The Big Store

Hal Fimberg

Ray Golden

***The Big Store*** is an American comedy film starring the Marx Brothers released in 1941, with Groucho, Chico and Harpo wreaking havoc in a large department store. Groucho appears as private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (a character name originating from the Marx-Perrin radio show *Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel* in the early 1930s).

*The Big Store* costars singer Tony Martin and Virginia Grey as the love interests, and long-time Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont in her seventh and final film with the Marxes. The villain was portrayed by Douglass Dumbrille, who had played a similar role in *A Day at the Races* (1937).

## Plot

Department Store owner Hiram Phelps has died, leaving half-ownership in the Phelps Department Store to his nephew, singer Tommy Rogers. The other half is left to Hiram's sister and Tommy's aunt, Martha Phelps. Rogers has no interest in running a department store, so he plans to sell his interest in the store and use the money to build a music conservatory. Mr. Grover, the store manager, plots to kill Rogers before he can sell his half of the business, marry the wealthy Martha, then likely kill her too, becoming sole owner of the Phelps Department Store. Martha is highly suspicious, worried about Tommy's safety lest anyone suspect her of foul play to take over the store. Against Grover's wishes, she hires private detective Wolf J. Flywheel as a floorwalker and Tommy's bodyguard. Between Tommy's romance with store employee Joan Sutton and Flywheel romancing Martha, Flywheel, Ravelli and Wacky eventually expose Grover and save Tommy.

## Cast

* Groucho Marx as Wolf J. Flywheel
* Harpo Marx as Wacky
* Chico Marx as Ravelli
* Tony Martin as Tommy Rogers
* Virginia Grey as Joan Sutton
* Margaret Dumont as Martha Phelps
* Douglass Dumbrille as Mr. Grover
* William Tannen as Fred Sutton
* Marion Martin as Peggy Arden
* Henry Armetta as Giuseppi
* Anna Demetrio as Maria
* Virginia O'Brien as Kitty
* Paul Stanton as George Hastings
* Russell Hicks as Arthur Hastings
* Bradley Page as Duke
* Charles Lane as Finance Company Agent (Uncredited)
* Adrian Morris as Piano-Mover (Uncredited)
* John Berkes as Janitor (Uncredited)
* Six Hits and a Miss

## Musical Numbers

* "If It's You"- Tony Martin (music & lyrics by Ben Oakland, Artie Shaw & Milton Drake)
* "Sing While You Sell"- Groucho, Six Hits and a Miss, Virginia O'Brien and Harpo as a drum-beating snake charmer
* "Rock-a-bye Baby"- Virginia O'Brien
* "Mama Eu Quero"- Chico and Harpo (piano duet)
* "A Whimsical Trio" - Harpo (harp, violin, cello) (by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, using music from the works below)
* "Mozart's Sonata in C major" - Harpo (harp)
* "Beethoven's Minuet" - Harpo (harp)
* "Tenement Symphony"- Tony Martin, onstage choir and orchestra, featuring Chico and Harpo

## Trivia

* *The Big Store* was the last of the five films the Marx Bros. made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Marxes had decided to retire as a team and *The Big Store* was advertised as their farewell film. However, they would return to the screen in *A Night in Casablanca* (1946) and *Love Happy* (1949). Groucho later said that these last two films were made primarily because Chico, a lifelong compulsive gambler, needed the money.
* The film has two extended scenes with all three Marxes. One is in the store's bed department, with novel beds that come out of the walls and floor. The second takes place near the film's climax, where Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers in a madcap chase through the store, involving the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. This elaborate sequence took an entire month to shoot and utilized an unusual number of stunt doubles, Mack Sennett-type slapstick stunts and stop motion photography for a Marx Brothers film.
* At two points, Groucho breaks the fourth wall. During the "Sing While You Sell" sequence, as he narrates a fashion show, he speaks a few asides, including "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor is *so* expensive." Later, after Grover has been exposed as the villain, Groucho comments, "I told you in the first reel he was a crook."
* As in the previous Marx Bros. MGM films, *The Big Store* contains elaborate musical numbers, including the upbeat "Sing While You Sell", led by a singing and dancing Groucho; "Tenement Symphony" sung by Tony Martin and a children's choir. The screenwriting team of Kuller, Golden and Fimberg also supplied the lyrics to Hal Borne's original music. An instrumental version of the Arthur Freed - Nacio Herb Brown tune "Sing Before Breakfast" from *Broadway Melody of 1936* is heard during the Groucho-Harpo scene. *The Big Store* is the second Marx film with an instrumental version of "Cosi-Cosa" from *A Night at the Opera,* which can be heard during the moving bed scene. It was also heard in *A Day at the Races*.
* Reviews of The Big Store were generally positive, but unenthusiastic. The film made a modest profit of $33,000. Nonetheless, it was initially the most profitable of the three final Marx Brothers films for MGM.