Customer Reviews

Love Happy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While it's not the best of the Marx Brothers movies, Love Happy is important for several reasons. First, it is the Marx Brothers' last film together; second, Harpo Marx wrote the story; and third, it marks Marilyn Monroe's big screen debut (not counting the exceedingly small bit parts she had landed before 1949). I am sure I'm not the only person to buy this movie just to see Marilyn, and she is unmistakably dazzling in her brief appearance, making quite an impression on Groucho and a number of contemporary moviegoers. While you may see her featured prominently on the video jacket, be aware that her screen time, as memorable as it is, lasts no more than a minute. With Groucho's own time fairly limited, the onus for making this movie funny and enjoyable falls on Harpo and Chico Marx, and they don't disappoint.

Groucho plays detective Sam Grunion, and he narrates the first two-thirds of the movie before actually getting involved in the action. He is on the trail of the stolen Romanoff diamonds, but initially he is two steps behind Madame Egelichi and her henchmen (one of whom is Raymond Burr is a very un-Perry Mason-like role). As things work out, Egelichi is herself two steps behind Harpo, who unwittingly snatches the can of sardines holding the diamonds while filching food to feed a group of struggling off-Broadway players. These players aren't crucial to the plot, but Vera-Ellen shines as Maggie Phillips, dancer, actress, and all-around enchanting young woman. Chico worms his way into the production, serves as Harpo's interpreter in a couple of crucial scenes, and helps Harpo protect Maggie and the other players from danger. Groucho joins in at the end to make the diamond-hunting foray a full-blown farce worthy of the Marx Brothers.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Marx Brothers movie without some music, and Love Happy features two excellent performances. Chico shows off on the piano, and Harpo treats us to a beautiful harp solo. I can't say Love Happy made me bust a gut laughing, but it was certainly a very enjoyable movie. As a huge Marilyn Monroe fan, I also have to say that her performance, short as it is, was wonderful and in no way disappointing. I would have liked to have seen more of Groucho in the movie, but Harpo and Chico prove rather convincingly that the Marx Brothers are much more than just Groucho.

I'm a life long Marx Brothers fanatic. I've seen Love Happy more than 25 times during that span. Now I feel as though I'm seeing for the very first time. Apparently, there are 6 minutes in this version that have been missing from every print I've seen previously, and it turns out that this 6 minutes is essential. I always thought that Love Happy was a choppy mess of a film (although I always preferred it to Go West, and Room Service....sorry), but now, with this pristine print that has obviously been struck from the original negative, it is a smooth, funny, and very entertaining romp. The print makes it look like a bigger budgeted film, and the added footage makes it a far nicer ride. The film itself is not prime Marx Bros., but I think it is a much better film than the print that has been circulating for years. You'll just have to see for yourself. I am flabergasted that this release hasn't been more touted because, in my opinion, it is a major find.

Now how about a clean copy of Horsefeathers????

This modest little movie gets disparaged as a tepid finale to the Marx Brothers film career. It's obvious from the start that the inspired lunacy of "A Night at the Opera" or the best of the early Paramount films is missing, but even Marx Brothers "lite" will suffice for off-the-wall comedy fans. Many of the familiar Marx elements are present. Harpo, for example, frantically whistles, pantomimes, and charades as he tries to deliver urgent news to a bewildered Chico. In fact, this is amusingly done twice; the first time Harpo "phones" it in, trying to get Chico to read his mind! Harpo has been described as an enchanted elf, and his otherworldly qualities are displayed in his foraging talents used to feed the troupe of hungry actors, and the marvelous way he blends right in with the electric signs during the movie's climactic roof-top chase. Groucho's role is smaller than usual, but he has more than just a few unrelated scenes, as has been reported elsewhere. Marilyn Monroe does her breathless walk-on and Groucho leeringly puts an hilarious exclamation point to her very brief appearance. Harpo plays the harp, Chico plays the piano, and Groucho smokes his cigar and wiggles his eyebrows; all in true Marx Brothers fashion. The one Marx Brothers element that is conspicuous by its absence is a typical Groucho-Chico exchange in classic "Why A Duck" tradition. There is a weak effort to introduce a musical comedy plot with its obligatory singing, dancing, and romantic complications. Use the fast-forward control to get back to Harpo and the guys.

