Category: Comedies - Comedy Video - Feature Film-comedy - Gift Set - Movie
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DVD The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)
When it comes to long-awaited treats like The Marx Brothers Collection, you can never get too much of a good thing. These seven comedies can't compare to the sheer lunacy of the five classics (The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup) that the Marx Bros. made for Paramount between 1929 and 1933 (available in The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection), but when uber-producer Irving Thalberg signed Groucho, Harpo, and Chico to an MGM contract in 1935 (by which time sibling costar Zeppo had become the team's off-screen manager), he knew just how to cure their box-office blues. As a result, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were critical and commercial hits, lavishly produced according to the "Tiffany" studio's golden-age formula of glamorous set pieces and musical numbers combined with sensible plots that smoothly integrated snappy, well-written Marxian antics. Opera is the jewel of this set, with timeless scenes (the Stateroom, the Groucho-Chico contract negotiation, etc.) that rank among the greatest bits of silver-screen comedy... not to mention Groucho's flirtatious insults at Margaret Dumont's upper-crust expense.
A Day at the Races deserves near-equal acclaim ("Get-a your tootsie-fruitsie ice cream!"), but Thalberg's death in 1937 dealt a devastating blow, and the Marxes suffered from studio indifference, resulting in a succession of comedies that are timelessly enjoyable even as they fall prey to diminishing returns. By the time they made Go West and The Big Store, the Marxes were out of their element, and a few of the musical interludes indulge racial stereotypes that were common in the studio era. Despite this, these movies remain fresh and frantic, and Warner Bros. (holder of the RKO and MGM libraries) has done a marvelous job of packaging The Marx Brothers Collection to nostalgically approximate the filmgoing experience of the 1930s and '40s, with vintage shorts (Our Gang, Robert Benchley comedies, MGM cartoons, etc.) from the time of each feature's original release. Archival materials are slim but worthwhile (especially Groucho's 1961 interview with TV talk-show host Hy Gardner), and while Glenn Mitchell's commentary on Races is sparse and superficial, Leonard Maltin brings his usual superfan's enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge to bear on a full-length Opera commentary track. The new documentaries are somewhat redundant, but essential viewing for Marx Bros. neophytes. With all seven films presented in pristine condition, this is definitely a Marx Brothers Collection worth having. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)
Get This !
If you love the Marx Brothers, you need this collection.
I bought this as a companion piece to the Paramount box set and I'm so glad I did. Nothing makes the difference between the Paramount era and the MGM era more apparent than a week watching each of these sets.
The earlier films are raw and chaotic and really, really fresh. By the time they got to MGM, they started using lines you'd heard before and story lines you'd seen a million times in a million other MGM movies.
I really love watching Day at The Races and A Night At The Opera. I think you will too.
Save up your nickels and dimes and buy this set. You won't be sorry you did.
Boys will be goys
The thing about these "collections" is the viewer gets a chance to see the progress (or deterioration) of an artist's work over time. In the case of the Marx Bros., it's the latter. They never got it right after Duck Soup. All the rest was shtick, predictable, routine, not funny: Groucho's crouch, Chico's piano playing in a pork pie hat, Harpo's nimble fingers once again worrying the harp strings and chasing the blondes. Best to view the collection backwards, from the lesser later works to the classics of the mid and early 30s. For some reason there's no "Coconuts" in the bunch which was the movie made from their zany stage romp of the late 20s. Maybe they needed George S. Kaufman. I don't know. But watching them go through the motions in "A Night in Casablanca" (so much of it ripped off from Laurel & Hardy's desert romp, "Flying Deuces") was truly depressing. The studio bosses in the 40's insisted on love stories and without Zeppo, who did his best early in the Bros career to carry the heart throb load, you have to suffer bug eyed John Carroll in "Go West" and moony Andy Russell in "The Big Store". Save your money Marx Bros fans. Skip the collection and remember the boys for what they were in their prime... get "Coconuts", "Duck Soup" and "Room Service". Enough is enough. No borscht... just Campbell's soup.
They gave 'zaniness' a good name
The strange and chaotic antics of the Marx brothers are one long non- sequitur and set of zany surprises. Groucho did it with words and a walk, an irreverence and sharpness of mind. Harpo did it with a mad strumming of his harp in between the crazed chasing of the next beautiful woman to appear on the scene. All of them together in their own frantic , flippant way seemed to make a mockery of every convention and to delight us with the sense of putting down the common pretences of social life.
When they were good they were among the funniest of all.
Related DVD's The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)
For anyone who loves classic comedy, the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is absolutely essential. Film for film, this may be the best DVD showcase ever devoted to a single comedian, including all five of Fields's acknowledged classics in a sturdy, beautifully designed library-quality slipcase. One could easily lament the relative lack of bonus features (it would have been nice to have some vintage Fields radio shows and newsreel footage), but the inclusion of A&E's 1994 Biography documentary W.C. Fields: Behind the Laughter is sufficiently informative about Fields's life, career, irascible personality, and tragic alcoholism. That's all that's really needed when the films themselves are so timelessly entertaining, and they're all remarkably pristine in sound and image... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): W.C. Fields DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I can't believe the silly negative reviews here. Of course there are no movies on this collection. This is not a rip off, it is a rare treasure of non-movie material from TV, radio (they put a picture on the screen while you hear the radio material. Of course there's no video to this, remember radio?) and film items such as trailers and newsreels of the day. What can one expect from the 20's through the 50's? This is supplementary material that likely has never been seen by the public since it was originally aired. Of course it will be black and white and not what one is used to from modern films. That's doin' Marx Brothers fans a favor. This is a wonderful collection of, as it says on the box, "...clips, interviews, TV shows, and rare footage that span the careers of all five Marx... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 09 December 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Almost as welcome as a shaker full of martinis, The Complete Thin Man Collection represents an eagerly awaited DVD milestone for fans of the fizzy MGM movie series. The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddyup of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together.
It is common wisdom that the Thin Man sequels... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W.S. Van Dyke DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I know this movie doesn't hold a candle to "Duck Soup" and "A Night At The Opera", but don't judge this film too harshly. Watch the movie, see what you think, you're entitled to your opinion. I think this movie is pretty good. Harpo has center stage instead of all of them, mainly Groucho, in the spotlight. Groucho only has a secondary role and appears in about 1/3 of the film. Harpo as himself is kept an eye on by Ilona Massey as she tries to get her greedy hands on a diamond necklace. This becomes unoticingly passed through a group of actors rehearsing a show. As Chico gets in on the action and Groucho steps in on the scene, the chase is on when the diamonds are hunted down...almost. Give this a try. You're going to laugh at a few parts, but again it isn't tops, but it's worth... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harpo Marx - Chico Marx - Groucho Marx Director(s): David Miller - Leo McCarey DVD Release Date: Released the 15 June 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Originally broadcast on PBS in 1993 and narrated by Leslie Nielsen, this comprehensive documentary charts the career of the Marx Brothers--Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo--from their beginnings on the vaudeville circuit to their final appearances on popular TV programs and commercials of the 1950s and early '60s. Featuring interviews with many surviving family members, friends, and close associates, the film covers the brothers' early stage careers in great detail, including the origins of their stage names and rare film footage of a sketch from one of their most popular comedy plays. Also fascinating is a long-lost film clip of Harpo in a silent film from 1925--four years before the Marx Brothers made their screen debut in Cocoanuts. The Marx Brothers' film career is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harpo Marx - Zeppo Marx Director(s): David Leaf DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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