Anarchy rules!

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2001)

I guess I was born some 70 years to late. Maybe more. For I cannot understand how "comedy" today is defined by movies like "Big Momma's House" and very few people remember the Marx brothers.
Groucho was the king of comedy. He was a terrific performer, with obvious roots in the vaudeville scene (he always did a silly dance in every film). He can throw verbal abuse as fast as anyone I've ever seen. He is witty, talented, intelligent and funny. Very, very funny. Harpo was the musical genious (although I felt bored of him playing the harp in almost every movie). Chico is complete mayhem. Together with Harpo, they are a little comedy troupe. Zeppo... well, I don't know about him. He isn't funny at all, he seems the least talented of the brothers. Maybe they needed a straight man in their team.
But mix the four together... the results are dynamite. The plot has been told a lot of times; it doesn't matter anyway, since the plot is the last thing you watch in a Marx brothers movie. You watch the movie for the sheer anarchy that prevails in every scene. And this movie delivers.

Intelligent comedy at its best. Even almost 70 years later, it still makes you laugh. I wonder if people will do the same for "The Nutty Professor" 5 years from now.
Oh. One last thing. Did you ever wonder where Bugs Bunny came from? Change the carrot for a cigar; the 3 whiskers for a painted moustache, the big eyes for round glasses, the big, fluffy ears for fluffy hair... yes. Bugs Bunny is the reincarnation of Groucho Marx.