Granted, this film isn't the greatest Marx Brothers comedy, but dismissing the entire movie is a mistake. Good second string stuff.

"Love Happy" is remembered, primarily, as the last "Official" Marx Brothers film (they would all appear in brief vignettes in "The Story of Mankind", seven years later, but not as a team), but if the film were a baseball statistic, it would have an asterik (*), because it truly isn't a showcase of the brothers, together, but a comedy starring Harpo, with Chico in a supporting role, and Groucho doing narration, and making brief appearances, occasionally.

As a comedy, "Love Happy" is so-so, with Harpo providing some genuine laughs, particularly during an interrogation scene with villains Raymond Burr, Ilona Massey, Eric Blore, and Bruce Gordon, and in the rooftop finale, with Harpo offering the same kind of outrageous physical humor that he had demonstrated in the classic Paramount and MGM comedies. But the rest of the plot, while mildly entertaining, is simply a musical variation of "Room Service", as an impoverished group of performers (headed by Paul Valentine and future star Vera-Ellen) struggle to put on a Broadway musical, 'spiced' up with a stolen jewelry subplot that isn't that interesting.

The back story of the film is possibly more entertaining than the movie, itself; Harpo had wanted to make a solo film throughout the forties, and had tinkered on the script for several years, while soliciting financial backing for the project. Chico, meanwhile, was running up huge gambling debts, as was often the case (while a brilliant card player, he was a notoriously bad gambler), and just as the Marxes had made "A Night in Casablanca", in 1946, to pay off his debts at that time, Harpo brought him into "Love Happy" to do the same. Unfortunately, the end of the decade was a depressed time for film making (with the studios forced to give up their lucrative theater chains, and television making inroads into the ticket-buying public), and backers would only fund the project if all three brothers would appear in the movie.

Groucho, by now a genuine TV star, thanks to the "You Bet Your Life" quiz show, hated the script of "Love Happy", and had little desire to co-star in the film. He was, however, loyal to his brothers, and finally reached a compromise; he would only appear briefly, would not have to wear his trademark greasepaint eyebrows and mustache, and would have final approval of his dialog and the performers working with him. He could honestly say he helped 'discover' Marilyn Monroe, at an open audition (watching two other starlets walk across a stage, followed by Marilyn, when asked for his pick for a small role, he raised his eyebrows and quipped, "You're kidding, right?")

As Universal and Warner Brothers have now released two wonderful boxed collections of all of the Marx Brothers' other feature films, this edition of "Love Happy" is essential, to complete the filmography of the classic team. But be warned: "Love Happy" is no "Night at the Opera", or "Duck Soup"!

Released in 1950 after a troubled production history, "Love Happy" should be viewed as a showcase for the talents of Harpo Marx. On that level, it's an enjoyable but uneven film. Harpo's attempt at Chaplinesque pathos is fascinating - if not entirely successful. However, the rooftop chase is quite inventive and Groucho (in a brief role for box-office purposes) has a memorable encounter with Marilyn Monroe. "Love Happy" is not a classic, but it's more enjoyable (and less painful) to watch than "At the Circus" and "The Big Store." After years of second-generation dupes, the DVD features an excellent 35mm pre-release print that is six minutes longer than the 85-minute theatrical version. Groucho's narration now makes more sense and includes some Robert Benchley-inspired commentary. Along the way, there are occasional gags with Harpo and Chico that the Hays Office deemed inappropriate for the official release. Despite a few continuity errors, the pre-release print of "Love Happy" is superior to the finished product. Marxists rejoice!

