To which I say, if it took Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones making googly eyes at each other and warbling tunes that didn’t even have the decency to be written by Irving Berlin or Jerome Kern to get you to come see the Marxes, well, you didn’t deserve them. And you won’t find Marx Brothers movies funnier than these, the last two features they made before studio head Irving Thalberg saddled them with romantic subplots and songs in the service of bringing them to a wider audience. In terms of screen comedy, you don’t get much funnier than Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and, yes, poor underappreciated straight man Zeppo.
That’s why I was so happy to see that the Hamburg Palace theater, which if late has largely been showing Hollywood classics, has booked a Marx Brothers double feature for this weekend, Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933). But just about the only time you’ll see “comedy” is trailing after “animated.”
#DUCK SOUP MARX BROTHERS ART DECO MOVIE#
But of all the ways that Hollywood has let us down in the 21st century, this has to be the biggest: where are all the comedies? Look at the movie listings and there are words you’ll see over and over again: horror, suspense, thriller, action, adventure, sci-fi, once in awhile drama or documentary. Doesn’t anyone want to laugh anymore? I know it can’t be just me who yearns for the experience of sitting with a group of people I don’t know and sharing an evening of chuckles, chortles, snickers, titters, giggles and the occasional big fat belly laugh.
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