The Marx Bros

The Marx Brothers have kept me happily amused through many a long and lonely night when I am working and writing. It's the really old films I enjoy the most. The Cocoanuts (where Groucho is manager of a hotel in Florida), Horse Feathers (Groucho is president of Huxley College), Monkey Business (The Four Marx Brothers are stowaways aboard a cruise ship), Animal Crackers (Groucho as the explorer Captain Spaulding who has just returned from Africa) and my all time favourite Duck Soup - you just have to enjoy Groucho Marx as the president of the financially challenged country Freedonia.

Duck Soup

In Duck Soup, as leader of Freedonia, playing the character of His Excellency Rufus T. Firefly, Groucho Marx takes his country to war against a neighbouring country, who have an underhand aim of occupying and taking over Freedonia. I find the anti-war sentiment that pervades the film as relevant today as when it was made more than seventy years ago. There aren't many other anti-war films I could recommend you watch and still expect you to have a good laugh - you will with Duck Soup.

Animal Crackers

In Animal Crackers, as Captain Spaulding the intrepid African explorer Groucho, and Zeppo Marx as his secretary speak and sing the following lines:

Zeppo: There's something that I'd like to say, that he's too modest to relay, the Captain is a moral man. In fact, he finds it trying.

Groucho: This fact I'll emphasise with stress, I never take a drink unless... somebody's buying.

Chorus: the captain is a very moral man.

Zeppo: If he hears anything obscene, he'll naturally repel it.

Groucho: I hate a dirty joke I do, unless it's told by someone who knows how to tell it.

Chorus: the captain is a very moral man.

Marx Bros Films Online

As the earlier Marx Brothers films have passed into the public domain they can now be found at many sites online quite legitimately - try Youtube - that's where I watch them.