Love Happy is great! Because Harpo wrote it, this movie is very different from the rest of the Marx Bros. movies. It of course has much more silent parts for Harpo, and he is the main character. Also, the abscence of Groucho from a main role in the play, is strikingly different. Here is a basic overview of Love Happy: The main characters: Harpo Marx as Harpo; Chico Marx as Faustino; Groucho Marx as Sam Grunion; Ilona Massey as Madame Egilitchi; and Vera-Ellen as Maggie Phillips. Groucho is the narrator, as well as a detective who is trying to solve the mystery of a missing necklace valued at $1,ooo,ooo. However, Madame Egilitchi and her two bodyguards also have their sights set on the necklace. Meanwhile, a group of struggling young actors are trying to put on a play called Love Happy, and Harpo is stealing food for the actors ("The actors were underfinanced and undernourished" in the words of Groucho). However, in a can of sardines Harpo steals is this very necklace that everybody is searching for. Harpo walks away with the necklace, not knowing it's value. It finally passes through the hands of Maggie Phillips, and onto the piano which Chico is playing on on the opening night of the play. Chico discovers this and runs off with the diamonds, giving a fake copy to Harpo. But somehow, Harpo gets the real ones! This of course leads to a madcap finish, as everybody chases Harpo through the Windsor theatre on opening night. The movie ends with Madame Egilitchi denied the jewels to Harpo, and Groucho the wife of Madame Egilitchi. This is a great movie, and I HIGHLY recommend it.

LOVE HAPPY is the Marx Brothers' final starring feature film, though the spotlight here is on Harpo (the real star of the picture), while Chico and especially Groucho have supporting roles. This one is primarily for Marx completists, who will be delighted to learn that the print used for this DVD transfer runs 91 minutes rather than the standard 85-minute version previously released on VHS ... and seen on TV and in theatrical revivals. I'm not sure where this longer cut has been languishing all these years (the DVD is a Republic Pictures/Lions Gate release, yet there's a Paramount/Viacom logo too), but the shorter edition is the one that's been in general circulation over the past four decades. It's surprising that Republic didn't toot their own horn about having made this longer version available. Did they even realize it was a longer version?

The pictorial quality of this DVD is stunning. Every other edition I've seen -- including a 35mm print that dated back to 1953 -- looked like it was processed on outdated film stock, giving the picture a dimly-lit pictorial quality. Not so in this case: the image is sharp and distinct, giving this independent production a glossy, polished look it did not possess before.

None of the "new" scenes are what I'd call major sequences ... though, happily, additional gags conceived by Frank Tashlin (SON OF PALEFACE, ARTISTS AND MODELS, THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT) are now reinstated. (Unhappily, there's no extra footage of Marilyn Monroe.) I'm puzzled why these cuts were made in the first place -- in some instances it only shortens a scene by a matter of seconds.

Comparing the DVD to the old VHS edition, these are the restored sequences I noticed: the original introduction to Chico's character, narrated by Groucho; Harpo feeding a string of hot dogs to hungry actors inside a bull costume; Groucho showing the audience snapshots of him and Ilona Massey romping together in various locales; Harpo whirling around inside a giant washing machine while a gleeful Raymond Burr looks on; an additional encounter between Chico and Leon Belasco, narrated by Groucho; Melville Cooper showing Ilona Massey X-rays of Harpo; additional sight gags during the climactic rooftop chase (although there`s still a clumsy fadeout during the chase). Plus, there are additional, fleeting quips from Groucho (none of which are especially funny), as well as different music scoring for some scenes.

Again, I'm not sure why this movie was tinkered with. Why would United Artists, the original theatrical distributor, remove a number of Groucho's bits when he has so little to do to begin with? For that matter, why cut any Marx scenes in a film that has superfluous footage involving secondary characters?

