The Cocoanuts

*The Cocoanuts* is a 1929 musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, who is not credited, the film also stars Mary Eaton, Oscar Shaw, Margaret Dumont and Kay Francis. It was the first sound film to credit more than one director (Robert Florey and Joseph Santley), and was adapted to the screen by Morrie Ryskind from the George S. Kaufman Broadway musical play. Five of the film's tunes were composed by Irving Berlin, including "When My Dreams Come True", sung by Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton.

## Plot

*The Cocoanuts* is set in the Hotel de Cocoanut, a resort hotel, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx) runs the place, assisted by Jamison (Zeppo Marx), who would rather sleep at the front desk than actually help him run it. Chico and Harpo arrive with empty luggage, which they apparently plan to fill by robbing and conning the guests. Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont, in the first of seven film appearances with the Marxes) is one of the few paying customers. Her daughter Polly (Mary Eaton) is in love with struggling young architect Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw). He works to support himself as a clerk at the hotel, but has plans for the development of the entire area as Cocoanut Manor. Mrs. Potter wants her daughter to marry Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring), whom she believes to be of higher social standing than the clerk. This suitor is actually a con man out to steal the dowager's diamond necklace with the help of his conniving partner Penelope (Kay Francis).

One of the more famous gag routines in the film involves Chico not knowing what a "viaduct" is, which Groucho keeps mentioning, prompting Chico to ask, "why-a-duck?"

In another sequence, while he is acting as auctioneer for some land of possibly questionable value ("You can have any kind of a home you want to; you can even get stucco! Oh, how you can get stuck-oh!"), he has hired Chico to inflate the sale prices by making phony bids. To Groucho's frustration, Chico keeps outbidding everyone, even himself. During the auction, Mrs. Potter announces that her necklace has been stolen and offers a thousand dollar reward, whereupon Chico offers two thousand.

Still another sequence has Groucho, Mrs. Potter and Harvey Yates (the necklace thief) make formal speeches. Harpo repeatedly walks off, with a grimace on his face, to the punch bowl. (His staggering implies that the fruit punch has been spiked with alcohol.) Another highlight is when the cast, already dressed in traditional Spanish garb for a theme party, erupts into an operatic treatment about a lost shirt to music from *Carmen* (specifically, Habanera and the Toreador Song). (An earlier scene shows Harpo and Chico abusing a cash register while whistling the Anvil Chorus from *Il Trovatore*, a piece also referenced in several other Marx Brothers films.)

Detective Hennessy, who entered the plot earlier, decides that the guilty party is Polly's suitor. He is aided in this by the real villains, who attempt to frame Bob Adams for the crime. However, unbeknownst to anyone except the thieves and to Harpo (who intercepted the map drawn by the villains while hiding under their hotel room bed) the jewellery's hiding place is a hollow tree stump adjacent to where the land auction takes place. Harpo, by producing the jewellery, and later the note, is able to prove that Bob Adams is innocent of the charges laid against him.

Immediately following the revelation that an injustice has been done to Polly's original suitor, Bob Adams, Mr. Adams himself comes in saying there's a man outside asking for Mr. Hammer: it's tycoon John W. Berryman, who's about to buy Bob's architectural designs for Cocoanut Manor, and asking if the hotel can accommodate 400 guests for the weekend. The Marxes immediately beat a hasty retreat, and Mrs Potter declares the wedding will take place "exactly as planned, with the exception of a slight change," announcing that Mr. Robert Adams will be the bridegroom.

## Cast

* Groucho Marx as Mr. Hammer
* Harpo Marx as Harpo
* Chico Marx as Chico
* Zeppo Marx as Jamison
* Mary Eaton as Polly Potter
* Oscar Shaw as Robert Adams
* Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Potter
* Kay Francis as Penelope
* Cyril Ring as Harvey Yates
* Basil Ruysdael as Detective Hennessy

## Songs

* "Florida by the Sea" (instrumental with brief vocal by chorus during opening montage)
* "When My Dreams Come True" (theme song, Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw variously, several reprises)
* "The Bell-Hops" (instrumental, dance number)
* "Monkey Doodle Doo" (vocal by Mary Eaton and dance number)
* "Ballet Music" (instrumental, dance number)
* "Tale of the Shirt" (vocal by Basil Ruysdael, words set to music from Carmen by Georges Bizet)
* "Tango Melody" (vocal included in the stage production, used in the film as background music only)
* "Gypsy Love Song" (by Victor Herbert, piano solo by Chico Marx)

## Trivia

* When the Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of the film, they were so horrified they tried to buy the negative back and prevent its release. Paramount wisely resisted — the movie turned out to be a big box office hit, with a $1,800,000 gross making it one of the most successful early talking films.
* Referring to directors Robert Florey and Joseph Santley, Groucho Marx remarked, "One of them didn't understand English and the other didn't understand Harpo."
* Every piece of paper in the movie is soaking wet, in order to keep crackling paper sounds from overloading the primitive recording equipment of the time. In fact, this did not occur to director Florey until 27 takes had been made (of the "Viaduct" scene) and disposed of because of the noise made by the paper. Florey finally got the idea to soak the paper in water; the 28th take of the "Viaduct" scene used soaked paper, and this take was quiet and used in the film.
* The "ink" that Harpo drank from the hotel lobby inkwell was actually Coca-Cola, and the "telephone mouthpiece" that he nibbled was made of chocolate, both inventions of Robert Florey.
* Paramount brought conductor Frank Tours (1877-1963) over from London, where he was then conducting at the Plaza Theatre in Piccadilly Circus (Paramount's premier exhibition venue in the UK), to be the film's musical director as he had also been the conductor for the show's original Broadway production in 1925.
* Filming took place at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, during the day while they were performing *Animal Crackers* on Broadway at night. The film version of *Animal Crackers*, was also shot there. After that, production of all Marx films moved to Hollywood.