Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Love Happy Blu-ray Movie Review

The death of vaudeville?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 15, 2014

It’s never easy to see a legend in decline, a situation which is one of the odder anomalies that face film stars. Many actors become famous in their twenties, and the images of their youthful faces and vigorous demeanors end up getting imprinted on audiences in an almost subliminal way. This tendency was probably only exacerbated by television, which in decades past anyway tended to feature films from the mid- to late 20th century, offering viewers the chance to see actors who even by then had aged considerably, but who were preserved in all their youthful exuberance on celluloid. It can be almost shocking at, say, an Academy Awards telecast when they trot out a huge star from days of yore, and the audience is confronted with an aged, sometimes crippled and inarticulate, man or woman who seems to be happy to be there, but also sometimes palpably frail and even a bit confused. It probably shouldn’t come as any huge shock to any of us that movie stars age just like the rest of us, but film, despite its emphasis on “moving” pictures, is in some ways a static medium, in that it inherently captures performers at a particular moment in their lives, for better or worse. While there's a disconnect between seeing an old movie featuring some young star back in the day and then catching their current state of decrepitude, there's a different kind of sadness when there's an actual film featuring stars who may have seen better days, especially when that film can only hint at former greatness. That’s certainly the case with Love Happy, a kind of sad “comedy” that presented three of The Marx Brothers in their ostensibly last film “together” (more about that in a moment), but which probably only served to make audiences aware that times and tastes had changed and that yesterday’s blockbuster was today’s dud.

It perhaps indicative of how lowly Love Happy is generally thought of that the fact that it was the last pairing of The Marx Brothers often receives less notice than two ostensibly more tangible elements, namely the “introducing” credit Marilyn Monroe receives for her walk on part, and one of the first (and in some ways the most blatant) uses of product placement in film history. While Marilyn’s presence is usually touted up there with Groucho’s in press materials (including for this new Blu-ray), she’s barely on screen for a minute or so, basically as the latest girl Groucho gets to ogle. But the product placement, which was used in a kind if late forties’ version of Kickstarter to help fund the film, is rather unusual, especially since the products are advertised on huge billboards that actually end as props where Harpo interacts with various corporate logos.

Groucho is on hand (sans greasepaint) as Detective Sam Grunion, a private eye who recounts the story of the “famous” Romanoff diamonds, which are smuggled into the United States in a sardines can and come into the possession of Harpo, a typically sweet natured soul who has been stealing food to serve up to a local theater troupe which is working on one of those “hey, let’s put on a show!” revues. That leads to all sorts of farcical vignettes, especially after a Russian émigré named Lady Egelichi (Ilona Massey) figures out that Harpo has (or at least had) the jewels, and simultaneously attempts to seduce him herself to extract the information, while more or less also having her buffoonish henchmen (including one played by Raymond Burr) torture the poor schmuck.

Harpo is credited with the story for Love Happy, and he is the predominant Marx in the film, which may be one reason the film has failed to totally connect with Marx Brothers fans. Harpo is an incredibly lovable “character”, but having him try to “carry” a film may have been a fatal escape, though there are some glimmers of glories past in a couple of great gags, including a priceless one in a theater where Harpo is trying to hide and instead starts a chain reaction that completely gives away his location. But there’s very little of Groucho’s insouciant verbal humor and even surprisingly little of his leering lothario countenance (despite his “appreciation” of Marilyn). In fact there's very little of Groucho, period. If you pay attention you'll see that he actually has no scenes with either of his brothers. Chico plays jack of all trades Faustino the Great, who shows up at the theater as a general aide de camp, but who also in typical fashion acts as Harpo’s “interpreter”.

It’s obvious that the film was knit together out of fairly disparate elements, and in fact while the people doing the show in the film are putting on a revue, the film itself is rather revue-like, recalling the vaudeville stages that helped make the Marxes such legend. That means we get “specialty” acts galore, including individual musical scenes for Chico and Harpo, as well as a dance for Vera-Ellen and some nice songs for Marion Hutton. Speaking of music, one of the film’s chief pleasures is its boisterous song score with groovy five part vocal harmonies (a la The Modernaires) by Ann Ronell. Yes, this is the same Ann Ronell whom I admittedly decried as having replaced Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash for most of the song score when One Touch of Venus matriculated to film. As I mentioned in that review, Ronell is probably best known for “Willow Weep for Me”, which in fact is from Love Happy. Her score here is bright, colorful and one of the better things about the film.

Love Happy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love Happy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is a very nice looking high definition transfer that sports consistent contrast offering good black levels and a generally very organic viewing experience. The elements have surprisingly little damage, to the point that, while perhaps not pristine, Love Happy is unexpectedly free of any real recurrent problems other than a bit of age related wear and tear. The film has several opticals and special effects that are relatively softer and grainier than the bulk of the footage, as should be expected. No overt digital tweaking appears to have been done on this transfer.

Love Happy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While perhaps just slightly tinny sounding at times, Love Happy's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono actually boasts a fuller than average sounding midrange, something that gives the big, brassy orchestrations some real punch in the musical sequences. Those luxe close harmonies of the vocal group also sound great. Dialogue comes through loudly and clearly, and aside from limitations that clearly reveal the age of the stems, there really aren't any major issues to worry about.

Love Happy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Love Happy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was actually more engaged by Love Happy when I rewatched it after not having seen it for several years, and despite its kind of tired ambience, there are passing pleasures to be had in the film, including some nice music and at least an occasional laugh or two. The problem is most people are going to have precious memories of earlier, greater Marx Brothers fare, and there's little doubt that Love Happy doesn't really penetrate into the top echelon of the siblings' filmography. This Olive release looks great and sound fine, and though it's certainly no classic, Love Happy comes Recommended.