The extra footage is fascinating to watch but it doesn't change my overall opinion of LOVE HAPPY. I think that the film has a number of very funny and imaginative scenes, but it still ranks as a lesser Marx effort. Nevertheless, if you're a true Marx Brothers fan, you'll want (and need) this DVD for your collection.

This was the first Marx Brothers movie I ever saw, and because of that, for quite some time I had the wrong impression of them, judging them by this pale weak mediocre movie. Thankfully, in the years since I've become familiar with their other 12 films and have realised that what I first saw was not at all representative of their true talents, and the reason why 'Love Happy' is so weak and unrepresentative. If someone goes into the viewing experience expecting a Marx Brothers movie, s/he'll likely be as disappointed and turned off as I was, but if one knows that it's essentially a solo vehicle for Harpo, a project in which his brothers just happen to star also, one will probably feel more kindly towards it.

I get the feeling that if this had stayed Harpo's solo project, and his brothers hadn't been roped into appearing as well since the studio thought it would never sell otherwise, it could have been at least a halfway decent and fun little movie. It might not have been a great movie, but it also wouldn't have fallen as flat as the end result ended up doing. I feel bad for him, knowing how long he'd wanted to do a solo film and how much this project meant to him, only to have it fail so miserably, so much so he never even mentioned the film in his memoirs. And the scenes where he appears alone are mostly quite good and funny, one last glimpse of the mischievous sprite, a really good screen farewell (not counting 'The Story of Mankind'). Although it is a bit disconcerting to see some of the closeups of him, where the illusion of this ageless clown gives way to the realisation that he was in his early sixties at the time and no longer as (relatively) young as he'd been at the peak of their career. Although appearing older didn't really hurt Groucho--he just went from a dirty young man to a dirty old man. He didn't really serve much of a purpose in this film, though, although he's as great as ever in the scenes he does get. (I've heard it mentioned that the wackier his name his, the funnier and wackier the film will be. Here his name is Sam Grunion, and this film is even worse than 'Room Service,' where his name was Gordon Miller.)

The major problem with this movie isn't really that the three brothers never get an entire scene together (though it does seem wasteful to have them all in the same movie yet never put them all together at the same time), but that it's just not consistent. Again, if this had remained Harpo's solo film, there probably wouldn't have been so many needless subplots or storylines that we never see really tied up or ended satisfactorily. The film is also marred by too many musical numbers, something that also hurt many of their post-Paramount films. They contribute nothing to the storyline, although I suppose that a song like "Who Stole That Jam?" isn't quite as nightmare-enducing as "The Tenement Symphony." We also have the requisite pseudo-Zeppo and the romantic subplot, although at least the pseudo-Zeppo in this picture isn't as actively annoying or nauseating as the ones in 'At the Circus' or 'The Big Store.' Even so, the viewer never really feels connected to these secondary characters, because unlike the romantic couples in 'A Night at the Opera' and 'A Day at the Races,' they're not really fully integrated into the plot surrounding the brothers, while at the same time they take up too much of the plot. Most people don't watch the Marx Brothers' movies because they want to see secondary characters taking up all the action! And there are times when one just feels like they're too old to still be doing this anymore, because it's just getting silly for men who are in their late fifties and early sixties to still be going on like this and doing their old act. A particularly vivid example is the scene where Harpo is miming to Chico that Maggie is in trouble. The pantomime scene in ADATR was funny and original, and the one in 'A Night in Casablanca' wasn't quite as funny or fresh, but it seemed right since there were so many scenes and gags in that picture hearkening back to things from their earlier films, like a poignant summing up of their entire career. Here it just goes on way too long, and gets extremely embarrassing and painful to watch. Now I understand why some people feel that the pantomime scene in ADATR marked the end of Harpo as a character who didn't talk and the beginning of him as one who couldn't talk.

Even so, in spite of the problems, there are enough funny scenes and gags for this movie to not be a complete waste. It's still the weakest of their movies, but even a film where they never appear together at the same time still has some of that old magic and is better than much of what passes for comedy today. Just don't let it be your first Marx Brothers movie.

