Monkey Business

Arthur Sheekman (Additonal Dialogue)

Al Sheen (Contributing Writer)

Nat Perrin (Contributing Writer)

**Monkey Business** is a 1931 American comedy film. It is the third of the Marx Brothers' released movies, and the first with an original screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of their Broadway shows. The film also features Thelma Todd, Harry Woods and Ruth Hall. It is directed by Norman Z. McLeod with screenplay by S. J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone. Much of the story takes place on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

## Plot

On board an ocean liner to America, four stowaways are involuntarily pressed into service as toughs for a pair of feuding gangsters while constantly trying to evade the ship's crew. Prior to this development, the film has no real plot, with the Brothers merely causing unending uproar. Except in the credits and in the screenplay, the Brothers' characters have no names in this film. They are referred to simply as "the stowaways". After arriving stateside, one of the gangsters kidnaps the other's daughter, leaving it up to the brothers to save the day.

## Cast

* Groucho Marx as Groucho
* Harpo Marx as Harpo
* Chico Marx as Chico
* Zeppo Marx as Zeppo
* Rockliffe Fellowes as J.J. "Big Joe" Helton
* Harry Woods as "Alky" Briggs
* Thelma Todd as Lucille Briggs
* Ruth Hall as Mary Helton
* Tom Kennedy as First Mate Gibson
* Cecil Cunningham as Madame Swempski (opera singer giving interview on ship)
* Charlotte Mineau as Emily (woman on veranda of mansion having an illicit affair)
* Maxine Castle as Mrs Schmalhausen (opera singer performing "O Sole Mio")
* Rolfe Sedan as the ship's barber
* Evelyn Pierce as Manicurist
* Billy Bletcher as Man buried in deck chair
* Bess Flowers as wife of man dressed as Indian at party
* Cyril Ring as Party guest
* Ben Taggart as Captain Corcoran
* Davison Clark as passport official

## Songs

* "Sweet Adeline", music by Harry Armstrong, lyrics by Richard Gerard
* "Just One More Chance", by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow
* "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me", music and lyrics by Irving Kahal, Pierre Norman and Sammy Fain
* "Pizzicato" from Sylvia by Léo Delibes, played on the piano by Chico
* "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, and Pierre Norman
* "O Sole Mio" sung by opera singer Maxine Castle with harp accompaniment by Harpo; music by Eduardo di Capua, lyrics by Giovanni Capurro
* "I'm Daffy Over You" by Chico Marx and Sol Violinsky (Solly Ginsberg), played on the harp by Harpo

## Trivia

* The film was evidently based on two routines the Marx Brothers did during their early days in vaudeville (*Home Again* and *Mr. Green's Reception*), along with a story idea from one of Groucho's friends, Bert Granet, called *The Seas Are Wet*. The passport scene is a reworking of a stage sketch in which the brothers burst into a theatrical agent's office auditioning an impersonation of a current big star. It appeared in their stage shows *On the Mezzanine Floor* and *I'll Say She Is* (1924). This skit was also done by the Marxes in the Paramount promotional film *The House That Shadows Built*(1931). The concept of the Marx Brothers being stowaways on a ship would be repeated in an episode of their radio series *Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel* (1933) in the episode "The False Roderick" and would also be recycled in their MGM film *A Night at the Opera* (1935). The essence of Groucho's joke, "Sure, I'm a doctor—where's the horse?" would serve as an integral plot element for their film A Day at the Races (1937). Also repeated in that later film would be the uproarious medical examination that Harpo and Chico give opera singer Madame Swempski (Cecil Cunningham).
* This is the first Marx Brothers film not to feature Margaret Dumont: this time their female foil is comedian Thelma Todd, who would also star in the Marx Brothers' next film, *Horse Feathers*. A few years later, in December 1935, Todd died in unexplained circumstances. A line of dialogue in *Monkey Business* seems to foreshadow Todd's death. Alone with Todd in her cabin, Groucho quips: "You're a woman who's been getting nothing but dirty breaks. Well, we can clean and tighten your brakes, but you'll have to stay in the garage all night." In 1935, Todd died in her car inside a garage, apparently from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
* Early on in *Monkey Business*, the Brothers — playing stowaways concealed in barrels — harmonize unseen while performing the popular song "Sweet Adeline". It is a matter of debate whether Harpo joins in with the singing. (One of the ship's crew asserts to the captain that he knows there are four stowaways because he can hear them singing "Sweet Adeline".) If so, it would be one of only a few times Harpo used speech on screen, as opposed to other vocalizations such as whistling or sneezing. At least one other possible on-screen utterance occurs in the film *A Day at the Races*, in which Groucho, Chico, and Harpo are heard singing "Down by the Old Mill Stream" in three-part harmony.
* This was the first Marx film to be written specifically for film, and the first shot in Hollywood. Their first two films were filmed at Paramount Pictures' Astoria Studios in Queens, New York City.
* Upon alighting from the ship, the Marx Brothers' real life father (Sam "Frenchie" Marx) is briefly seen in a cameo appearance, sitting on top of luggage behind the Brothers on the pier as they wave to the First Mate. Sam Marx was 72 at the time, and the appearance was his film debut. He was paid $12.50 each day for two days work.
* *Monkey Business* was Norman MacLeod's solo directorial debut.