Product Details

• Actors: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont
• Directors: Robert Florey, Joseph Santley
• Format: NTSC, Black & White
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F02XXC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,697 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bought it for a friend..., February 16, 2009

By	Justin Vicknair "Justin" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Don't know anything about it, all I know is he had trouble finding it, and this vendor had it for cheap...it worked out well.

4.0 out of 5 stars An Antique Treasure of One Really Zany Movie, September 27, 2009

By	Great Movie Addict (New York City) - See all my reviews

Sadly, Hollywood lost all of the original and production prints. This DVD apparently was assembled from a tape, itself assembled from damaged remnants. As an artifact, it reveals the almost humorously primitive film technology of early 1929. There's atrocious editing, and film quality varies wildly even within the same scenes. It's suspected that many original portions are missing. In any case, it's still grand fun, if for nothing else than a look at a plot right out of Victorian theater and a number of scenes in which on-film cuties are caught looking at the cameras. It's hard to tell today, but in '29 this was a landmark film: all-talking from beginning to end, one of the first movies with full-length audio and Paramount's very first 100% talkie. It's a fairly faithful filming of the Marx Brothers' huge Broadway stage success, done during weekdays at Paramount's Astoria, NY studio while the Marx's played their next Broadway hit at night. You can even see bits where the actors get their lines confused. The absurdist humor, though borrowed heavily from Vaudeville, was revolutionary in its day. Some of the old routines (the Viaduct and auction bits) no longer work, but there are still plenty of laughs to go around. The comedy bits set patterns for every future Marx film: rooms with multiple doors and weird entrance/exit schemes (culminating in a Night at the Opera), Chico/Groucho non-logic (later perfected in the Tootsy-Frootsy bit in A Day at the Races), musical numbers from Harpo and chico, and the earliest appearance of the priceless Margaret Dumont. Most supporting roles are taken by stage/radio stars. One of the jewel thieves is Kay Francis, a popular actress who made dozens of films and earned a symbolic star in the concrete of the Hollywood Walk of Fame (it's hard to tell here, but Kay had a speech impediment that earned her the nickname, "the wavishing Kay Fwancis"). Her partner in crime is Cyril Ring who played in many silent and sound films and finally entered the screen writing business. The hotel detective, Basil Ruysdael, was a radio, stage and film mainstay for many years, later appearing in hits like "Prince Valiant", "The Last Hurrah", Perry Mason episodes, and a voice in "1001 Dalmations". The ultimate fascination is the heartfelt but truly klutzy script by George S. Kaufman and really corny music from Irving Berlin, both of whom would later offer much, much better material. The antique choreography right out of the original play's staging is by Erna Kay, a Broadway veteran who has no other film credits -- but you'll see plenty in these comically antique production numbers that set the tone for the dance extravaganzes of the 1930's. Even with poor quality media, which is often dreadful, you can still sense the initial impact made by the Marx Brothers, who in the late 1920's took the comedy world by storm and turned it, in their inimitable way, upside-down and inside-out.

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't speak for the transfer but..., August 1, 2009

By	alex bushman (Michigan) - See all my reviews

this film delivers incredibly in the live big screen setting. I just saw it on vacation at a classic film screening and the reactions of the crowd were priceless. These types of reactions are only achieved nowadays through gross out effects and the marx brothers achieved it by being zany. It's entertaining, funny (of course), and the dancing girls presentation makes a lot more sense in this setting showing the gaudy nature of the proceedings. Transfer-wise the print was very hit and miss with faded reels and the like and the sound wasn't too good in spots, but wasn't enough to ruin the impact of the film. A great first film for the brothers.