...The Marx Brothers left us one more amusement in the form of movie for the final time. For the first time, on the other hand, Harpo Marx headed the characters' and story credit. In this respect, many fans and critics see "Love Happy" as a Harpo's solo vehicle. Still, I believe that there are quite a few great moments for the other Brothers, Chico and Groucho (*saluting Chico, the eldest sibling!).

Chico first appears with his usual warm smile attempting to get a job from Mike Johnson (Paul Valentine) at a financially struggling theater company. He makes it, after all, after showing a trace of his frindly and mild stupidity. Grouncho, on the other hand, opens the door of the film appearing as a private eye agent named Sam Grunion. In his all-time rapid-fire talks, we find many clever and funny wisecracks every time he opened the mouth to talk.

In addition to its unique "sentimental" atomosphere, the greatest and most brilliant moments of the entire film should be definitely when the Brothers present musical numbers respectively (*the exception is Groucho, who unfortunately did NOT sing any songs this time!). In the chronological order, Chico performed "Gypsy Love Song" on the piano and "shot" the keys as usual. In this number, Chico features Mr. Lyons (Leon Belasco) on violin, or more correctly, trying to stop him to take away every stage property belonging to him as a result of the company's bankrupcy.

Now hearing Harpo play the solo harp is the biggest excitement on this fim, I believe. We may realize it has been many years since "Horse Feathers" or "Duck Soup" when we see him in a close-up shot, but his performing "Swanee River" proves that Harpo is timelessly great!

Along with a rare brief appearance of young Marilyn Monroe, I think that "Love Happy" should be recognized the "last but not least" film of the Marx Brothers.

But hey, not every movie can be, can it not? I will confess that until I got the DVD, "Love Happy" was the only Marx Bros. movie I had never seen! I had seen all the other 12 COUNTLESS times. Now, there's been a lot people saying the movie was plain awful (even Groucho and Harpo never mention the movie in their autobiographies), and maybe compared to the earlier Paramounts it's considered a letdown. I think they were being too hard on themselves.

All considering, I thought it was a solid effort, but it was bogged down with too much music (not the brothers' tunes-everybody else's). I thoroughly enjoyed watching Chico managing to cause chaos and confusion wherever he went, and butchering the English language as usual...........I absolutely cracked up when he says "Ah-Tootsie Frootsie" in a scene where Harpo hands him an ice cream cone.....I loved the "noodling around" bit he did where he played "Gyspy Love Song" just like he did in "Cocoanuts" 20 years earlier. I often wonder if he knew this was the "official" swan song of the Brothers' movie career..........Chico would have gladly kept going, even if the others didn't. (I'm not counting "The Story of Mankind" as the "last" movie, because they had 3 separate roles in it).

Groucho uncharacteristically, has more of a role as a narrator, but he still manages to be typical Groucho. When he is in a scene, he's hilarious. His best line, is of course, when Marilyn Monroe (all 45 seconds of her) walks into his office (he's Detective Sam Grunion) and says, "Some men are following me" to which Groucho replies, "Really? I can't imagine why" and raises his eyebrows in typical Groucho fashion.

Of course, the star here is Harpo, and I think he's brilliant. His scene with Ilona Massey and Raymond Burr (who's trying not to laugh at Harp) when they try to get him to "talk" is hilarious! And the chase scene towards the end of the movie is great, despite all the "product placement" up on the buildings and such; it's still well done. Harpo was just Harpo, and he nevers fails to deliver. He came up with the story after all. I think the movie was pretty good, and even though I wouldn't start with this movie if you are new to the Brothers Marx, I still recommend it. Harpo, Chico, and Groucho in a good, but not great, movie are still better than half of the junk that is called humor gracing our theater screens (does ANYBODY know how to do an original movie instead of countless remakes?) nowadays. I think most people will be pleased with the Marxes' last effort. Give it a chance, it might surprise you! It did me.