Customer Reviews

Inside the Marx Brothers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are an avid Marx Brothers collector, there might be some obscure film & home movie clips you might enjoy, but otherwise, pass on this piece of work. There have been several very good documentaries on the Marx Brothers, all much better than this one.

Each of the Marx Brothers was a fascinating personality, on screen and off, and we learn very little about the. Aside from the narration, there are very few interview sources, the prominent being one of Groucho's former personal assistants. Therefore, we learn a little about what made Groucho tick, and very little about Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo.

The actual history of theie professional success comes off like cliff notes, very hurried, like somebody just wanted to wrap up the project quickly as possible.

The extras and rare clips are enjoyable, especially the audio clip where Harpo speaks. I know there are folks who are mixed on this one; some are anxious to hear his voice, some like to keep the mystique in place. To each his own. Harpo has been one of my personal heroes since I was a child, and much as I find his onscreen character so endearing, I was always eager to hear what he sounded like. Just a trivial little thing, and I enjoyed hearing him rattle off a few lines. Hearing him speak did not dampen the mystique for me; when I think of Harpo, I still hear him saying HONK!

Other than the fun tidbits that go with this DVD, there is not much there. There are some quality Marx Brothers documentaries out there on the market, and I would pick one of those. One that is not readily available (to the best of my knowledge) is an early 1990s documentary on Groucho that aired on TV called "The One, the Only...Groucho!" That particular documentary is worth going WAY out of your way to find; while it focuses primarily on Groucho, it also covers the lives and exploits other brothers warmly and with depth.

A really shoddy piece of work. It's just filled with poor qualtity trailers and some mildly interesting newsreel footage. (And even that's in bad picture quality.) There are other better documentaries out there - avoid this or you'll be sorry.

This is a halfway decent complement to the other, better Marx documentaries (i.e. Nutshell). There's some interesting stuff here; infrequently seen newsreel clips and photos and home movies, an audio clip of Harpo speaking, insight from a few Marx insiders. It's not at all bad and is worth adding to the shelf of Marx shows.

Although this might be a potential springboard for a new fan, there's just not a lot here for the more serious fan. It gives a very basic and truncated narrative of their careers, and what information there is is already common knowledge and available in superior documentaries. The non-casual fan isn't liable to learn a lot of new stuff from watching this. These guys led such fascinating lives both onscreen and off, with a veritable goldmine of material to have used, yet what we get is something that's not much over an hour and that really does seem kind of like Cliff Notes. For example, in the section dealing with their film career, we don't get much more than a series of film clips instead of a serious discussion on these films, their place in movie history, how they were made, what the early scripts were like, etc. So many important things were just glossed over. Most of the film clips themselves, from both their movies and the tv appearances, are in very shabby condition. With better prints available, why choose the bottom of the barrel? Even the audio quality is off in some of the clips. This documentary also seems to focus excessively on Groucho's life and career; just because he seems to be the most popular of the brothers doesn't mean that the other four should be ignored! Typically, we don't even really get that much information about poor Gummo and Zeppo after they left the act. There also weren't enough people used for interviews; they were mostly Groucho's son Arthur and his personal assistant Steve Stoliar, who worked with him late in his life.

However, this disc is worth it for the rare home movies, tv commercials, tv appearances, and film clips from solo projects. Included among these clips are the recently-rediscovered 1925 film 'Too Many Kisses,' in which Harpo had a small role, a clip from the 1925 comedy 'A Kiss in the Dark,' in which Zeppo made a minor appearance, a commercial Chico and Harpo made for shampoo, and clips from the (reputedly dreadful) 1957 Technicolor film 'The Story of Mankind,' which the three brothers appeared in but not together. The most priceless of the film clips are in the section dealing with their later careers and lives, after they'd stopped making movies, since so few people know about what they did after retiring from the screen. It's one of those things that's worth a look for the more seasoned fan, but which ultimately holds more interest for a newer fan who doesn't already know all of these things and hasn't seen most of their films yet.

This is a lame documentary IF you truly ARE a die-hard fan of these guys. The DVD contains mostly film clips or trailers and there is very little unseen footage. The ONLY saving grace of this DVD is a cast photo of the sadly lost Marx Brothers silent film Humorisk, Groucho singing "Peasie Weasie" with Dinah Shore and the ONLY reason I would even consider buying it...Harpo's voice on tape! Otherwise...spend your dough on a different DVD OR read MONKEY BUSINESS by Simon Louvish.

A interesting look at early pioneers of comedy and some interesting facts about them, it's a quick glance at their lives and movies.

Inside The Marx Brothers is a rather good documentary that I enjoyed. It's not perfect; but it does have rare newsreel footage, a sound clip of Harpo's voice, a couple of great extras, interview footage with Arthur Marx, Groucho's son--and more!

The documentary goes roughly in chronological order; we see the Marx Brothers and their parents through the early years in still photos with some rare footage of Harpo in a 1925 silent film entitled Too Many Kisses; and we also get footage of an early vaudeville comedy routine the four brothers replicated for a 1931 Paramount promotional film, The House That Shadows Built. The quality of the older footage is not good, unfortunately; and this is particularly frustrating in the twenty minute extra when Groucho is interviewed in 1954 by Edward R. Murrow.

On the other hand, we get good insights about the four brothers and their personal married lives with the children they raised; and we see them survive the move from Paramount Studios to MGM Studios. The group did well at MGM until Irving Thalberg died suddenly; after that things slowly but surely went downhill for The Marx Brothers essentially because Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM Studios, just didn't personally like their act.

Look also for rare footage from an ill fated 1959 comedy sitcom pilot that was scrapped very early on because it was poorly conceived; and Ann Miller gives a good interview about the Marx Brothers as well.

Overall, this documentary isn't completely thorough but it does offer interview and rare footage that we don't get in the other documentary entitled The Marx Brothers In A Nutshell. I am beginning to think that to truly cover all the ground a Marx Brothers fan will simply have to pick out more than one documentary to get the fullest understanding of this great comedy team.

Four stars.

This is one of those lame biography-type documentaries that Passport and other cheapie video companies put out. You know the type. Public domain footage, trailers, still photos, etc. Except this one has one segment that will either thrill Marx Brothers fans or bore them. It's an audio clip with Harpo's actual voice! Frankly, I was very excited to hear this piece. You may not feel the same. Either way, do yourself a favor: only buy this DVD if you can get it for under $10. It isn't worth any more.

Inside the Marx Brothers
THIS DOC.IS GREAT FOR ALL MARX BROTHERS FANS IT'S FUNNY,SAD,SWEET AND REAL.
THIS TELLS THE STORY OF THE MARX BROTHERS FROM THEIR VERY BEGINNINGS TO HOW THEY GOT STARTED IN SHOWBIZ UP UNTIL THE END OF THEIR LIVES.
IF YOU ARE A MARX BROTHERS FAN THIS IS ONE THAT ANY FAN SHOULD HAVE FOR THEIR COLLECTION.
I GIVE IT 5 STARS!!

There is a whole world inside the Marx Brothers that I had no idea about. This show goes into great detail, explaining how they started, what happened to them during their peak, and what happened after. This is a really good show. I highly recommend it for any fan of those crazy bastards, the Marx Brothers.