7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
On a transatlantic crossing, the Marx brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo MarxComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.2:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH, French
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: This film is available as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection.
The Marx Brothers remain one of the most iconic comedy teams in the entire history of show business, including of course their film work. Years of
vaudeville experience and then Broadway stardom meant the siblings came to cinema with personas largely set and with a huge “catalog” of bits they
could utilize for their film work. That said, the movie going public had never really seen anything like the manic proclivities of this familial troupe, and
countless commentators from 1929 (when The Cocoanuts debuted on celluloid) on have attempted to analyze various elements of the
team’s completely unique comedy. While perhaps not especially “meaningful” in any overarching way, I had an unusual response to watching these
new transfers of the first five Marx Brothers feature films (all reportedly sourced from new 4K restorations done by Universal), one probably sparked
by my recent reviewing duties.
Arrow Video’s UK branch recently released
Woody Allen: Six Films 1971-1978, and in doing some background reading in preparation for my reviews of the movies in that set,
more than once I read in various articles comments along the lines of “Allen helped to define Jewish humor” or “Jewish humor simply wouldn’t be
the
same without Allen.” Allen’s patented brand of neurosis, sexual obsession and verbal acuity may indeed be at least a trifecta of Jewish
humor if not the trifecta, but one only need look a bit further back in time to the Marx Brothers for another potent example of the
“mainstreaming” of elements that could well be considered Jewish humor. I'm not suggesting this is the only way to look at the Marx Brothers'
efforts, or even that it's an "important" way, just that it struck me as "being there" for me after having just watched a bunch of Allen films.
In a way, though, the Marx Brothers’ perceived “Jewishness” is a little
more subliminal than Allen’s is in his own films, though for those with the eyes to see, the siblings represent their generation of Jews rather
iconically.
Not only is their verbal humor full of puns and other formalistic hijinks, the very subject matter of many of their jokes tends to focus on social,
political and even economic elements. The very fact that the act is comprised of family is important, with a “me and you against the world”
ambience
that speaks to outcasts (obviously including Jews) to this day. But there’s a “subtext” to many of the early Marx Brothers films, where the
brothers
are the outsiders, virtual interlopers attempting to make sense of a calamitous “new” world, whether that be a hotel, high society, a passenger
ship,
college sports or even a supposed nation in the throes of financial ruin.
What’s fascinating about the early Marx Brothers efforts is how they very
subtly display signs of the assimilative fervor that many first or second generation Jews of that time period experienced, where it became
paramount
(no pun intended, considering the studio which released the early Marx Brothers efforts) to “blend in”. That may seem positively non-intuitive,
given
the Marx Brothers’ predilection toward anarchic behavior and just outright silliness, but when seen through the prism of an early to mid 20th
century
“Jewish identity,” the first five Marx Brothers feature films offer not just laughs galore, but a rather interesting example of so-called “ethnics”
rather
brilliantly invading the American consciousness in an almost subversive way. In this respect, the Marx Brothers become one of the most potent
examples
of what might be termed cultural immigration, where their Jewishness may have been slightly cloaked but no less ingratiating in the long run.
That
“cloaking” may be nowhere more obvious than in the persona of Chico, a Marx who spoke with a faux Italian accent and who seemed to be
something of a grifter at times. Cloaked in another way but perhaps arguably more ostensibly Jewish, at least on one interpretive level, was Harpo,
the weirdly childlike mute who seemed
to
often be the hapless scapegoat in many of the films, the outsider whose very powerlessness (as evidenced by his inability or unwillingness to
speak)
created “problems,” albeit often in a comedic way. The most obvious paradigm of Jewishness is of course Groucho, with his hyperarticulate
verbal
humor and a probably more than slightly lecherous mien which may in fact be a precursor for some of Woody Allen’s more sexually charged
material.
Zeppo, the kind of “forgotten” Marx Brother, and the one whose film persona is probably the blandest, may therefore somewhat ironically be seen as
the best symbol of those
aforementioned assimilative tendences—Zeppo had “learned” how to be an American first, blending in as the troupe’s straight man and therefore
almost seeming like an outsider himself, at least within the insular world of the siblings’ relationships.
Monkey Business is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Restorative efforts have only gone so far to improve the image here, though those with a home video history with this film will probably be generally very well pleased with the results. As is also the case with Horse Feathers (and is actually more the case with that presentation), grain resolution here is occasionally problematic, sometimes giving an appearance of vertical lines running up and down the image. What's more apparent in this transfer are the persistence of quite a few scratches, including several that are long both in length and duration (time wise). There are occasional warping issues (something that's again more of a problem with Horse Feathers), though it's a subtle anomaly at times. You can see the background "bend" slightly during the opening scene with the brothers in the fish barrels, but it crops up occasionally thereafter, including at circa 31:31. All of this said (and I do so from a potential overabundance of caution), things can look very good a lot of the time throughout the presentation. While not incredibly detailed in wide shots or even some midrange shots, this film finally starts employing at least some close-ups and detail levels are often quite good. Contrast is also consistent and black levels suitably deep. The final barn scene is among the best of this transfer, with really good detail levels and nice overall sharpness and clarity. My score is 3.75.
There's a noticeable uptick in audio quality with Monkey Business' DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, which is not to suggest this is audio that is going to set anyone's heart on fire. A bit fuller midrange helps to expand the music and even the dialogue, and while there's still the unavoidably boxy sound of this era's recording technologies, things sound at least incrementally better throughout this presentation. There's also relatively less hiss and no real issues with pops or other distractions.
When Monkey Business is at its most lunatic, it equals (or at least comes close to) the best of the Marx Brothers, but there's still a slightly uneven comedic tone at times. While Groucho kind of starts to take center stage here (something he'd only increase with the next Marx Brothers film, Horse Feathers, Harpo especially has some great moments in the film. While video has occasional problems, this has one of the best commentaries in the set. Highly recommended.
1929
1930
1933
1932
1933
Remastered
1923
1924
1928
The Woody Allen Collection
1973
2022
1917
1928
1967
1941
1936
Barnacle Bill
1957
Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob
1973
1929
1971
Sing si lip yan / Chéng shì liè rén / 城市獵人
1993