For the curious, to get a sense of exactly what you're dealing with, here are the three hosts' current rankings of the Marx Brothers' thirteen films, in order of decreasing preference. (We refer you to Episode 1 for an in-depth discussion.) We reserve the right to revise our rankings at any moment, and above all, don't worry.
Matthew's list
1. Animal Crackers
2. The Cocoanuts
3-4. Monkey Business / Horse Feathers
5. A Night at the Opera
6. Duck Soup
7. A Night in Casablanca
8. A Day at the Races
9. Room Service
10. The Big Store
11. At the Circus
12. Love Happy
13. Go West
2. The Cocoanuts
3-4. Monkey Business / Horse Feathers
5. A Night at the Opera
6. Duck Soup
7. A Night in Casablanca
8. A Day at the Races
9. Room Service
10. The Big Store
11. At the Circus
12. Love Happy
13. Go West
Bob's list
- Animal Crackers
- Duck Soup
- Horse Feathers
- Monkey Business
- A Night at the Opera
- The Cocoanuts
- A Day at the Races
- A Night in Casablanca
- At The Circus
- The Big Store
- Go West
- Love Happy
- Room Service
Bob notes: "I really don't like having to include Room Service and Love Happy at all. They shouldn't be compared to the others..."
Noah's list
- Animal Crackers
- Horse Feathers
- The Cocoanuts
- Duck Soup
- Monkey Business
- A Night at the Opera
- A Day at the Races
- A Night in Casablanca
- The Big Store
- Room Service
- At the Circus
- Go West
- Love Happy
Note: For the purposes of these rankings, we're considering only the thirteen canonical Marx Brothers movies. If we were widening the scope, of course, the lists would look quite different, as we all consider The Story of Mankind to be the greatest film ever made, with the possible exception of Skidoo.
Funny how "Animal Crackers" has gone up in popularity over the years; maybe I should give it another look.
ReplyDelete"Room Service" is dull -- a weird hybrid of Marx Bros. and straight stage-to-film adaptation, and neither being satisfying. "Go West" is my least favorite -- it almost seems like it was written for Abbott & Costello, then re-written to include Harpo. At least "The Big Store" feels like the Marx Brothers, even if it doesn't quite succeed.
By the way, I met one of the dancers from "The Big Store" about 20 years ago. Her strongest memory was that Groucho was very funny between takes. As we talked, I realized I had watched her as part of a three-person dance team on the Ed Sullivan in the early '60s!
Not that anyone should care but I think "Go West" is their worst movie. There are some decent gags but the spirit is all wrong. Their best movies express an ebullient contempt for the dishonest drudgery of it all. In GW, they're stupid tepid buffoons with edge almost completely gone. Even the train sequence can't save it.
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