The Seas Are Wet (Monkey Business [1931] (DVD))

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	Monkey Business [1931] (DVD)
Date:	26/09/09 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, inventive

Disadvantages: Nothing major

Monkey Business is a classic 1931 Marx Brothers film directed by Norman McLeod. The film incorporates some routines from the Marx Brothers vaudeville show Home Again and was partly inspired by Bert Granet's idea for a comedy spoof to be called The Seas Are Wet featuring Marxian capers onboard a cruise ship. Monkey Business is the third of the Marx Brothers cinematic adventures and arguably the fastest, most anarchic, rambunctious and entertaining they ever made. The film refreshingly eschews too much unnecessary plot and simply presents the Marx Brothers as stowaways on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic, creating havoc as they attempt to evade detection and have some fun while onboard. This loose, spontaneous structure leads to an escalating series of comic vignettes - Harpo joins in the Punch & Judy Show, Groucho pretends to be a doctor, the Marx Brothers are being chased etc - that are frequently very funny and always highly inventive.

After the theatrical and static nature of their first two early pictures for Paramount, it's a joy to see the Marx Brothers cinematic universe opened up somewhat with numerous sets and different locations on the ship for them to run riot in. Apparently, director Norman McLeod decided the best way to approach working with the Marx Brothers would be to keep out of their way as much as possible and let them have much more of a free reign, leading to many ad-libbed moments and some improvised situations. For this reason Monkey Business is largely undiluted Marx Brothers and all the more fun for it. Monkey Business also gains a big boost from a contribution to the screenplay by the legendary comic writer SJ Perelman and the presence of the ill-fated willowy beauty Thelma Todd for Groucho to banter with.

When the film begins the Marx Brothers - they don't even have names in the film, such is the minimalist 'let them get with it approach' - are first revealed to be hiding in barrels below deck and emerge from them cheerfully whistling and singing rather like cartoon characters with Groucho brushing his teeth! "If this is the Captain," says Groucho. "I'm going to have a few words with him. My hot water's been cold for three days. And I haven't got room enough in here to swing a cat. In fact, I haven't even got a cat." The brisk and amusing style of Monkey Business is set when Groucho actually encounters the ship's Captain for the first time, the Captain being completely unaware that Groucho is a stowaway initially. "Do you know who sneaked into my stateroom at three o'clock this morning?" asks Groucho. "Nobody, and that's my complaint." Chico and Groucho duly steal the Captain's lunch in a piece of physical comedy enjoyably similar to the room shifting shenanigans of A Night at the Opera.

A big strength of Monkey Business is the fact that this is mostly pure Marx Brothers with no intrusive singing guest stars or sappy romantic subplots slowing down proceedings. Everything is fast, funny and frequently surreal. In fact, the film only slips a notch when the action moves off the ocean liner towards the end - although there is an amusing party sequence that is quite good fun. The Marx Brothers antics onboard are so infectiously enjoyable you sort of want them to stay there for the whole film.

In Monkey Business the lovely Thelma Todd plays Lucille, wife of a notorious gangster on the ship, and has some amusing moments with Groucho, especially a scene where he is hiding in her huge and elaborate wardrobe. "I know," says Groucho to Todd. "You're a woman who's been getting nothing but dirty breaks. Well, we can clean and tighten your breaks, but you'll have to stay in the garage all night." Todd is no Margaret Dumont when it comes to bewildered comic chemistry with Groucho but she lends some vintage glamour to the film. It's a little sad to watch Monkey Business with the knowledge that Thelma Todd died infamously only a few years later at the age of just thirty from carbon monoxide fumes - a Hollywood mystery that may or may not have been murder. The vague gangster capers threaten to intrude on the flow of the film once or twice but the presence of Thelma Todd and Groucho always makes these situations enjoyable.

Groucho also amusingly dances the tango with Todd in a nice sequence in her room but when he unexpectedly ends up in the arms of her gangster husband Alky (Harry Woods) his splendid response and quick wit is a delight. "Sir, this is an outrage!" booms Groucho in mock fashion. "I'm not in the habit of making threats but there'll be a letter in The Times tomorrow morning." Perhaps the greatest moment in the film, and certainly my favourite, is the wonderful and very funny scene where the Marx Brothers in turn attempt to blag their way through passport control and get off the boat by all pretending to be Maurice Chevalier singing "If the nightingales could sing like you". The mute Harpo naturally brings a gramophone as he can neither talk or sing!

Harpo, who seems particularly energetic and full of mischief here, has some good pantomime moments in the film as he memorably takes over the Punch & Judy Show and also a pleasant harp sequence. Chico has less memorable moments overall but his obtuse banter with Groucho is as amusingly silly as ever. When the Captain mentions that one of the stowaways goes around with a black mustache, Groucho replies, "Well, you couldn't expect a moustache to go around by itself. Don't you think a moustache ever gets lonely, Captain?" "Hey, sure it gets-a lonely," adds Chico. "Hey, when my grandfather's beard gets here, I'd like it to meet your moustache." It's nice to see Zeppo in the film too with a few vague romantic moments, joining in the fun with his brothers. A great moment, which enjoyably shows the Marx Brothers working together as a team, occurs when they are being chased around the ship and suddenly stop to pick up musical instruments to pose as a jazz group. There are many frantic comic chases in the film and countless surreal and funny encounters between the Marx Brothers and the various passengers.

Monkey Business is a lot of fun overall and essentially forms the first part of the Marx Brothers delightfully obtuse and surreal Paramount trilogy - which also consisted of Duck Soup and Horse Feathers. Form, convention, guest stars and subplots would eventually begin to creep into the Marx Brothers distinctive comic universe but Monkey Business is a hugely enjoyable look at the team in their youthful and obstreperous early days on the silver screen.

Summary: Classic