A Few Words About A few words about... The Marx Brothers Collection (1 Viewer)

[Chuck L]

Another great documentary to have is "The Unknown Marx Brothers." It can be had at DeepDiscountDVD.com for just $11.99 I believe.

Has some great footage of Harpo's tour of Russia, some behind the scenes footage, great interviews with the families, and a wonderful segment of Bill Cosby's old talk show in which you discover of Groucho's utter dislike of the up and coming star...he was so ahead of his time in so many ways.

 

[Drew Salzan]

The Paramount titles which were sold separately and also in a box set in the US (out of print) were a mixed bag anyway. Animal Crackers and Duck Soup were decent transfers albeit no extras. The rest, The Cocoanuts, Monkey Business and Horsefeathers had problems with the audio (PCM encoded with only ONE channel). Since Universal owns the rights to the pre-1950's Paramount titles, I think there's a good chance that they'll re-master them and re-release a collection as they have others. If they can bother with Ma and Pa Kettle and Francis the Talking Mule (ugh!), then they certainly can go to the trouble with a Marx Brothers Collection.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Pick up this week's ENTERTAINMENT magazine with
Brad Pitt (TROY) on the cover. Leaf on over to
the DVD section in the back where they review the
current Warner set. There's a line in there that
says that the Paramount titles are going to be out
on DVD by the end of this year.

....someone may wish to confirm that as I just
quickly glanced at the review while at work.

 

[oscar_merkx]

that would indeed be awesome news

 

[Seth--L]

The New York Times said a while ago that this was in the works.

 

[Jack Theakston]

Just an aside-- The test footage (if not tweaked) for ANIMAL CRACKERS is quite an accomplishment of Technicolor's testing of their blue dye, as green was the inherant bias with the system. However, when it came to imbibition, dyes were interchangable, and cyan being a factor to green, the image could be altered in such a way that a relatively full spectrum could be achieved.

That is, of course, true, unless they've tweaked it a la MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM which does NOT reveal any blue hues whatsoever.

 

[Drew Salzan]

One can see the test footage in the documentary GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR (one of the supplements in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD). Also, go to http://www.sabucat.com/ac.html. I always wondered why this two strip technicolor clip looked more natural than the others of their time. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Jack Theakston]

I'm rather puzzled on Sabucat's listing of it on his site. He lists it as "possibly Multicolor", although the edge markings on the film would be a dead giveaway, particularly if it was Technicolor.

The question is-- what color process IS it?

 

[Grant B]

I have the LaserDisc of it and it's pretty good but I would not replace it with a $40 DVD.
I can watch their movies over & over but not "in a Nutshell"

 

[Larry Geller]

Well, I must disagree with the disagreement. If you are at all interested in them, this is the holy grail of missing stuff. This was one of the first DVDs ever released, so the navigation is a little clunky, but it is great.

 

[Chuck L]

Henry, I have just recently purchased that documentary when I ordered the box set of MGM films (which I then canceled since I found them at Costco without the wait and cheaper) and I have to say that I was very engrossed in the two hours of this film.

Not only had I weeks realier finished reading Harpo's autobiography, but Groucho's as well, it was very nice seeing many of the things that they talked about in their books.

Funny thing is...in neither book did the brothers go into great details either on their film lifes, but their lives as who they were, not what the public thought that they were. Was simply wonderful and gave me even more respect for them (though I already had a world of respect for them.)

 

[Conrad_SSS]

Check out this cool Marx Bros. website Warner created for their DVDs....

http://www.warnervideo.com/marxbrosdvd/main.html[/url]

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Another big THUMBS UP for The Unknown Marx
Brothers.

Out of all the documentaries of the brothers I
have seen, I enjoyed this the most. Why? It
showed material never shown on any previous
documentary of their lives.

The viewer gets a in-depth history of the Marx
Brothers from their vaudeville beginnings all the
way through their last appearances on television
(with lots of vintage clips). If that wasn't
enough, most of the stories are told from
remaining relatives such as Harpo's son and
(I think) Chico's daughter.

The Unknown Marx Brothers is a must-have
purchase for anyone who wants to learn a little
more about the team that perhaps they didn't know
already.

 

[Jeff Joseph]

The "Animal Crackers" footage we have is MultiColor, a precursor to CineColor. It is NOT 2-color Technicolor.

Jeff

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

I endorse "The Unknown Marx Brothers" as well. I'll pick it up once I have all the films.

Funny story about this documentary. I caught it on PBS when it aired at like 2 in the morning. I was completely enthralled. The next night I went to the bar and told my friend about it. Turns out he had watched it too and he loved it. At that moment, another friend walked in and said "I just saw this documentary on the Marx brothers!" We had all maanged to stay up all night after stumbling across it!

Since that day we were all lifelong fans.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

By the way... I was watching "A Day at the Races" on TCM this weekend, and I noticed that their otherwise inferior video transfer included the color tinting for the Allan Jones song and Vivien Fay dance production numbers from the original release prints. The tinting is mentioned in the commentary, but not recreated in the video transfer. Was this title ever released on laserdisc or VHS with the blue and/or sepia tinting for those sequences?

Regards,

 

[Ravi K]

I just finished A Day at the Races. It had some very funny and downright hilarious scenes, but it feels like I should like the Marx Brothers more than I do. I found myself fast-forwarding through the musical numbers to get to the comedy. It was a delight to watch Chico and Harpo playing the piano and harp, though.

The "examination" scene and the one with the girl trying to frame Dr. Hackenbush were great, but I didn't love the film or anything. I guess I expected the comedy to be more relentless.

To give a little perspective, I like Keaton and Chaplin (Keaton moreso). I'm not too familiar with Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy. The first time I watched a Marx Brothers film was several years ago. Animal Crackers, IIRC.

I'd like to hear from you guys about why you like them. Maybe I'll appreciate them more.

 

[Patrick McCart]

By the way, a more complete print of the Multicolor test from the Animal Crackers set has been found. Apparently, it was part of a Multicolor exhibition reel or something.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.a...a8ca27ff3425bb

[url=http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8972/marx27xn.jpg] [/url]

 

[John Hodson]

Quite a few people seem to do this and I can't get my head round it. I love the musical numbers; you can't just excise them from the whole, which forms a perfect snapshot of entertainment of the period. And there's much to admire - Chico's breathtaking virtuosity at the piano, Groucho's impeccable timing, Harpo, the very devil with the opposite sex, an angel at the harp. And whichever tenor they invited along to belt his lungs out to woo the female lead.

The musical numbers have a charm all their own. Having said that, I appreciate that the comedy is timeless while the musical interludes can not only be seen to be holding up the laughs, they can be seen to have dated; whatever, I'm a big fan of dated...

Merry Christmas BTW...

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ravi,

A Day At The Races, in my opinion, is not
the best representation of the Marx Brothers zaniness.

I urge you to watch Duck Soup and Horsefeathers
and then give us your opinion on the comedy team.