Customer Reviews

The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup)

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Universal's "The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection" gathers Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo's first five films: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup. All of them are fantastically funny films, with the brothers in fantastic comic form. There is a loose, improvisational feeling to these films that is lacking from their later work, and the good feeling exhibited by them is downright infectuous. The weakest, the stagy and awkwardly paced "The Cocoanuts," still has many great moments, and the best, "Duck Soup," is a hilarious political satire that holds its own against the best movies ever made.
The high quality of these movies makes the incredible lacklustre boxed set a great disappointment. The image quality is mediocre at best, with tinny sound, blurry picture, scratches, vertical lines, and heavy grain. While it's true that some of these problems are due to poor source material (particularly in the case of "The Cocoanuts"), they're practically inexcusable in "Horse Feathers" and "Duck Soup." Obviously no restoration whatsoever was made to these films.
The biggest disappointment is in the extras, or lack therof. The "entire bonus disc of additional materials" amounts to nothing more than three short "Today Show" interviews with Harpo (in mime), Groucho, and William Marx, Harp's son. While the interviews are amusing, their combined running time is less than twenty minutes and hardly qualify for an extra disc. Also scattered amond the individual discs are trailers for "Animal Crackers," "Horse Feathers," and "Duck Soup." Films of such high regard cry out for documentaries and commentaries similar to the ones on Warner Brothers' other Marx Brothers set.
One nice thing about the set is its packaging, which is handsome and elegant (although perhaps too elegant...something the brothers might have mocked in one of their films). With the packaging is a 40-page booklet, a large chunk of which is made up of mundane things like the chapter listings for each film. The historical information in the booklet is perfectly adequate, but hardly as "spectacular" as the box claims.

The movies here are the first five the Marx Bros. made (when there were four of them: Chico, Harpo, Groucho & Zeppo) and these Paramount flicks are wonderfully zany, madcap, loony, etc. The quality of the prints is not good, which is a drag, and the extras are practically nonexistent. However, anyone who believes himself to be a serious fan of comedy should see these five movies. When the three Marx Bros. moved to MGM, "genius" Irving Thalberg toned down their insanity and forced them to inject Chaplinesque pathos, plus more linear storylines, which many of us believe wrecked the anarchic weirdness of the early, "funnier" movies. (Thalberg was correct, as far as the box office went. The Marx Bros. movies made at MGM made a lot more money and even Groucho said they were better movies. But what did he know about comedy?)

Any Marx Bros. movie is better than no Marx Bros. movie, and the Silver Screen Collection contains their best stuff. Highly recommended, even with its faults.

This is an important release - the first five Marx Brothers films still in existence. (Ironic that *Universal* is issuing this set, seeing as how all 5 were originally Paramount productions.)

The transfers are probably the best that can be done, but "Cocoanuts" shows its age the most, where transitions in quality (perhaps between existing prints?) are somewhat jarring.

The extras are disappointing - an entire disc devoted to nothing more than 3 Today Show segments? It's a shame at least one documentary wasn't included , which would have helped introduce the brothers to a new generation of admirers.

As it is, it's great to have these films finally available on DVD, in spite of their condition. Now my aging copy of "Duck Soup" on VHS can be finally retired...

As a huge Marx Brothers fan I ordered this set as soon as it became available. It has five Marx Brothers' classics - the Zeppo era, as well as a disk of bonus material. What impresses me most about the collection is the wonderful packaging the disks came in. Beautiful slipcover to hold the disks and the booklet that is incuded. While the booklet isn't very informative it does have the movie posters for the films (which is a nice treat). There are no commentaries or extras for the movies themselves, but since the people involved in the films are no longer with us this is no surprise.
What will draw the true fans to buy the collection are the movies themselves. While you should be forewarned the quality of the film transfer and audio are poor by today's standards, it is quite understandable considering the age of these films. Duck Soup is my favourite Marx Brtoher's film of all time and Monkey Business and Animal Crackers are also must sees.