Tag Archive: Harpo Marx


SHTICKS, GAGS AND MONKEY BUSINESS

Filed under: Humour, Movies — 1 Comment
September 26, 2013

MONKEY BUSINESS directed by Norman Z.McLeod (USA, 1931)

After two movies based on vaudeville shows, Monkey Business was the first Marx Brothers film written specially for the big screen. It’s included on the syllabus of the  The Language of Hollywood  Coursera MOOC to show how, with the coming of sound, many films of the 1930s were not dependent on innovative auteurs but relied on the ability of the players to generate the entertainment.

Effectively, this means that the director’s job is reduced to simply pointing the camera and relying on the timing of the performers.

The Marx Brothers had honed their comic skills on Broadway and knew exactly what audiences wanted, as is proven by the huge success of this movie.

Theirs is the essence of situation comedy with the specific situations here being a ship, a high-class party and a barn. Most of the action takes place on board an ocean liner where the four brothers are stowaways. Continue reading →

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HAIL HAIL FREEDONIA

Filed under: Humour, Movies, Music, Politics — Leave a comment
November 26, 2012

DUCK SOUP directed by Leo McCarey (USA, 1933)

I’d forgotten just how anarchic and madcap The Marx Brothers’ movies were. I loved this manic energy as a kid and Harpo in particular still makes me crack up with his face pulling and bottomless pockets.

He’s the perfect foil to the continual wise cracking of Groucho and the bluster of Chico.  The hat switching  and mirror scenes are straight out of vaudeville and classic examples of comic timing.

The plot is bizarre and defies logic which is probably why it still works as an effective political satire. Continue reading →

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BLOGGING FOR BLOG’S SAKE

Filed under: Blogging, Good causes — 2 Comments
November 15, 2012

If Harpo Marx had been a blogger this is how he might have looked.

This is getting addictive.

I finished writing my latest blog entry (number 1,164) last night at 11.00pm and immediately felt a wave of calm and relief.

Where once I was content to post when I was in the mood, now I no longer wait around for the muse to strike.

I started this blog on May 25th 2007 and since January 2011 I have managed to maintain my goal of posting every day. It’s become a habit I don’t want to give up.

I still don’t have much of an idea who is reading what I write. It’s nice to have followers and see the number of site hits slowly increasing but this is not my main motivation.

There’s just something psychologically reassuring about offloading things that are swirling around in my brain and I firmly believe that setting down thoughts is the best way of clarifying ideas.

I can cite the great Don DeLillo to support this view. He once said that the reason he writes is to find out what he knows. In my humble way, I’m doing the same.

I am following the advice you’ll find in practically all writing guides in that I’m setting aside time every day to scribble something, however trite and unfinished it might seem at the time.

Let’s face it, if you sit around waiting for inspiration, there’s no guarantee it will ever arrive.

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