The Cocoanuts (1929)

Great Start
As an early talkie, this film is filled with random musical numbers. The spontaneity of them works, since the Marx Brothers are so outrageous themselves and because they started out in vaudeville, but the quality isn't great. Thankfully, they were written by Irving Berlin.

The story is just as unimportant as the music. Groucho owns some land in Florida that he wants to get rid of; it just happens to have a hotel running on it. On it, there is romance and thievery. Kay Francis takes part in robbing Margaret Dumont of her jewels while Groucho attempts to romance them for their money. Harpo and Chico run amuck causing hilarious moments and antagonizing everyone in their path. One of the best choreographed scenes is the "door scene" where general madness ensues. It's been copied many times in both film and on stage in shows like "Lend Me a Tenor." Zeppo appears too, but his part is very minor.

An Antique Worth Its Cinematic Weight in Gold
Sadly, Hollywood lost all of the original and production prints. This DVD apparently was assembled from a tape, itself assembled from damaged remnants. As an artifact, it reveals the almost humorously primitive film technology of early 1929. There's atrocious editing, and film quality varies wildly even within the same scenes. It's suspected that many original portions are missing. In any case, it's still grand fun, if for nothing else than a look at a plot right out of Victorian theater and a number of scenes in which on-film cuties are caught looking at the cameras. It's hard to tell today, but in '29 this was a landmark film: all-talking from beginning to end, one of the first movies with full-length audio and Paramount's very first 100% talkie. It's a fairly faithful filming of the Marx Brothers' huge Broadway stage success, done during weekdays at Paramount's Astoria, NY studio while the Marx's played their next Broadway hit at night. You can even see bits where the actors get their lines confused. The absurdist humor, though borrowed heavily from Vaudeville, was revolutionary in its day. Some of the old routines (the Viaduct and auction bits) no longer work, but there are still plenty of laughs to go around. The comedy bits set patterns for every future Marx film: rooms with multiple doors and weird entrance/exit schemes (culminating in a Night at the Opera), Chico/Groucho non-logic (later perfected in the Tootsy-Frootsy bit in A Day at the Races), musical numbers from Harpo and chico, and the earliest appearance of the priceless Margaret Dumont. Most supporting roles are taken by stage/radio stars. One of the jewel thieves is Kay Francis, a popular actress who made dozens of films and earned a symbolic star in the concrete of the Hollywood Walk of Fame (it's hard to tell here, but Kay had a speech impediment that earned her the nickname, "the wavishing Kay Fwancis"). Her partner in crime is Cyril Ring who played in many silent and sound films and finally entered the screen writing business. The hotel detective, Basil Ruysdael, was a radio, stage and film mainstay for many years, later appearing in hits like "Prince Valiant", "The Last Hurrah", Perry Mason episodes, and a voice in "1001 Dalmations". The ultimate fascination is the heartfelt but truly klutzy script by George S. Kaufman and really corny music from Irving Berlin, both of whom would later offer much, much better material. The antique choreography right out of the original play's staging is by Erna Kay, a Broadway veteran who has no other film credits -- but you'll see plenty in these comically antique production numbers that set the tone for the dance extravaganzes of the 1930's. Even with poor quality media, which is often dreadful, you can still sense the initial impact made by the Marx Brothers, who in the late 1920's took the comedy world by storm and turned it, in their inimitable way, upside-down and inside-out.

And They're Off...
The Cocoanuts" was the Marx Brothers first screen production after a successful start on the stage. I understand that their stage productions were known for the brothers's ability to ad lib in every preformance. Their first movie was a great success but you can tell that they were (by THEIR standards) a bit reserved. It has all of the classic Marx Brothers situations; a smart alec Groucho chasing after a rich Margaret Dumont, Chico who never quite gets things correctly understood, Harpo's pantomime routines, Chico on the piano and Harpo on the harp.

The plot is simple enough. Groucho operates a hotel in Florida and is trying to strike it rich in a questionable real estate deal. Plots only serve as an excuse for comedy in a Marx Brothers movie and the brothers keep things pretty zany throughout the movie. The music isn't half bad from the rest of the cast. My favorite song was "I Lost My Shirt" sung to the tune of "The March of the Toreodors".

This is a great beginning for the Marx Brothers with lots of good laughs. This is the movie with the "Why a Duck" routine between Groucho and Chico and it's one of their all-time best. Some of their later movies were of limited entertainment value but all of their first seven movies are top-notch.