Monkey Business (1931)

Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo)
Grade: Classic

Do you think Maurice Chevalier found this film as funny as we did, or do you think he was tired of his name being thrown into a bit the Marx Brothers were known for?

Summary

The captain (Ben Taggart) of an ocean liner cruise ship is alerted by First Mate Gibson (Tom Kennedy) that there are four stowaways on the ship. They were discovered because they were heard singing “Sweet Adeline”. The captain tells Gibson to make it his priority to capture them and throw them off.

As you may have guessed, the stowaways are Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo.

The four are hidden in a cabin deck inside separate barrels and as they talk, a bunch of sailors come down to search for them. Eventually, Gibson wants the barrels moved during their search, so the sailors tie a rope around the barrels to lift them out with a crane. All four barrels bottom out, and the brothers are spotted, prompting a chase around the cruise ship. Groucho goes straight to the captain himself to talk shit and walks into his office, with Chico following him. The captain goes after the both of them, but Groucho hides in the corner and locks the captain in his quarters. Following this, he puts on the captain’s uniform. After Groucho makes a call to bring up the captain’s lunch and dinner for them to eat, they narrowly avoid being caught by Gibson who pops in for a moment to look around. Next, the food arrives. The waiter however goes straight into the captain’s quarters to deliver the food, so Groucho and Chico follow him in and annoy the captain at the dinner table. He accuses them of being stowaways, but they manage to stall long enough for Gibson to knock on the door. Groucho and Chico point to the closet door to trick the captain, so he goes over there instead, and they lock him inside. Gibson walks in, so Groucho turns his back to him, puts on the captain’s hat, and tells him to leave. It works for a moment but when the captain knocks on the door to get out, Gibson turns and sees it’s Groucho and Chico, chasing them away.

As Zeppo eludes another sailor, he takes a break from the action to flirt with Mary (Ruth Hall), and it works quickly. Harpo barges in on some puppet show for kids and hides in the back of the mini-stage setup, momentarily acting as one of the puppeteers. He starts messing with Gibson when he walks in, but he quickly notices it’s Harpo and starts attacking him. The captain barges in and Gibson tries to plead his case, but the captain thinks he started drinking again and doesn’t believe him. After Harpo messes around a little too much, the captain realizes Gibson’s right, and they both try grabbing Harpo from the leg to pull him out. It ends up being a false leg, and Harpo uses this as an opportunity to escape on a skateboard-looking thing. Later, Harpo joins up with Chico, and they act as if they’re barbers. Another higher-up official comes in looking for the stowaways, but Chico and Harpo offer to give him a shave and he accepts. Unfortunately, they cut off his entire mustache. Elsewhere, gangster Alky Briggs (Harry Woods) makes it clear to his wife Lucille (Thelma Todd) that millionaire racketeer Big Joe Helton (Rockliffe Fellowes) is also on this boat, and he’s wants Helton’s territory or else.

Disguising himself as a tailor to elude Gibson, Groucho walks into Alky Briggs’s room, walks right past Briggs and Lucille, and goes straight into the closet. Briggs storms out after his argument with Lucille, so Lucille goes over to get Groucho out. Eventually, he flirts with her, and they discuss how horrible her marriage is to Briggs to the point where they dance around the room together. Just then, Briggs comes back and threatens to kill Groucho who seems relatively unphased by the whole thing because of how much he screws around with him. Eventually, Lucille, who was hiding in the closet, tries to stop Briggs, but he sends her to the other room. As Groucho dares him to shoot, Briggs realizes he needs a guy like him. Right after this, Zeppo runs into the room after being chased. Once Briggs realizes both of them are the stowaways everyone is looking for, he enlists the two to accompany him to go kill Joe Helton. However, as soon as they open the door, Groucho and Zeppo dump the guns in a mop bucket and run away.

The madness is just beginning though. The brothers will consistently find themselves being forced to help both Briggs and Helton whether they want to be involved or not. To complicate things further, Zeppo’s girl Mary is Helton’s daughter.

My Thoughts:

Monkey Business comes from the period of Marx Brothers movies where the plot was more secondary to the antics of the brothers (their pre-MGM days). Though I enjoy the more focused pictures they did later in their careers, what made them special in the first place was their manic approach to comedy that we see here. Monkey Business is chaos. The brothers, who don’t even have character names because they’re so focused on the hijinks they get into, go from person to person as they mess with people and cause havoc for no reason at all. Yes, they’re trying to avoid being thrown off the boat, but you wouldn’t be able to tell with how much they interact with others on the cruise, including the captain who has made it his mission to get them out of there.

