STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - Horse Feathers

HORSE FEATHERS

(1932)
With Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd, David Landau, Nat Pendleton, James Pierce
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Black and White
Reviewed by JL and JB

Harpo tells a tall tale Marx Brothers fans may quibble about which of the team's classic films is their best, but it's impossible to determine their funniest one. Whereas DUCK SOUP and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA may succeed best as well-made films, at least five (or perhaps six) of the team's pictures are equally high in laugh content. HORSE FEATHERS, therefore, is as funny a film as the brothers ever made. It is also perhaps their most freewheeling and joyous one, existing in a world where everyone from college presidents to dog catchers are charlatans with hidden agendas, and nobody seems to mind very much. And, just as ANIMAL CRACKERS was the best showcase film for Groucho's talents, HORSE FEATHERS features Harpo at his most unleashed and creative. One of two early films made without perennial foil Margaret Dumont, but nobody objects as long as lovely Thelma Todd is around to inject her sense of fun into the proceedings. - JL

     Norman Z. McLeod may never hailed as one of our great directors, but he certainly made some of the best films ever starring The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Bob Hope and Danny Kaye. Who else in film history can say that?

     HORSE FEATHERS is directed by McLeod in his usual style - he steps out of the way and lets the comedians be funny. The college setting of HORSE FEATHERS sets up what could be a satire of higher education, but beyond one classroom scene and a few gags here and there, the Marxes don't seem interested. In an MGM film, we would be asked to pray that Huxley College wins the big football game against Darwin, because something would be at stake. At Paramount, the climactic football scene itself, although filled with clever sight gags, is simply a convenient way to finish off the film with a semi-bang without petering out like MONKEY BUSINESS or ANIMAL CRACKERS. Darwin College cheats by adding two professional players to their roster, and the Marx Brothers respond by cheating even more blatantly, in front of a cheering crowd of thousands, to win the game. As Harpo unloads football after football into the endzone, the scoreboard keeper simply keeps putting up touchdowns, as if this were all perfectly normal. Nobody protests, nobody gives a damn, life goes on.

     Unlike the grand Freedonian settings of DUCK SOUP, very little in HORSE FEATHERS acts as a basis for satire, parody or clever observation, but rather as a neutral setting that allows plenty of room for Groucho to spout pithy one-liners ("I married your mother because I wanted children - imagine my disappointment when you arrived!"), Chico to unleash a barrage of puns ("falsetto teeth" matching "Sanity Clause" as his greatest ever), Harpo to perform some of his most outrageous sight gags, and for all four brothers to perform their own unique take on Kalmar and Ruby's silly love song "Everyone Says I Love You". And that is enough to make HORSE FEATHERS my favorite Marx Brothers movie. - JB

ADD ANOTHER QUOTE AND MAKE IT A GALLON

"Now that's all for the first lesson. I come back next week and teach you how to breathe. And don't breathe until I see you again."

OKAY, MR. MOSKOWITZ!

Songwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar wrote a song for Groucho's opening production number that perfectly summed up the Marx Brothers' comic style: "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It".

Burly character actor Nat Pendleton would costar with the Marx Brothers again in 1939 in MGM's AT THE CIRCUS. He is perhaps best remembered as the tough army sergeant in Abbott and Costello's BUCK PRIVATES and its sequel BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME.