffered from a lack of structure. When the group (minus Zeppo) moved to MGM, producer Irving Thalberg injected just enough story structure to the Marxes act to make audiences root for them onscreen, while sacrificing little of their comedic sensibility. A Night at the Opera proved to be a major hit.

We own all the Marx Brothers films on DVD but relish the opportunity to see the films projected on a silver screen and that's why we're bullish on a matinee retrospective that started last weekend at the Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave.) with 1930s Animal Crackers. This weekend, the Music Box will screen Horse Feathers, followed by Duck Soup March 7-8, A Night at the Opera March 21-22 and closing with A Day at the Races March 28-29. It serves as a nice overview of the Marx Brothers cinematic oeuvre and this retrospective is loaded with the strongest films from their Paramount and MGM days. Have breakfast before or brunch after seeing these films and your day is set.