Groucho leads the anarchic group, firing off joke after joke as he talks himself into trouble and pushes the envelope as much as possible to see how far he can take things. I say this a lot, but he’s got the energy of a cartoon character from that time period. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you want to see Bugs Bunny’s inspiration, look no further than Groucho Marx messing with gangsters to the point he has a gun pulled on him and still can’t help but talk shit. He’ll even flirt with the gangster’s wife because he feels like it. At one point, Briggs tries to tell him the plan and Groucho literally cuts him off and says, “Enough of this. Where’s your wife, Lucille?”. It never gets old how quick he is on his feet. Chico and Harpo are hysterical as well. During the course of the movie, it looks like they’re just passing time to piss people off and amuse themselves and I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. In one scene, they step into a chess game, decide to do grab the pieces, and do moves for the two strangers to anger them. Then, they take the chess board into a random room that happens to be Helton’s. This unnecessary comic genius ignites the action of the second half of the film. It’s simple humor like this that works for a Marx Brothers movie. Though in a modern comedy, this is a moment that wouldn’t make sense, but in a Marx film this is commonplace.

Sometimes in modern films, I criticize some acting performances because certain characters seem to be acting in a different movie than their co-stars. In the case of the Marx Brothers, they themselves are these people because everyone else around them acts normal. In turn, they’re the mischief Road Runners, causing shit at every turn like no normal person would. This is a strategy that works for them in every endeavor because of how good the writing and performances are, but it’s especially present in Monkey Business. Only Groucho would fake being a doctor when he didn’t have to and when he knew he couldn’t help. Did the four have to wreak havoc on the party? No, it’s as if the characters have fun wandering from place to place to fuck things up. It’s hilarious when you really analyze the characters they play because there’s no other way to explain their behavior. Once their job is done, they move to the next setting and do it all over again. On the way out, they may even wave goodbye to show their opponents they won like how the four did to Gibson once they got off the boat. It’s classic vaudeville stuff. It’s like when they announce Mary as “the sweetest little thing in the world”, and Harpo pops out. A couple of guys take him and throw him out of the party, but he’s laughing the whole time because he’s just there to mess around. It’s fantastic!

Almost every Groucho line hits. Along with the golden line about the diamond earring being lost, my favorite bit was when he offered the waiter money to stop by him for the drinks he had on a plate but doesn’t actually give it to him, promising to let him have another look at the money later. Zeppo has a big role here too. In all of the brothers’ films, he usually has the least important role, especially in terms of the humor. Here however, he feels more like a part of the action and because of his falling for Mary, he drives the climax and is the reason the day is saved. I guess he had to since the other brothers literally just watched the final fight and made jokes throughout.

I also loved when Zeppo talked about how he’ll never leave Mary but immediately runs away after saying this once he sees the sailors chase after him.

Once again, Chico’s mastery on the piano was incredible.

The only major criticism I have for this legendary comic adventure is that it was just a little too short. Is it just me, or did they miss out on some potential goldmine scenes once the gangsters got involved? They really could’ve spent more time to strengthen the lines of what side the brothers were playing for. Once Groucho and Zeppo were forced to work for Briggs, and Chico and Harpo were hired by Helton, it would’ve been hilarious had the four men run into each other and have to fake fight so the gangsters could see they are serious about their jobs and decide against killing them or something. You could even have the brothers try and come up with a plan on how to get out of their obligations until all six characters are forced to meet in a locked room on the cruise ship. Once it devolves into a fight, the brothers could lock the two in separate rooms and escape the boat, leading to both men coming after them. Of course, I’m just spit balling, but I feel like there was a little more room for plot buffoonery. All I’m saying is that when the gangster subplot came about, an extra ten or twenty minutes could’ve easily come out of it, giving the boys even more craziness to weasel themselves out of.

How great of a moment would it have been if we saw Briggs, Helton, the captain, Gibson, and all the sailors try and chase the brothers off the boat?

Regardless, Monkey Business is still hilarious and one of the brothers’ best films. It’s loaded with memorable gags, endlessly quotable lines and bits, and the pure anarchy we love them for. You’re not going to waste much time if you check it out either. What? You can’t spare an hour? It’s a classic!