My Tribute to The Marx Brothers and their Six Best Films
After reading Marc Barham and Justin Enuffa Ballard lovely articles on the Marx Brothers, I am keen to add my adoration for my comic heroes.
Just like Marc, I was introduced to them at a younger age when their films were shown very late on a weekend, especially over Christmas. I believe the first film I saw was A Night at The Opera. After that I was hooked. I got so excited when I found out their films were scheduled. It was the time of no video recorders, so I stayed up late, eagerly anticipating the start and slightly dismayed when the film was over. With the exception of The Coconuts, Room Service and Love Happy, I own all their films. I also have a book which contains a lot of their best dialogue and a number of books on Groucho Marx who is my all-time favourite comedian.
The Brothers originally mastered their act in theatres and initially there were five of them, generally known as their stage names Groucho (Julius), Chico (Leonard), Harpo (Adolph or Arthur), Zeppo (Herbert) and Gummo (Milton).
Gummo dropped out early, leaving the four of them. Zeppo tended to play the straight man to the other three. He appeared in a number of their famous early films including Duck Soup before leaving, which then left the world with the three notorious comedians.
